Bad attitudes tend to rub off. Easily.
The other day, a friend told me about how one of her daughters had mocked something her little sister loved to do. Immediately, the little sister’s attitude started to change. She began to question the activity. Soon she decided she didn’t like it either.
Thankfully, her mother was wise and was able to see the problem and correct the attitudes.
To read the rest of the post, follow me over to Raising Mighty Arrows.
Hello, dear friends. Just wanted to check in and explain my absence the past few days. We had a full and wonderful weekend but arrived home Sunday to find a hot house with no power.
The power company turned it off due to old and unsafe wiring and we weren’t able to get it turned back on again until yesterday evening.
You don’t realize just how dependent you are on electricity until it is taken away! The house was hot and incredibly humid and the kids and I were lethargic. Even the things we could do took much longer without power.
It’s back on now and I’m catching up on laundry, ironing and cleaning and all the other online things I couldn’t do. Hopefully I’ll be back to blogging tomorrow.
Have a wonderful afternoon!
While the kids and I sat huddled in the closet, eating snacks and telling stories, the minutes ticked by.
Loud bursts of wind and a deep rumbling shook our house. Then all was quiet. Internet was down, I couldn’t reach Joshua, and didn’t know what was happening in the outside world.
An hour passed.
The kids were growing restless. Will had completely soaked through his outfit. I was getting restless.
With an earnest prayer we pushed over the mattress and crawled out of our mock shelter. I was not prepared for what I saw: the wind had thrown power lines across the yard like a cat playing with yarn. Trees lay toppled.
We must have been hit!
A neighbor’s house
The devastation was unreal: You could see the carpet in one neighbor’s house. He was home and we thought for sure he was hurt, or killed.
On all sides, trees smashed through homes and crushed cars. Shards of wood and glass were driven into the ground in a dozen directions.
But in the sweet innocence of childhood, Rose and Will gazed around in joyful wonder. Branches formed green playhouses all around them. A huge fallen tree blocked the road so even non-crushed cars posed no threat to little people. As the weight of the tragedy sank in, their complete lack of fear helped lighten the mood.
Though the April 27th tornados claimed dozens of lives and rank as one of the costliest natural disasters in American history, so many “mini-miracles” help make up the story:
It wasn’t until later that day (at the ripe old age of 25) that I learned what a tornado really sounds like… and realized that I had heard the rumbling, loud and clear. The “choo, choo” I listened so intently for is not the tornado sound! How I’d missed that all those years baffles me, but I think it was another way God showed me His grace.
From the time we first huddled into the closet, a deep peace filled my heart. As my dear friend Bekah (who lived through the terrible Joplin tornadoes) said, “God often doesn’t give peace about things that ‘could’ happen but when we are in the midst of ‘the real storm,’ His peace fills our hearts.”
Though tornado warnings now send a sudden thrill of panic through me, looking back on the storm calms my heart.
As Betsie ten-Boom said, “There are no ifs in God’s world.”
No matter what happens, “our times are in God’s hands.” His power can calm any storm…. or give us calmness through the storm.
Has God given you an “uncanny” peace through a storm?
Linked up at Beautiful Thursdays
Yesterday morning, when I went to “fluff up” a few line-dried clothes, the dryer made a weird whining sound and refused to turn on.
We bought our dryer used almost six years ago and we’ve had it on our covered back porch for nearly four. It wasn’t terribly shocking that it decided to give us troubles. Immediately I began to wonder if we could make it until our move to purchase a replacement.
I like hanging out clothes and generally hang out the big stuff anyway. I’m sure we could manage, I thought, besides, there’s a laundromat right down the road if we really need a dryer.
Then I laughed. Here I was mentally trying to calculate if we could survive a few months without a dryer, when my great-grandma didn’t even own one.
Some modern inventions (like refrigerators) are practically a necessity. Sometimes though, we come to view a convenience as a necessity.
Though I have no desire or intention of giving up my oven or washing machine, part of learning to live frugally is learning to “think like great-grandma would” when the need arises.
Maybe we’ll find that we can live without a microwave or dryer after all. Or we might discover that we like homemade nursing pads much better than disposable.
Have you lived without a normal modern convenience? How did you do it? Do you prefer “grandma’s way” over the modern?
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Linked up at Homemaking Link Up, Handful of Heart and Motivation Monday.
Twenty years from now, when my children are grown and I am consistently getting a full night’s sleep, I’m sure I’ll laugh to look back and see how often sleep (or lack of sleep!) seemed worthy of a blog post.
But, my kids aren’t grown and sleep still seems blog-worthy. Which means sleep will, once again, be the springboard for today’s post.
Will skipped his nap most of last week but yesterday morning, he woke up bright and early. And tired. It was clear he would need (and take) a nap.
I greatly looked forward to a bit of quiet while the children napped.
But, just as I laid Will down for his nap, Meg (who shares a room with the big kids now) woke up extra early. I spent the next hour fruitlessly trying to get her back to sleep. Finally, I gave up.
I was frustrated. Really frustrated. My well-laid plans had been spoiled by events that really weren’t in my hands. My expectations were not filled. Now I didn’t get to enjoy that much-anticipated quiet that I thought I needed.
Though I knew it was silly (and sinful) to be upset over something so trivial, I kept struggling with anger.
Then I walked into the kitchen. Earlier, I had captured a bee-like insect in the bottom of a glass. Now it was on its back, struggling for air.
As the insect fought for life, I stood and watched him for a minute.
And it struck me just how small I am. The world does not revolve around me and my little needs and wants. Though a human’s lifespan is (thankfully) longer than an insects, it is still “like a vapor.” In the vast view of things, my life makes up about as much of the story as that little bug.
But, the glorious part is that, despite our smallness, we are not “like flies to wanton boys.” God Himself, in human flesh, laid down His life to save us!
With those thoughts in mind, it was hard to be upset about not getting a nap.
[Oh, and as a "thank you" to the bug for my attitude adjustment, he is now at loose in the great outdoors.]
Linked up at Encourage One Another, Homemaking Linkup, Women Living Well, Hearts 4 Home Thursdays, Proverbs 31 Thursday & Finer Things Friday
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Creating a home for God's glory is a high and noble calling! Join us as we embrace the challenges and joys of this adventure.
~Anna
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