I am in bed right now, with my 5 year old little boy next to me, sound asleep.
What is my adventurous husband doing?
He is on the porch, with our other son, Jesse, and 4 other guys from our church, all dressed in camo, listening to a horrible sound coming from some speakers he has strategically placed out in the pasture, next to a dead animal. Sounds nice doesn't it?
They are trying to call in coyotes, and Ray thought it would be fun, to invite a few friends over for the excitement.
I thought I would be the good hostess, so I baked a few brownies, and put the coffee on.
I am afraid, with the smells of the coffee, brownies, and the laughter coming from the porch, those coyotes aren't going to come within 10 miles of our house, but oh, are they having a good time.
Sometimes, it is the crazy things we do, that bring the most joy. So what if they don't see a coyote, they are bonding, right??
Have a blessed night,
JJ
Just a quick story.
Yesterday, while the rest of the DFW area was coming home from church, sitting by the fire, watching the BEAUTIFUL snow fall to the ground, we were not!!
You see, I am married to a "fix it yourself" kind of guy. I guess that is why he makes a great surgeon. He loves to take things apart, see how they work, then fix them, and put them back together.
He can't stand to pay someone to do something that he is very capable of doing.
I, on the other hand, feel God has given us each a gift. Let the repair guys do what they know best, the doctors do what they know best, the car mechanic do what he knows best, etc. You get my point!!
Well, not my man.
We have just recently had a pump go out on the pool. Not too big of a problem, since it is winter, and not a big fear of algae growing in the pool, but with these freezing temps, the pump had to be repaired, so that the water could flow and not freeze in the pipes and do serious damage.
Ray has been tinkering with it for the last several days, we have had beautiful weather, so no problem. But yes, Saturday night, the temp started dropping. He and Jesse were out there in the rain trying to work. They needed light, a dry space to work, and a little bit of warmer temps to finish the job and let the glue set up. Not happening at 9pm at night. Why is it that these things always seem to get stressed, and rushed into a tight schedule? (Thus, the feeling of the pickup truck flying down the road, I referred to in my first post!!)
Anyway, I came up with the brilliant idea of putting tarps over the equipment, and putting heat lamps in there, (actually, it was my Dad's idea from another repair time), just to get us through the night, except we almost melted one of the pipes, we saw the next day, but anyway!!!
The pipes made it through the night.
So, as we were leaving church on Sunday, and saw the breathtaking snow that was falling in huge flakes from heaven onto Cleburne, I enjoyed it only for a moment, knowing what lay ahead of us.
I asked Ray if he wanted to ask one of his "guy friends" to help him in this task, you know?, share the burden, scripture encourages us to do that. He would have none of that, and said that he would be glad for me and Jesse to "share the burden. "
We got home, bundled up in several layers, and out we marched, into what was quickly turning into snow mixed with sleet. We put up some table and balanced some chairs on top of them on either side of the equipment, and stretched a plastic tarp over the top of us, to keep the area dry while Ray worked. For the next couple of hours, Jesse and I ran back and forth, getting whatever Ray needed to keep working and eventually complete the job. I felt like a scrub tech in a huge O.R. with freezing rain coming down.
After several hours and two trips to home depot, the job was finally done. By that time, the snow had stopped, and it was just damp and cold. Yuck.
But I have to say, he did fix it, and the pipes did not freeze last night, and we only had to pay with our time. Way to go Ray! Sometimes I am thankful that he is "Mr. Fix-it."
I only hope next time I get to "share in the burden" of Mr. Fix-it, that it is not in the freezing rain!!
Hope all of you, who are in our area, were able to enjoy the snow yesterday!!
In His grace,
JJ
Just an after thought on the long, long trailer.
Did we make a huge mistake buying the long, long trailer?
Good question. Romans 8:28 promises us that "He uses all things together for our good."
I pray this verse in, around, over, and under my family all the time. I trust Him at His word.
How did God use the trailer for our good.
Probably in many more ways than I can see at this moment. Just to name a few: Great memories, great stories, great patience, growing as a family.
But one of the most tangible ways was in a financial provision.
You see, that same year that we bought that trailer, Ray had began to cut back on his schedule, mainly in his delivers. He was getting up 2 - 3 times a night, sometimes even 4 nights a week to go deliver babies, as well as keep his normal office schedule up, and weekend call schedule. He was getting exhausted, and as a result, depressed, simply because of lack of sleep. He wanted to back off on his schedule so he could build back up his reserves, and have more of himself left over for the family.
Sounds like a good plan, except that once we did this, we were not able to pay ourselves for 2 months in the fall.
When we sold the trailer in June, months before we had this defecit, Ray felt that we should put the money in the bank, instead of doing something really smart like investing it, or putting it into the kid's college funds, etc. We questioned this, but felt this is what we were suppossed to do.
Little did we know that it was that money, that the Lord would use to provide for us months later.
And even deeper than that, I believe God had us buy that long, long trailer, so that the money would all be in one spot for use, instead of spending it on a bunch of little things or investments originally, that we might not have been able to get it back from.
So was it a mistake, perhaps. But God is faithful, even when we are not. He never changes. He is good, all the time. Be encouraged, we serve a Mighty God, who uses even our mistakes, for His glory.
Have a great day in Him, even if you make a mistake,
JJ
