I just have to put this down. Shannon, my eighteen year old, has her own way of looking at the world. A few months ago, she said, "Mom, why do people say, 'He wants to have his cake and eat it, too'...? That's so dumb. How could you eat your cake if you didn't have it?"
Being a super-wise and informative mother, I enlightened her, "It means he wants to have his cake at the same time as he eats it.. he wants to eat it and still have it."
Being a sweet tempered and polite daughter, she did not roll her eyes at me. She just calmly replied, "I know that. So why don't they say, 'He wants to eat his cake and have it, too'...? That makes a whole lot more sense."
Ever since she pointed this out, it has also bothered me. I have switched to quoting it Shannon's way.
Now I am going to break a blog rule. I am going to whine and talk about my health. This is your fair warning... you can stop reading now.
I am going through a life valley right now. I shouldn't complain. We have a friend who has leukemia. I just can't get over the flu.
I am tired, I can't take a deep breath, there is something in my right lung, and I have been sick for over a month. I know this because I am on my second period since getting sick. I don't suppose you wanted to know that, but it is significant, because I have a menstrual migraine, too. (I need to get off the computer.)
My husband is on a business trip. I don't generally mind that as much as I did when the kids were little, but we are going through some things with one of our kids, and the stress and divisiveness in the house are getting very oppressive. (John Rosemond says, "No parent should ever agonize over anything that the child is perfectly capable of agonizing over himself." But old habits die hard. I find that this child is quite resistent to taking over the agonizing for me.)
Last night as I went to bed, I took my Bible to read it, but I was so tired and my head hurt so bad, I just whined to God, "I'm tired, please just speak to me, I can't read very much." I opened to Psalm 35. I looked at it. It looked long. I said, "God, I don't know if I can read all that." It seemed that He was encouraging me to go ahead. I read the first verse, "Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me." It was Him, talking to me. He will do this for me. "The Lord your God will fight for you," Exodus 14:14. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31.
The Psalm went on to talk about fighting and overcoming enemies. I do not see my children as enemies, but God gave me peace that He was just using verse 1 to encourage me that I am not alone in this parenting struggle. Although I am usually a stickler for context, I felt that He was saying, "Your head hurts. Just go to sleep with Psalm 35:1 in your heart and remember that I am for you, I am all powerful, and it will be all right."
Even though I have a migraine and the computer hurts it, I wanted to get that down. It is a precious thing when the Lord meets you like that.
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