I've known the pattern of being thankful and then watching the miracles unfold and I was quite certain I had communicated this to my kids and my husband of course, but maybe it just hadn't sunk in. I had read the verses for years before it really hit me, too. I guess we needed another reminder. What a better time to relearn the lesson than Thanksgiving Week.
Lately, we've noticed a certain level of spiritual attack in our home. We're quite certain it's because we've started the Bible Quizzing and we also know Satan just loves bugging Christian families. He wants to ruin relationships between siblings, parents and spouses. Anytime he can get more bang for his buck, he tries. But I'm on to him....
My son seems to be at the center of it all lately. If he frustrates me, then my husband is frustrated. If he frustrates my husband, then I'm frustrated. If he can get my son mad at my husband, then......you get the picture. Terrible cycle.
The cute, innocent puppies are also at the center of it all! It started when I had to take all 6 remaining puppies to the vet. My favourite line, "I don't get paid enough....." We had a short timeline and I had already been driving all morning. I had to go all the way into the university to pick up my son and then another ways to the vet clinic. In total about 45 minutes of driving. When we had to go, we couldn't find the keys. I'm convinced Satan uses blindness in our home all the time. Keys go missing REGULARLY. We searched the entire house. As I found my frustration levels go up (my 7 year old had taken them somewhere to play with them - couldn't remember where he'd put them.....why??????), I spoke to the voice in my head that was starting to tell me lies and I said, "There is a reason why this is happening. Be thankful. Be thankful that you are going to have to cancel the appointment. Be thankful that you'll have to reschedule. Be thankful that they are hidden. Be thankful. Be thankful. Breathe....." Ok, I calmed down and I actually stopped looking. What was the big deal anyway? So what if I had to cancel the appointment? It would be ok. Leaving the frantic feeling behind was the big part of the miracle because when the panic enters the home, no one is happy.
Minutes later, my son walks in with the keys in his hand! He found them outside! I never in a million years would have found them where we did, but I'm certain thankfulness opened my son's eyes and made him look in the strange location he found them. I quickly got in touch with the clinic and they were good to wait for us. Off we went. The puppies did throw up the entire way there, but the other neat miracle was that the vet techs willingly, almost gladly, came out and cleaned the mess up for me in the back of my car. I was amazed and so grateful. Thankfulness turned the day around.
Later on that week, my son was writing a midterm at school. He had studied and studied for it. He was quite nervous and I always get nervous for him, too, but have learned to commit him to the Lord. Suddenly, right before the test, I start getting nervous texts and calls. He couldn't find his wallet! There it goes again....the blindness factor. Satan's tool. He was calling to ask us to look. He needed it for his test as they require i.d. in order to write it! ARGH!!! This immediately frustrated my husband as he wished my son had thought of that a little sooner! Once again, we searched the house all over. Nothing. I heard the voice in my head, so I called my son and said, "Be thankful. For some reason Satan is blinding all of us to the lost wallet. Stay calm. Go look for your professor, anyone that you can talk to and see what you can do." My husband looked at me like I was nuts, "Be thankful?" He actually agreed and told my son, too, "This is some kind of spiritual attack on you right before your test. Stay calm." The frantic searching stopped and calm came over all of us. We left it with the Lord and trusted his test would go fine.
It did. He didn't need his i.d. after all. He ran into his professor right before the test (who he never sees) and he explained the situation to him. The professor said not to worry because he knew him. He has 500 students in his class and he knew him? My son sits right at the front and talks to him apparently, so I was so glad for that. I couldn't figure out why we hadn't found the wallet, but I didn't worry about that either. The next day, when he was home, he went up to his room and found it in two seconds. It was hidden in a dark part of his shelf that no one had noticed. More blindness?
We were feeling pretty good, though weary from all the attacks. We had made it through the whole week and though we hadn't been perfect at them, I felt like we were passing test after test. Is there ever a break? Turns out, no.
On the Saturday morning, we were selling another puppy to a young 12 year old girl. My son had been in touch with her and her parents. All was going well, but when they arrived we realized we had missed a major email explaining they wanted breeding rights. This changed the price of the puppy to a much higher price. She said she had mentioned it in an email. Immediate frustration levels went up in my head and my husband's towards our son.....how could he have missed that?! We are always teaching the importance of being on top of his emails with respect to the pups. We felt it was gross negligence. But at that point there was nothing we could do. Though they had driven quite a distance, the buyer and her young daughter felt they had to walk away as there was no way they could afford the new higher price. I couldn't believe it as I watched them leave. I felt sick to my stomach. I had already been praying when I sensed the tension, but started pleading with God at that point.
This time I had a minor one-way dialogue before I went to thankfulness. It it made no sense. "I do not understand this. What are you trying to teach my son? Why did this have to happen? Ok, I'm thankful for the lesson, but is there another way you could have taught him? What about these poor people? I'm thankful, but is there still a way we could turn this around?" I went on and on. Praying, folding laundry, praying, pacing, crying out, all the while, trying to be thankful.....though I wasn't feeling very thankful.
Suddenly, it occurred to my husband there was a way we could still make a deal, if we could just get them to turn around, but we didn't have a cell number for them?! That made us even more frustrated at my son! We went through all the emails and quickly emailed her phone, hoping she would somehow get it. We called every person with her last name that we could find on the internet. No answer. We eventually had to let it go as a major learning experience. But then suddenly, there she was at our door! She had stopped at a coffee shop to calm down with her daughter and had taken out her phone, received the email from us telling her to come back if she wanted to, but then her phone died and she couldn't respond! So she just came back. God was working it all out without us even realizing it.
We were able to come to a mutual agreement that only occurred to us after they had left. We just hadn't had enough time to think about it. Did God suddenly put the new idea my husband's head because I had prayed? She was pleased, we were pleased, the young girl was thrilled she could still leave with a puppy. Whew! When we went back through the emails, it was clear the email was there, but Satan had hidden it on us somehow, more blindness. We marveled at how God had turned the whole affair around and turned it for good. We learned once again how important it was to be thankful. In this case, my son and and husband weren't super thankful when they were in the middle of it! I was thankful on their behalf! And I'm quite certain my prayers in the laundry room helped shift the situation into miracle mode. This was our third miracle of the week and we had seen the pattern established each time.....be thankful and the miracle is imminent (as my fav. author Ann Voskamp always says....) We made a pact that we'll try to recognize what our triggers are so that we don't let the frustrations levels get so high first, but instead go to thankfulness as soon as we see the frustration levels start to rise. Anger is a sign we're not handling it right.
I wish all attacks would stop there, but I'm sure there are more to come. I'm trusting God for the lesson we've clearly learned and that we'll be able to apply it when the inevitable attacks hit us. To keep us on track, we have a new title for each current day. Perhaps, without even knowing it, today would have been Weary Wednesday or Warring Wednesday, but now we'll try to make it more of an upbeat happier day, like "Wonderfuul Wednesday" or Merry Mondays or Terrific Tuesdays.....you get the idea. It's a simple way we can keep ourselves more aware of the fact we want our days to be better.
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