Saturday December 26 2015  BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR

 

Have you ever had a thought and it came true?  Well, I have.  If I have negative thoughts I try to put them out of my mind so that they will not come true.  Sometimes it doesn’t work.

Have you ever prayed for something to happen, and then realize when it does happen, that maybe you shouldn’t have prayed for it after all?  And, from this point on I will stop and listen carefully as to how I word my prayers.

A few days ago I thought how awful it would be if I happened to turn the water on in our bathroom sink with the stopper in and then forgot to turn it off.  Our bathroom sinks do not have an overflow outlet.  Well, last night I found out.

I was getting ready to get into the shower and decided to turn the sink water on and get it hot so I could soak my hair brush while I took a shower.  Since the water wasn’t hot yet I decided to turn the shower water on and then commenced to get into the shower WITHOUT TURNING OFF THE WATER IN THE SINK.  I did remember to turn the fan on however, which makes quite a nice loud hum.

When I wash my hair it always takes longer than just getting in and out of the shower.  When I turned the water off after my shower was over I heard an odd sound.  I couldn’t figure out what it was so I peeked out from behind the shower curtain and to my horror the sink was full of water, the counter top was covered, and the water was overflowing the ledge like a cascading waterfall.  The floor was saturated, the rug was soaked, and when I later opened my drawers everything was floating in a sea of foamy water (I had put a squirt of Dawn dish soap into the sink).  I then opened the cabinets below the sink where we store piles of wash cloths, hand towels, and other bathroom supplies.  Yep!  You got it.  Everything was waterlogged or floating.

My first thought went to the carpeting in the next room.  I jumped out of the shower, grabbed my towel and quickly went over to the door that leads into our carpeted dressing room.  The water was just about to the edge of the threshold into the next room.  I spread my towel in front of the creeping water and stopped it before it crossed over.  I grabbed Dave’s towels and started sopping up water.  Everything went into the tub, the thick mat, the totally drenched towels, all the towels and washcloths under the sink, except the few on top of the piles which weren’t quite waterlogged yet. Those I used to soak up the flood on the tile floor.  I took all the dripping debris from my drawers and put them into the sink and then bailed out the water with a tray that was in the drawer.  Once  my body had dripped dried enough I ran out through the hall into the other entrance of our dressing room and grabbed all the large bath towels stored in my closet area.  I used those to absorb water from the bathroom floor.  The hand towels were used to sop up inside the cupboards below the sinks.  I decided I could either cry or laugh.  I chose to laugh.  It actually was rather funny.  I hate to make you imagine the scene, here I am running around stark naked, dripping hair, mopping up buckets of water.  My house robe had been hung on a lower hand rail and was also saturated so I couldn’t put that on.  Fortunately the front windows had been closed before I took the shower.

All this time Dave was in his “man cave” directly below the dressing room.  I could hear his treadmill fast at work.  When it first happened I actually called him on his iPhone but it wouldn’t make a connection for some reason.  I did not want to waste an iota of time running all the way through the house, down the stairs, and down the long hallway to take the time to tell him.  My intent was to protect the carpet at both entrances into the dressing room and getting as much of the water sopped up as I could.  Finally I had no choice but to go down because I ran out of absorbable material available to me.  I went downstairs, told Dave what was happening, and grabbed some more towels from the laundry room on the way back up.  Before I steaked past the uncovered kitchen picture window I did take the time to grab a fresh robe from the closet.  I no longer needed a towel as I was already air dried. 

It is cold here in Wisconsin at the present.  If you remember, I told you before we don’t heat the bedroom.  So needless to say it was a bit chilly.  I was so busy I didn’t even notice.  It took four trips to take the wet towels to the laundry room downstairs and that was without the saturated rug.  Just in case you don’t know it, wet towels are very heavy.

It is twenty four hours later and I just restocked the bathroom with freshly laundered towels.  We wanted to make certain everything was thoroughly dried out under the cupboards before we put anything back.  We washed almost everything last night but decided to put the clean lenins on the kitchen counter until we gave everything a good airing out with HEAT!  We turned the heat zone all the way up to 72 degrees.  I just now turned it off again so we can sleep comfortably.  I needed to be certain that everything was dry.  My drawers are clean and almost empty.  All the cotton balls, cleansing pads, creams, rubber gloves, bandaging supplies, some medicines, Q-tips, and a sundry of other items are in the trash.  So, I guess you might say the bathroom has had a great purging and cleansing (which I will agree it needed).

After it was all finished I suppose I felt quite satisfied.  I would never have chosen to use this method for cleaning, but it worked.  As I went to bed later I couldn’t help but laugh again.  I told Dave, “Well, I guess I should be careful what I pray for”.  You see, I had prayed over the past few days that God would help me get started on the purging and cleansing of this house of unneeded stuff.  I asked that He would help me be motivated and give me creative ways of getting things done without getting discouraged.  Well, let me tell you, this is not how I thought He might answer.  If it was an answer to prayer, it worked, at least for one room.  I think I will reword my prayers from here on out.  Without any disrespect, I would venture to say we have a God with a great sense of humor!

 

BE CAREFUL FOR WHAT YOU PRAY FOR

By Kathleen Martens

December 26, 2015

 

Prayer is a powerful thing

For it is when we talk

To our mighty King.

 

Great thanks we should give

To the One who shows

His way to live.

 

Remember and give praise

For who God is

Each and every day.

 

But when we come

In petition to ask

His loving Son

 

We should be careful

And to our task

Humbly prayerful.

 

For it is then

We must be specific

Before Our Friend.

 

Do not waver in your words

For to our Lord

Each word is heard.

 

Speak so clear

The desires of your heart

For God does hear.

 

Be careful for what you believe

God sees the desires of your heart,

And what you believe you may receive.

 

Let’s just say, more than once, I’ve learned my lessons the hard way!

 

My Prayer for today:

Lord, I praise You for who you are.  You are the mighty King of Glory and the Prince of Peace.  Thank you for Your love and for loving me.  Thank You for hearing my prayers.  Lord I come in humbleness, asking protection over my family, my friends, and Dave and me.  I pray that You will take each of my days and orchestrate them for Your glory that I may touch a life with Your love, giving hope to another.  Help me to be able to discern Your voice when You speak to me throughout each day.  Show me Your ways that I will walk in righteousness.  Give me strength to accomplish all that must be accomplished in emptying out our home of unneeded items.  Show me who to bless in this venture.  Release me from wanting to hold on to “things” of the past that are now just excess baggage.  Teach me to see with Your eyes and Your thoughts as to what is important or unimportant.  I ask for strength and guidance for both Dave and I as we embark on this yearlong adventure of sorting through our past.  Show us the truths You want us to learn and give us wisdom daily as we seek Your will.

Thank You Father that I can come and speak openly of what is on my heart.  You are my everything.  As our world falls apart around us Lord, I know that You are in control and Your plan is in action.  I give each day to You and trust in Your plan that is laid before us.

I ask these things in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Good night and God bless you!

P.S.  Just realized that the above saga is not yet over.  We did not escape unscathed, at least financially that is.  Dave found out that some water escaped to parts unknown.  Our downstairs bathroom, below our upstairs bathroom, had water on the floor tonight and when he looked up he realized that the globe on the light fixture was half full of water.  Uh, oh!  We called for help.  The troops will be out tomorrow (Sunday) which means it will be even more of an expenditure.  But as far as I am concerned, the sooner the better.

To be continued…