Ducks In A Row (parenting)

Parenting is a huge, huge task. The very first days of a child's life tells a person that right away. And not one of us comes to it entirely prepared, though some people have a bit more preparation than others. Most of us do not come to the experience with all our ducks in a row so to speak. You know all the financial things in order, careers all established, college finished, marriage all figured out. If you did come to it this way I will still smile and bless you but I venture to say most of us do not.
So here is a bit of my thinking - you can choose to carry on reading or not (but I guess I hope you do).




If you have one or many little to big people depending on you to love, provide for and guide them, you do NOT have to be a perfect person to do this job. In fact you will not be a perfect person. You may feel sometimes like you need to be a super hero when all you want to do is hide a while. You may feel you have really blown it with making life right for them and most certainly your time has passed to live your personal dream so a profound frustration lingers beneath your skin, a dog biting your heels telling you life is passing and if not for....
Do NOT listen to that lie.


Life is passing but is also being built.

Letting lies haunt us can make us the person we do not want to be.

They can make us a person who will

crush

not shape

a child

if not rooted out,

as if the child is in the way of our life and not a big part of who we are...

If

 we don't guard ourselves and use

self-control with our words and

body language and

 the expressions on

our face.  

Sometimes we are just mad at the way life has gone with a number of twists, turns and challenges that aren't just hard but painful, almost crippling.
Angry at the loss of control we feel over things.
Absolutely tired beyond tired over it all.
And there we are with a child or two or more :) who just live in their own world, within the safe world we make for them, having to be brought along side into line
WHEN I WANT AND WHEN I SAY.


But they have a question or don't want to do what we want when we say as quickly as we are sure they must.
They want to check out the roly poly bug or flower or
Finish a chalk drawing on the side walk or something when we have this important thing to get to...
They take longer to manage the life skills that we have had a lifetime of experience at like brushing teeth and getting dressed...
Their legs just aren't as long to keep up...
Even though the rest of the day they probably run circles around us and running far ahead of us so we have to worry about them dashing into an intersection or something life threatening because even though one minute they are frustrating us nearly to our own meltdown, losing them would nearly do us in we are sure.
NOT ALL of raising children is this dire and difficult. Much of it is lovely, eye opening to the world around us rewarding...but those days that are the above part of this blog, I want to remind us of the choice with a promise


19“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 20You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life... " Dueteronomy 30:19-20a


Recently I was reminded of this choosing Life myself when I was beyond worn out with trying situations overlapping each other for a couple of years straight. Choosing to be fully engaged in life not just existing and it was a word that jolted me awake more than an energy drink.


It is my prayer for you today.




 And this....well...
 This picture was just a bit too strange not to use...

In My Easter Bonnett (with all the frills)

     We must have had at least 7 of our 8 kids at the time this happened but it was Easter fast approaching. Traditionally I tried to outfit all of us with new clothes  for the occasion. Obviously that is a financial feat, not to mention the time involved shopping and hoping the clothes would be something the kids could still be using through the year not just the few hours of one day. The mental gymnastics of that alone stymie me thinking back, but it was important to me.







     That particular year was a year of changes. Not happy ones. It involved changes that impacted our finances, so splurges on outfits to celebrate Easter just were not in order. I will admit it was hard for me to accept. Maybe some of you don't have the clothing tradition thing going on for your Easter celebration, so wonder why in the world it was a big deal anyway. After all look at the above mentioned stress I was being saved from (the bright side I guess). Even though I was trying to correct my focus with the sunny side of things I was really and truly, flat out disappointed.


     So I defaulted  to what I knew to do...talk to God about it ...which really probably contained a good measure of whining and complaining to start with.
 

And God talked back.

     Not in a booming voice from the heavens but in that place inside my spirit where He chooses to dwell with us. I heard His word coming back to me telling me this particular Easter would be about putting on the "New man" and clothing myself in the fruit of the Spirit. Of course I would wear clothes too just not brand new.
 
     Could I possibly lay aside the traditions I was comfortable with and wanted to continue in, to allow Him to shine through me? Could it be enough to put on love, patience, kindness, gentleness, long suffering, joy, peace, self-control, and goodness (not the right order but I am pretty sure the order does not matter for this writing).


     I could dress in Easter finery and have a perfectly lovely and true character obviously. God was not condemning the desire at all. But when the rubber hits the road and I have disappointments what kind of woman am I? Can I be a woman of character? You know the saying "pretty is as pretty does"? Love looks good on us.







I still like new clothes. I still like to give them to my kids. When all is said and done though our appearance is the picture frame to our character. Our character is the real picture.


Hoping you have a beautiful Easter Sunday remembering the
RESURRECTION and putting on Christ....He loves you!

The Girl (and her lunch)

I can not tell you how many times in our years of raising a big family I fell back on the example of Jesus and His disciples feeding 5000 with a boys lunch. Making a little bit into much because God is in it. I wonder sometimes, if the boy's mom packed with the thought that her son might be sharing. I wonder how big the loaves and fishes were and what he carried them in..

 Many mom's apparently make sandwiches ahead, as in the night before the next school day. And some even make enough ahead to freeze and pull them out as needed. I never trusted the bread to not get soggy so didn't try that inspite of the fact that their kids did not complain that theirs were soggy. My approach was the morning line up. Generally I was making six lunches each morning and had a system to this while remembering who liked mayo, who hated it ect and hopefully getting the right sandwich into the right bag. We also relied on the tried and true PB and J.

So now at the tail end of school lunch years, with most of our kids grown and out of the house, I no longer have the line up. I am making one school lunch on a school day. Generally I have always overpacked for this particular one. She never ate much while at school as a gradeschooler but would eat most of what was left on the way home when her appetite returned. School was somewhat stressful as far as she was concerned and she did not want to eat while she was there much to the concern of teachers and lunchroom monitors.

Evidently these days, this year, she shares her lunch with fellow hungry high school students. She makes sure to eat something too, in case you are concerned for her. Since I learned of this sharing, I pack a bit differently. I pack with this in mind. She normally still has something left to eat on the way home but not always, which is ok because she can eat when we get home anyway.

One day heading home after school she was pulling something out from her bag and told me she was given banana bread from a student that day so actually had several things still to choose from. We were stopped at a traffic light and could see several car lengths ahead a man with a sign at the side of the road. I am not sure exactly what all it said but it is an uncomfortable, familiar sight. Things were happening quickly since the light changed but she suddenly said "I have food. I could give him my lunch." We passed him by. I looked at her and said "I can turn around".

Frankly I was low on gas and still had another student (who had fallen into an after school power nap in the car oblivious to all of this transpiring) to take home as well. Finding a place to turn around in the stretch ahead would be an inconvenience and my mind wanted to figure out whether he was telling the truth on his sign. But we were giving food not money. And my daughter was giving her lunch to Jesus since He said "when you do it to the least of these you do it unto Me" You know, a cup of cold water in His name. Feeding the hungry. Visiting the sick. Those in prison. Loving the unlovely, seemingly least important ones, like He loved me when I didn't deserve it. From Matthew 25:34-40

We were trying to figure out how to manuver so it could be me handing the lunch out, not my daughter (we have seen too many/heard too many things that make us stranger leary) but when it came down to it, when we could finally get turned around and then turned around again it had to be her handing the lunch through her window. And he did seem grateful. And we were glad too.

Did he really have the kids at home like his sign said? If so, did one get the applesauce, another the cookies? Did they split the sandwich and banana bread? I don't know. Or was it the first meal this man had in a day? Maybe. Maybe not. But Jesus knows and we are leaving that with Him.

Proverbs 22:9  A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.

Just as a PS. Several weeks after all this, I was at school (I am attending Charis Bible College) one of the ladies also attending held up a large jar of Welches Grape Jam.

She asked me "Do you have a bunch of kids?"  "I do but they are all pretty much grown now...Is that grape jam? That is my daughters favorite. She loves jam rather than jelly"

"Take it for her." Isn't that just how God is? He knows and provides our FAVORITE..

I was able to say to my daughter that day as I handed it over "Jesus loves you Lily" :)

Blessings!

Every Child (needs a mom who..)

I find myself telling people these days, these things,from my mom perspective that every child needs from a mom...

Every child needs a mom who is their cheerleader ( you are going to do amazing things in the future! You are created for something you will be uniquely fitted for. God has good plans for you, for a future and for a hope... and as they are grown ups doing life with their own husband/wife/kids..you are doing so well...when things are getting them down...yes this is hard but look at how well you do this with husband/wife/kids/job/school...God IS with you...)

Every child needs a mom who will cry over them ( in the years of wondering and wandering...in the times of "friends" betraying them...in any of life's brokeness...when they don't see a light ahead or reject the things we know will keep them from painful consequences)

Every child needs a mom who will pray for them ( waging war in the spirit for them...bringing them before the throne of God with His promises from His word...and letting them know you pray for them)

Those are the top three I usually share with people but for the sake of the blog I am adding a few:

Every child needs a mom who will celebrate them (they are a gift from God, Birthdays, Christmas, other holidays and just tucking something special in their lunch or on their pillow to find when they come home)

Every child needs a mom who will lay down her life for them (while a mom's world can not entirely revolve around her children, it goes without saying there are many moments of sacrifice on her part for the good of her children...and sometimes that means working on a difficult marriage for their good because another thing every child needs is their Dad ...yes I did go there and I did say that which seems to be very contrary to societies recommendations...and not meant to criticize moms who gave it their all yet still saw a marriage end)

Every child needs a mom who knows when to say no (and when to say get up and get going...structure and discipline)

Every child  needs a mom who laughs (because some of life is just plain funny! And laughter is like medicine keeping us healthy)

Every child needs a mom who fixes food (and has a specialty...ummm one of mine is peanut butter and grape jam sandwiches...but there you go...doesn't have to be fancy... and one who knows their favorite meals)

Every child needs a mom who worships the One True God (and doesn't hide it from them but models it in the home and gets them to places where others do too)

Which brings me to sharing this song so you can take a bit of time for worship right now:

Obviously there are more things but that's it for now from me... Now go love your kids! You are doing a great job by the way...
 Blessings!

Crazy Quilts (my comforter)

It is so natural to comfort our babies isn't it? We are made for it.

My kids told me,once upon a time, that mommies (in all fairness dads can comfort too, but they were talking to me the mommy) so mommies are supposed to be squishy contrary to popular health and beauty tips of our time. I seem to be better able to oblige my children's opinion, than the other, even though I do try from time to time to swing to the health and beauty side of things and dwell there.

So all that said, what do these quilts have to do with it? Don't you just love a warm, comfy quilt to cover up with? Follow my line of thought if you will...which may take a couple rabbit trails...

Have you lived enough life to find it has some, shall we say, crazy moments? Perhaps even whole seasons of what seems crazy? Some of you are ok with that word crazy but some of you are kind of scolding me in a protective kind of way, like "don't confess craziness!!!" Which to others probably seems a bit crazy...

I am not sure how else to put it in just a word. It is when the unexpected completely disrupts our life. The life we thought we had some measure of control over. Oh, the life we were comfortable with. It might be a simple thing like an annoying head cold. Or a low tire on a cold, rushed morning.

It might also be big. Huge in fact. Something where your whole life has to rearrange. An ongoing illness in someone we love. A new person enters (or leaves) the household. Depending on the age and condition of the person the change could be a major or minor heart affecting adjustment. There could be conflict in small war like proportion to work through.

Maybe attempting to fit too many things- even good things- into my life. Things I normally like. (I like chocolate but one candy bar is more than enough in a day...hmm...in a week...What if I eat too many of those smooth delicious chocolate bars in one day...let's just say it would get ugly...)So too many things crowding my chance of doing any of them well.

One of my kids may get sick and just need mommy time and lots of it. So I am on hand to comfort them. Hold them. Pray over them. Read to them. And do whatever is needed to get them well.

Or trees might fall on the house in a storm (real life here). As a result work needs to get done. Which means lots of work getting done on said house when I am home. Which means lots of people most of whom I don't know and some of whom I do, are here. Thank God it is able to be fixed! Thank God it is not as severe as a hurricane leaving nothing but rubble.

  But for some reason having others here is so uncomfortable to me...yet does my discomfort mean it is bad or wrong? No. Change, even good change, is not always comfortable. We do need some things need to be unchangeable...That is how God is. Unchanging. But you know how else He is? He is the Comforter. The One who states He will never leave us, forget, abandon or desert us Hebrews 13:5. 

Jesus tells us:

John16:13 Amplified ...And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever—

John 16:7-14 Amplified ...However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you].

  Another from Isaiah 66:13 a Amplified says...
                                                     As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you;
 Matthew 23:37 b Amplified...
... as a mother fowl gathers her brood under her wing...
That is another picture of how God is toward us.


Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4



It can be those crazy pieces, dark pieces, happy pieces, frayed edge pieces that God puts together and makes us like a crazy quilt or comforter that He uses to cover and comfort others when they are experiencing crazy times we have had Him comfort us in.

Itsy Bitsy Spider (spider mafia)

Running in to the room, my granddaughter breathlessly informed me "there is a spider in my room" Oh wait...that's right. She said a BIG spider in her room. This probably makes it on the list of things I least like to hear. Hmmm...yes I was stalling as I wondered just how big BIG might be. Is it just big to her being a little girl? I also wondered just where in the room of toys, furniture and clothing it may have gone in the moments since she left the room and I was mid ponder.

Growing up I had a horrible fear of spiders. There was no natural experience that made it happen. It just seemed to always be part of me. For as long as possible I had my mom, dad or brothers, not sisters, kill any spider that was in my living space.  I had this sneaking suspicion that if I killed a spider, one of its spider family members would come back to get me. Kind of like a spider mafia. I didn't think through, apparently, that if a spider brother, uncle or close associate would come take revenge on me, they would also seek revenge on the one who killed the original spider for me. Or was I too scared to care? Frankly my childhood experience with spiders in my section of Midwest Indiana, was primarily with the smaller version, with one banana spider thrown in (in a silverware drawer!!!) mixed with a great number of Daddy-Long-Legs. I used to both shudder and be amazed as my grandpa worked in his garden, fearlessly allowing Daddy-Long-Legs crawl all over his back and hat.

Then I entered my early twenties. Some huge changes took place. First I became a "new creature in Christ" putting off my old life and exchanging it for the new life Jesus bought for me on the cross. This meant I began taking seriously how to live like a new person according to what the Bible says. It plainly says "God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind." I think encountering a lion or a bear or even a mean dog would cause fear to rise up in me but they just were not part of my everyday life. Spiders however, were a becoming a frequent part making not fearing very challenging living in Florida for a while then near woodsy areas in the Midwest.

The Bible talks about renewing our minds and thinking on things that are true and worthy. Scripture says "Behold I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions (where is that other s word- spiders!?!) and over all the power of the enemy (Oh! It fits in the little word all) and nothing shall by any means hurt you" Well I can tell you when this finally began to bear real fruit. It was when I had my kids. Have you ever noticed how we can lay aside our terror even if we might still feel it, in fierce protection of our children?

I did not want my kids growing up afraid. So I adopted a pray and spray tactic. I would pray in the Spirit quietly but with conviction then tell the spider it has all of outdoors to live in and did not belong in my home. Then I would spray for all I was worth because much as I hate the pesticide I even more hate the feel of the squishy crunch under the shoe, sandal or magazine I may be using to smash it good and dead. Here in the Midwest we have wolf spiders and I lie not when I tell you in our early years of taking back the land (or rather our house) from the spiders, some were the size of small rodents. I am not even sure they were not some kind of a mutant mouse with long legs (kidding but they were way too big and bigger than my childhood memories absolutely)

They were known to make grown men cringe (NOT my husband who is frequently called upon as my resident spider warrior).  Alas it was me, grandma and not grandpa or daddy on hand for the spider this day.
"Where was it?" 
"It went under my bed"
No, no, no, no not under the bed of all places! Where the floor is nearly carpeted with children's books read and dropped at nap time! The bed she has to take a nap in a few short minutes from now...
"Ok, really, did you see it go under there?"
"YES it's a big spider"
"Well remember we are bigger than the spider. It is probably afraid of us and hiding."
She repeats this thought out loud as I gingerly pull one overlapping book at at time out from under the bed. I finally get to a point where I am not willing to extend my arm any further under the bed which means I must move the bed to continue my reluctant spider hunt.
"There it is! There it is!"
I don't have my glasses on.
"Where?!?"
"In the corner! It's scared of us right Grandma? We are bigger than the spider."
Ah yes. There it is and it is a moderately big one in fact. Ugly. And with a quick jab of a flip flop surprisingly dead! Well I gave it a few more slaps of the sandal for good measure and with a suppressed shudder bundled it up in toilet paper to flush it away. Of course she needed to see it I suppose to be sure it was dead and gone.
"Oooh that's icky."
And gone.

Gentler Ways (and crabby days)

It has been so long since I actually posted something on this blog it is like I have been MIA. (for you non military term people that is Missing In Action. Well probably you don't have to be militarily related to know that)...and I have been in action mode so missing from the blog world for a while.

So today is a day of full out crabbiness. My hair is clean but not yet controlled so adding to my- ok I will just say it- discontent knowing full well the Bible tells me Godliness with contentment is GREAT GAIN..And I do believe contentment is cultivated to some extent. Like I must choose it sometimes and choose to not be ruled by my feelings and circumstances. Not because I am emotionless but I choose what to do with those emotions. I choose to not become a madwoman with a spray bottle when the dog is caught laying on the couch leaving dog hair like a blanket on the cushions...(apologies to those who love their dogs more than I seem to be able to) though in that case I was on the brink of madwoman-ness.

And because today is a day wrought with poor attitudes to be fought back (a losing battle on so many fronts already and it is just 10:00 am) I need to pull some tools out of my Tool Chest (aka previous life experiences).


So here is one that after raising 8 children for, lo these 30 plus years, had been laid, not quite to rest, but just hasn't been needed so often...I call it: STAYING BY THE Stuff .

Staying By The Stuff is a concept drawn from the telling of one of the escapades of that shepherd, worshipper, warrior, anointed king, who was not yet serving as king, David. Coming back to their city exhausted, he and his men discovered it had been raided, burned and their women and children taken captive. Determined to rescue them and to meet out vengeance on the ones who had plundered them, some of the soldiers were staying behind at camp "by the stuff" keeping watch over it while the rest went with David to get the families back. Having recovered ALL, David, the men, the women, the children and the spoils came back victorious. David made a statute or ordinance that those who "stayed by the stuff" shared equally with those who served at the point of battle and the spoils of that battle.
2 Samuel 30

For me in my life, that meant when I tended to the home front with the kids and our business while my husband made mission trips or different ministry ventures, God would still credit me with the same reward.

So what is going on today that has required me to make use of that particular tool? First there was a one day women's retreat so near by I could have walked to it if I had to but I decided to not go because our church youth group was having a 2 day trip to the Dream Center in Chicago.


After seeing Mat Barnett at a conference, and then his wife at another and hearing of the founding of and work of the LA Dream Center, then Joyce Meyers Dream Center in Missouri, a Dream Center is something I think our NW Indiana area needs (Gary in particular) so I wanted to see it for myself and serve and plus my daughter was one of the youth going. So I opted out of the retreat only to have health issues keep me from going to the Chicago D.C. last night and then due to an emergency with one of our agents at work, needed to "stay by the stuff" here which essentially means I was needed to watch one of my granddaughters while her daddy went to the office today. I also planned to see my daughter off by going to the monthly church fellowship breakfast with her, my husband, and granddaughter before she left with the group from the church only to realize I just was not going to make it on time to do even that.

Sometimes we think LAYING DOWN OUR LIVES is all about going out and doing the stuff of ministry when really it is laying our lives down for others to go out and do the stuff. And while going to the Dream Center may be a dream for me, it is not necessarily my primary call (well at this time anyway). So I guess in a way my crabbiness is kind of a big girls tantrum now that I look at it all written out. Tantrums as we know are never pleasant and are a decided mark of immaturity in the midst of wanting my own way and not getting it. WOW...now that I have just managed to give myself a therapy session for free...Needless to say, I am embarrassed and accordingly repentant.. To those who have been unhappy recipients of my disappointment fall out, I am so sorry.

In the meantime I have found some ways to not continue in crabbiness even though my hair is still a mess. I had a tickle play session with my granddaughter. We ate. We marched and raced down the hall. And now she is "doing my hair" which very possibly even though she is 2 and 1/2 may be an improvement but also may be an indicator of how desperate it looked. Now we are counting marbles and no they are not the ones I lost raising children... And of course I have been blogging...a two hour off and on process now. And now have read Green Eggs and Ham before naps. (her nap not mine)

Can I just say a few more things here? I don't think the only thing we can do as women is care for children. On the flip side of that though, I don't think we should underestimate the
extreme value of caring for them. Babies do NOT raise themselves. We can look at blogs of dire conditions of orphanages where the children are not truly cared for. Not well fed. Not PLAYED with. Not taught. Not cleaned. They barely grow if they do manage to live.

I recognize I have talents and gifts to use in other ways and with adults, but I hope I never think caring for a child is a waste of my time instead of the loving, nurturing life building thing it is. So often those who need a dream center are the recipients of broken choices, unstable homes, men or women who needed strong foundations laid and the understanding of the value God places on them. My staying home "by the stuff" as it were, in many cases is a preventative to the need for places like the Dream Center.

I also recognize in scripture and through history on in to today's world the important contributions women have made that do not have to do with staying home with children only. There are seasons to life though and we do not live them all at one time. They are distinct with transition from one to the next continuous. And though I am home today not out doing, I can tell you the gifts, talents and callings are still there to be used. They did not disappear. In fact I believe they became enhanced by living life according to the seasons as God ran them in my life and developed me as His daughter more fully..

Playing Hide and Seek (with God)

Right away I want to look into this locked box! I want to go to Secret Hiding Places.com and check it out. Tell the truth. Didn't you LOVE playing Hide and Seek when you were younger? Maybe you still, on occasion, get a kick out of waiting for your husband, wife or one of your kids to pass by the doorway where you are hiding so you can jump out and startle them silly. All in fun. Of course! Just choose your timing carefully. No one carrying hot coffee or precious cargo or anything.

One of the first comments our kids screamed to each other the first time we brought them to the house we were buying almost 18 years ago was "This will be great for Hide and Seek!" And they were off hiding and seeking. Should the fact that a place is great for hide and seek be a selling/purchasing factor? I would say it is worth considering when the family has going on 7 children, then growing to be 8. The house we were moving from had the MOST awesome rope swing ever, over a dry gully, that sold me when I watched my kids swing out far and wide as we were checking out homes for ownership. (When we had settled in Rope Swing house I would give it a swing myself while they napped and I was between pregnancies).ANYWAY.....

This morning I opened to page 1003 in my Bible. Ok. It was a morning of reading where I opened, because where I opened grabbed my attention. On page 1003 in my Bible is part of Psalm 139 along with side notes for referrence and then a section on Birth Control and being Stewards of Procreation. So anyway I stopped there. The part of the scripture that held me was this:

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?


If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.


If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,


Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.


If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me,"
Even the night shall be light about me;


Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day,
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
Psalm 139: 7-12

That got me thinking. No matter where I might go, no matter where I might think I am hidden from God, I am not. No matter how dark my circumstances may seem, they do not hide me from Him and His hand to lead me out. His hand to hold me. Even if I may have messed up and want to hide from Him, He is the One who is the Good Shepherd Who will leave the flock to find the one lost sheep...

Are there days you just want to hide from life? Well maybe not for some of you but I know I have.
But what kinds of places do we hide in? Shopping. Drugs (legal or not). Poor relationship choices. Hobbies. Work. Alcohol. Food. Bed. The problem with those hiding places is they have the potential to turn in to places that trap us. Hang on there a minute. Let me be clear. If you are prescribed a med you need, use it, just don't misuse it. The ones not prescribed are illegal so do not even go there. I could expound on each of the listed hiding places but for the sake of space and wanting to keep blogs brief enough just to jolt something awake in us like a quick espresso I won't.

The flip side of all this is that we can hide ourselves in Him. (do you see it? The I in HIM?) Psalm 32:7 tells us:
You are our hiding place;
You shall preserve me from trouble,
You shall surround me with songs of deliverance    Selah

Psalm 91 also tells us:
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.