Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies, the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins. The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan; I will bring them from the depths of the sea, that you may plunge your feet in the blood of your foes, while the tongues of your dogs have their share.” (Psalms 68:21-23 NIV)
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So…it begins, Friday afternoon, I was sitting in the comfy chair/rocker in my kitchen. I was chatting on the phone with Will while my younger son finished his lunch in his high chair. It has been a challenging week for me. So we were talking about what I could do differently to help me to face one of my challenges with less anxiety…when all of a sudden…I heard and saw something coming down the stairs…my eyes widened and I let out a scream!!!!!
I think I scared Will to death…
Will: “what’s wrong, Mary, what’s wrong?”
Me: “EEEEWWW Will its horrible! It’s just horrible!!!!!” I scream again….AAAAHHHH!
Will: “What is it Mary, what is it? Are you OK? Is M OK?”
Me: Oh Will its just horrible!!!!!! The biggest, fattest mouse I have ever seen just….AAAAHHHH!!!!” I start to cry.
Will: “Mary, OK, honey I need you to calm down. Now tell me what’s going on.”
Me: “It looked at me!!! OHHHHH Will what am I going to do!!! What am I going to do?” I said through my tears.
Will: “OK…now Mary, where are you?”
Me: “standing on a chair in the kitchen!!!” more crying.
Will: “where is M?”
Me: “Strapped into his high chair.”
Me: “Oh Will this is horrible!!! I can’t handle this!!! You don’t understand!!!” more crying… “I can’t handle mice and this is the biggest! Fattest mouse I have ever seen!!!!”
Will: “Well, Mary, she might be pregnant.”
Me: “NOOOOO She can’t be, Will please tell me that’s not true!!! That would mean nesting and more mice and lots of them cause she is really fat!!!!”
Will: “Mary, honey, now calm down…I can’t tell you anything because I am not there.” I am really, really sorry honey but I can’t help you with this…I so wish I could but baby you are going to have to handle this yourself.”
Me: “WHAT!!! You can’t be serious!!!!” Will its huge!!!! You have to do something!!!!”
Will: “Mary, I want you to think for a minute. I am not there. You are there. And if you are standing on a chair like you say and screaming I can guarantee you that it is more afraid of you than you are of it.”
Me: ” Yea, right! You haven’t seen the mouse!!! And if it was afraid of me why did it come downstairs with me here in the kitchen and go into…OOOOOHHHHH! It just went into J’s room!!! Why would it go in there?”
Will: (at this point you can tell he is trying to not laugh or something) “Honey, do know if you have gotten all of J’s secret stash out of his room?”
Me: “No. I thought I did but I didn’t check everywhere.”
Will: “Well, this would be a good time to check.”
Me: “You CAN’T be serious!!!! ITS IN THERE!!!!
The mouse pokes its horrible pointy nose out around the basket in the doorway to J’s room. Again I scream!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
Me: “I can’t do it! I can’t do it!!!” I say through muffled sobs…
Will: “Mary…here’s the thing…I am not there. Its just you, M and the mouse. You can do this!!! I know you can do this!!”
Me: “Wait just a minute” I run upstairs and get my snow boots and run back downstairs and back up onto my chair. “OK, I’m back”
Will: “What happened?”
Me: “I just put my boots on.”
Will: “Oh good now if you see him you can squash it.”
Me: “WHAT!!!!” ME STEP ON A MOUSE!!!! You CANNOT be serious. William Pershing! I am NOT going to step on a mouse!!! Its huge!!!” Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!!
Will: “Well it would kill it.”
Me: “Very funny!”
Will: “OK, get the broom, Mary.”
Me: “Why what will that do? Am I going to sweep it to death?”
Will: “You can give it a heart attack.” “Now, Mary, I want you to stop and think…its you or the mouse…are you going to let that mouse take charge or are you going to show it who’s boss?”
Me: “Wait just a second” I run and get the boys’ over-sized plastic blue softball bat. “OOOOO KKKKK. I guess I’m ready. Tell me what to do.”
I climbed down from my chair…snow boots on…bright blue, plastic, toy softball bat in one hand…broom in the other…I was ready for battle!!!
It was time to face my giants even if they were horribly brown and horribly furry and horribly squeaky and just plain HORRIBLE!!!!
I am still fighting that battle…the mouse is somewhere in my ceiling now…but I haven’t seen it sense. Praise God!!! But we fight battles like this everyday, don’t we? We all have fears in life. Things that we are sure that we can’t handle until we are faced with doing just that. God calls us to face our fears but He doesn’t expect us to do it alone. He gives us the Armour we need.
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:11-17 NIV)
So this morning I was faced with dealing with a fear that I have of dealing with a difficult neighbor who’s son, I discovered, broke my son’s window yesterday afternoon with a ball. I wasn’t going to say anything to them. I was going to figure out a way to deal with it without their help paying for it….but the more I thought about it and prayed about it. I realized that I could do it. I could walk next door and nicely explain what happened. After all it could happen to anyone. I was terrified to do it but I put on the Armour of God and took a deep breath (and imagined that I had my broomstick and boots on) and did it. You know what? It wasn’t bad at all. They felt really bad! In fact they came back over this afternoon and told me to call after I talk to my maintenance guy and that they will pay for the whole thing and that their children will be punished for it. I about fainted…what? how? why? what just happened here?
So I guess you could say that a mouse of an interruption gave me the courage to face a bigger one. And guess what!? God won!!!
