August 29 – “Rest our eyes”

I woke up quite sore yesterday.  I imagine it was from all that bending and squatting I had to do to bait my hook and get fish off the line the day before.  I’m just not used to fishing from the bank.  In wade fishing everything just floats right up to your chest level.  I went for a walk to try to loosen things up a bit.  I guess it seemed to work OK.  The soreness never really left, but I was able to get around with considerably less of a limp.  And the soreness was clearly muscle-related rather than arthritis, so that was a plus.

Later on, after watching a few hurricane updates, I decided I better trim the tree in the back yard away from our cable line.  Can’t have cable go out in the middle of a storm, right?  There were some really hard to reach limbs, so by the time I was finished I was, well, finished.  Now not only were my legs sore, but my elbows and knees had decided to join the club. 

Didn’t have too much time to grovel in my pain and self-pity, though.  Cailyn came over for a visit while her Mom and Dad went to work out.  It was her nap time by then, so of course she chose DadDad to hang out with.  She almost dozed off in my lap while we sat at my desk, but she forced herself awake with the declaration that she wanted to go “take a rest time in the bed.”  Should have known that was another ruse.  We did get through five or six Bible stories in her kid’s Bible, but the next step was to “rest our eyes,” and that just didn’t happen.  Well, for her it didn’t happen.  It’s amazing just how creative a three-year-old can get when she has absolutely no interest in taking a nap.  She showed me her ballet moves.  Actually she showed them to herself in our full length mirror.  She showed me a few tumbling moves in the bed.  She tried on my sandals.  She put on my tennis shoes and asked me to show her how to tie them.  About that time Nani opened the door to check on us and we both got into trouble for being out of the bed.  Believe me, I was longing for the bed, but alas, it was not to be on this fine day. 

Not long after we gave up on our nap, Kel and Christina and their boys arrived to pick up their dog.  We had been dogsitting for a few days while they went to an out of town wedding and then on a brief vacation.  Texas Rangers baseball game in Arlington (Jachin’s favorite team) and the Legoland museum.  Exciting stuff.  We ordered pizza and talked and played Legos.  By the time they left I was really sore.  My knee and my elbows were throbbing to their own music, and it wasn’t in harmony with the muscle aches.  Ah, well.  My next shot is coming up in a few days.  Maybe that will once again bring relief.  I’m optimistic.

Psalms 25:10 says, “All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.”

Father, you have been loving and faithful even when we don’t keep the demands of the covenant.  Forgive us.  Amen.