August 29 – “Little things”

As the celebration of the birth of the One who is Greater Even that Queens approached, the Queen and her closest confidant (that would be me), journeyed again to the Field of Mann.   Their son the Prince was completing his studies at the second level university.  A ceremony would occur.  And the Queen would not miss that.  Anyone honoring her children certainly made the trek worthwhile.    A festival was planned to further honor the Prince, and of course the Queen was invited to attend.  Visiting strange castles in a strange land was never a course of action the Queen would choose, but some old friends were going to be there as well.  The prospect of honoring a son and seeing old friends proved too much to pass up.   The gathering went well.  There were in fact many old friends from journeys gone by.  From much earlier stages of the royal quest.   Food and celebration abounded.  Acquaintances renewed.  Introductions made.  The Queen as usual handled the event with a social skill that bordered upon excellence.  She always knew just the right word to say, just the right time to smile.  And always she watched her son, beaming with the pride only a mother can truly feel.   And perhaps it was that distraction that enabled what happened next.    3:30 is not a recommended time to wake up the morning.  Any morning.  But for me, especially not a Sunday morning.  But so it was.  And I could not get back to sleep.  I tried all the usual remedies.  I sang to myself (didn't want to wake up the dogs and have them howling in pain).  I got up and wrote down all the things I could possibly forget to do later that day.  I prayed a lot for Chris and for her Dad and Mom.  But I was awake.  It was time to start the day.   I guess I got a lot done in those hours before we left for church.  I made some signs and copied some handouts.  I never did read the paper though.  The Galveston paper wasn't there yet when I went out front, so I just skimmed the funnies from the Chronicle.   Church went fine.  It was our first time to meet in the new building, so there were all kinds of last minute things to get done.  But I had my early morning list, so it went well.  The crowd was quite small, but everyone seemed pleased with the setup, and we are definitely looking forward to what God will do next.   After church we went to Kel and Christina's for lunch.  Her Dad had brought over some barbeque and they wanted to share.  Sure was good.  Even made the Astros loss go down a little smoother.   Texted with Chris numerous times.  She is going through little aggravation after little aggravation on top of her big quest to care for her Mom.  She never leaves the house except to go to WalMart or to the pharmacy every now and then.  But little things seem bigger than they are when you have no perspective.  No one of them is a big issue, actually.  It's just that they all add up to one more stressor.  There are times she says she is very close to a breaking point.  I think this kind of thing might be Satan trying to stop her from being the Holy Spirit with skin on over there.  If he can get her to break, then her Dad won't have anyone to look to spiritually.  She's an awfully strong woman.  He's an awfully strong God.  I like that combination   1 Peter 5:8-9 says, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings."   Father, watch over Chris tonight.  Please remove the little problems that blossom into full blown stressors.  Amen.