2018....A Year Without Fear

It's 2018!  I stopped writing a few weeks ago just to take a break, but I wrote so many blogs in my head as so much went on...but first, I must start with a funny, yet awful, story.....

A couple of weeks ago, we noticed an awful smell after I had cooked some squash.  I thought maybe the squash was bad as I had stored it over the Fall.  We threw it out, but then the next night, I noticed the same smell, so I checked the oven to see if something had dropped to the bottom and was burning as I cooked.  Nothing.  Now, a mystery. 

This went on for a few days.  We realized something must be behind the oven.  It was clearly being "cooked" every time we turned the oven on as that was the only time we smelled the awful smell.  Please, let it just be a mouse.....

The worse thing about having my husband at work away from home now is that I have to deal with all this kind of stuff.  Before I could pass it off to him!  But, oh well.  I grabbed my two sons.  They moved the oven away from the wall and thankfully nothing, but then why the smell?

That's when I kicked in my smelling superpowers (I actually have an incredibly good sense of smell that has come in handy at times like these!).  I was like a german shepherd, on my knees, smelling everywhere.  My nose and I finally landed back at the oven itself.  Oh no...my worst fears.  Something was inside the oven itself....between the back cover and the electronics....where was my husband????

I told my son to take off all the bolts, which he so kindly did, and then, to my shock, awe, and disgust, there it was....a dead rat....I nearly threw up.  We all did.  I videotaped the reveal to show my husband what I went through...

Then, everyone scattered!  No one wanted to deal with the rat!  I waited and waited, but no one came back.  "Fine," I thought...."I can do this."  So I covered my hands with plastic bags and attempted to pick up the rat by the tail.  As I did this, I pulled ever so slightly, but it was stuck, so I gave it another tug and....wait for it...the tail came off in my hand!!!  I screamedVERY loudly.  People showed back up!  Funny how it takes mom screaming for people to come back....

I wasn't going near that thing again.  My son/rescue hero came and got the rat and left me to deal with the disgusting mess it left behind....who knows how it got up there.  We think it may have set off a trap and then thought it was crawling to safety?  All I know is it was a low moment in my farm life.  I was pretty much prepared to go back to the city after that.  The ONLY positive in this whole matter was that I cleaned under my oven for the first time in a long time and even behind the electronic cover.  May I never have to deal with that again.

That week we had friends over for dinner and I shared the whole rat story.  They, too, had moved from the city to the country, had renovated an old farm house, raised animals, had kids...we had tons in common.  They said, "You know we can only talk like this to one another....we're the only ones who truly understand!" 

Anyway, I have moved on, a stronger woman, I'm sure.  My kids think we might get the plague, and to be honest, we might, but what can you do?!

Our New Year's this year was a quiet one at home, which I just loved.  There was no way we could have anyone over.  Starting the week of Christmas, we had moved all the furniture from the other side of the family room to the side RM had leveled earlier and he was able to finish leveling the entire family room which was no small feat.  In the process our house was literally upside down.  We just needed the week following for recovery.  We won't do any more renovations until it warms up again as the next set of renos involves ripping off more drywall and it has been so cold there's no way we could handle that amount of heat leaving the house.

I heard a pastor say, upon reflecting on 2017, don't look back and see what has happened, but look back and see what God has done, where was God involved?  That New Year's Eve, we sat around as a family and did just that.  It was great to reflect and see how God had been with our family through so many situations from my son's schooling and certain fears he had to deal with as a new university student, to my daughter acquiring multiple jobs so she could get a car, to work supplied to my husband over and over, to health for all of us....so many answers to prayer.  God was certainly at work.

That last Sunday of 2017 at church, the pastor spoke on Psalm 56.  The title of his sermon was "A Year Without Fear".  How did he know that is exactly what I needed to hear that day?  Though I have received so many victories in this area, I know Satan would like me to fail and be fearful still and so he sends regular tests it seems.  I think I have a new theme verse for the year based on this Psalm, "When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.  In God, who word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

That's it!  What can man do to me?  Fear doesn't help make my situations go away.  So why waste my energy being fearful?  The psalm acknowledges that fear is a reality, "when I am afraid"...so there will be times when we are fearful, but the pattern is when we experience fear, which we will, we do what David did and trust God, His Word, His plans for us.  That is my prayer for 2018, that it will be a year, not necessarily without fear, as fear will come, but that I will turn to God and His Word and trust.......