Crayons

The other day as I was leaving work and headed to get little man I began thinking about how great that day had been. I had gotten up early to do my Bible study and prayer, and I had helped a lot of people at work. Yes, thank you God for a great day. You are a strong and mighty God and I give you all honor glory and praise for this day. I got to school and asked Haden if he had found his lost jacket, his answer was no. I started to get a little annoyed at his "I really don't care about my lost coat mom" attitude. We proceeded to his classroom to continue our (my) quest to find the missing jacket. We did not find it, but I did notice that his school box was open on his desk and only 3 crayons lay inside. I asked Haden where the crayons I bought him at the beginning of the week were. Well, just like the jacket, he had no answer, and really did not seem to be as bothered as I was. We drove home and as I thought and thought and thought about the whole jacket/crayon thing I just became more and more irriated. I started dinner and Haden was playing happily at the kitchen table. I began to think, "Wow, and I was having such a good day." It was as this thought crossed my mind that I heard God speak to me. "You just thanked me for a wonderful day, and now you are letting a missing jacket and a few lost crayons ruin it all?"
Wow...I thought of something that I heard recently on a radio station, and was recently reminded by a colleague.
"Our level of spiritual maturity can be measured by what it takes to steal our joy."
I was letting something so small and insignificant steal my joy, and the joy of The Lord is my strength! The devil was having a party thinking that he had ruined my whole day with something so trivial. Thank you Jesus for speaking to me. I pray that my spirit matures every day so that I will not be easily shaken.

Philippians 4:9
"Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me- put into practice."

Kitty Litter

When I taught writing I always told my students to have a great title or opening sentence so they could grab the reader's attention. So? Do I have yours? I will talk more about kitty litter later.

Lately, I have noticed that I seem to pray for the really big things in my life. Or I lift up things for others that are really major in their life. This is all great. I am actually really good at turning these things over to God. Problem is those pesky little things. Sometimes I feel as if I am bothering God with some of the things that bother me. But God tells us "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” So if something is causing me to be anxious then I should pray about it and turn it over to God.

Ok. Enter, kitty litter. Cats. Never in my life did I think I would own one, not to mention two! After a year of Haden wanting a pet, and us not ready for a dog, and he not happy with the hermit crabs we tried to fulfill his need, we decided to let him have a kitten. New Year's Eve off we go to the animal shelter. We were placed in the cat room, and Adam and Haden immediately began holding cats. I on the other hand was inspecting their clothes to see which cat shed the most, because that was not going to be my pick. After a while, Haden picked a small black kitten. I have to admit that she did have the cutest little face. I turned around to tell Adam that Haden had chosen and we were ready to go. It was then that I saw Adam holding a much larger older cat. I cannot even begin to describe the look in this man's eyes. It was a kind of a pout and "oh please mommy" look that was a little disturbing. Two cats? Really? The animal shelter lady said, "Oh yes, you need two so they can play together."Look lady you run a shelter you are going to tell me to take six!

Ok, so we have had the cats a few months shy of a year now. They have been ok. Actually better than I thought. However, I just cannot get used to the litter box! We have moved it to the upstairs bathroom and still I think I can smell it everywhere. Recently I bought a new "all natural" kitty litter. This stuff is made from walnuts shells, does not stink, and you can flush it! I cannot tell you how excited this made me. Looking back now it is kind of sad just how excited I was about yes, kitty litter. Then it happened.... about a week after the new litter, Shadow,the youngest, decided that this new stuff was not for her and she would just go on the floor. Over and over and over. I was so upset. Adam said that we were just going to have to switch back to the old litter. What? This can't be happening! I can't go back. I was very anxious. So my first instinct was to pray, but then I thought, wait I can't pray about kitty litter. This is silly. But the more I thought about it the more anxious and worried I became. So I prayed, "Dear Lord, this may be silly, but I pray that Shadow will start using the litter box again. I pray that we are able to get through this very small detail of our life. Please help me not to be anxious about this." I felt sure that God was having a good laugh at me, and maybe he did, but ya know what else? Shadow started using the litter box again.

I truly believe God wants us to turn big and small things over to Him daily. He is God, and in control of all things. Yes, even kitty litter.