Be Careful

In my last blog, I shared with you my conversion experience. That was over 40 years ago and so much has happened  since. Tonight I would like tell you about an experience I had shortly after my conversion. Hope you like stories.

In 1973, I was a young wife with 2 small children and a baby. We had recently moved into the homestead of my husbands family. His father had died and his mother was left with the mess. The place was filthy and run down but both my husband and I believed that we could revive it. It was a goodly house with 3+ bedrooms, cedar shakes and a very large yard that went all the way to a pubic park. My husband and his siblings, all boys, referred to it by it's street address, 1859.

At about this same time, my husband, Mike, started his own business, a gas station. A new business requires a lot of time but added to this was the house which required a considerable amount money. So he worked 15 to 18 hour days at the station providing the funds while I worked at home cleaning, ripping up carpet, wallpapering, painting and caring for the kids. It was the most confining, lonely time of my life.

We are all so courageous in our youth. I now wonder what made me think I could tackle this project. And, oh yes, it was a Project. Was it my love for Mike? Was it my belief that we could, together, right all the wrongs that had brought this house to it's present condition?  Perhaps it is all about our strong muscles, supple joints, our energetic nervous systems that required little sleep. Then there is that enormous ego that always says, "I can!".  But even with all of these going for me, it was not whistle while you work. There where tears, there was anger and anguish. There where times when I thought I would just break.

It was a very low point that I thought if I could just have Mike for one day a week, Sunday, I would be renewed and able to go on. I pictured us doing family type things with the kids, a park, a walk, a visit to the Grandparents. That's when I hatched a plan. Was Jesus not the miracle worker, was he not the healer and mender of the small tears in our lives? Yes, of course, I would go to him. So I prepared for my prayer by forgiving everybody, making sure to construct it correctly. And when I was ready, I prayed that God would somehow have Mike stay home on Sundays, in Jesus name.

Not long after that, President Nixon closed all the gas stations in the Nation on Sunday due to the oil embargo. I was surprised at my own surprise. Wow, that Jesus really is the miracle worker! But the result was something I could never have seen coming. Did we do family things with the kids? Did we go anywhere or do anything. No, Mike laid on the couch angry. The kids had to be quiet and we all sat there watching TV. This result was worse than the previous condition where I could, in his absents, go where I pleased.

So you see, the up shot is be careful what you pray for. You might just get it! Mercifully, it didn't last long. But I learned a very valuable lesson.

Post Scrip: When I researched the oil embargo, I found that it was a voluntary measure. But that is not how I remember it nor do I think Mike saw it that way.