Three weeks ago a friend accidentally ran over our well and we didn’t have water for 3 days. Then 2 weeks ago our oven broke, last week our vacuum broke.  Each of these happened on a Wednesday night, right before I was to go to church for a meeting.  I had to wonder, was this the devil’s way to get me to shift my focus away from Jesus?  Each time, I went to church anyway and dealt with the challenge at hand when I got home.

Here we are two and a half weeks later and my oven still doesn’t work.  Thank goodness for a microwave and a toaster oven.  My vacuum is being repaired for free under warranty and I have a loaner one.

So the old saying is things always come in “3’s”, so I hope this is my 3 for awhile anyway.  1 Corinthians 10:13 says “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.  And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

At first I thought of this scripture more as temptations and bad choices lurking in the dark.  But then, I realized it could also apply to the way I handled a situation?  Each of these things that would have normally pissed me off happened less than 60 minutes before I was due at a meeting a church.  Coincidence or act of God?  I believe it was God.  He was showing me it was ok and to go praise his name anyway.  The funny thing is, when I got home the problem seemed a whole lot smaller than when I left.

The same kind of thing happened today, Sunday.  My youngest son got into some poison ivy and when I say it is everywhere, I mean everywhere on this poor child.  It is on the tops of his feet, his legs, his belly and back and just about every nook and cranny in between (this is a Christian blog, so you can use your imagination!)

When we got home last night his older brother told him “you know poison ivy can kill you.” Well, that sent the child into a frenzy of tears practically leading to hyperventilation.  He was going to die, if not from the poison ivy, but from the pill I was in his words “shoving down his throat.”  In between the river of tears and gasps for air he was claiming to be on his deathbed choking on a teeny, tiny little pink pill of Benedryl.

Oh for the love of God!  He literally throws up on the kitchen floor.  This itty bitty little pill has apparently caused his sudden sickness.  So as I am on my hands and knees cleaning it up, still dressed in my cute clothes from a girls night, his brother is still pushing his buttons.   I’m yelling at the older kid, to leave his brother alone.  Where is my husband?  Why is he not helping me.  Apparently he left to go to CVS to get more stuff to treat this poison ivy.

We finally get the blonde child settled and he lays down about 10pm only to be back up at 11:30pm itching and crying.  We have slathered calamine lotion all over his skinny little body and sprayed Iverest all over.  He is back up at 4:30am thinking he is gonna die, because remember his brother told him he could.  Jason relocates to the guest room and I pull towels and sheets out of the linen closet to hunker him down in my bed.  He can hardly breathe through his tears.  He hurts and itches everywhere.  I slathered him once again with one of the many ointments we have tried.  He lays there and cries and coughs and cries and coughs.  I finally rub some oil on his neck to help him breathe.  I glance up and I can see the daylight outside.  It is 6:40am in the morning.

I was on the schedule to teach my adult Sunday School class today.  I had planned the lesson from Luke 10:23-37 about the good Samaritan who stops along the road to help a stranger in need.  My child was finally sleeping peacefully and I didn’t want to wake him.  Should I go to church or try to get in touch with someone to help me out and teach?  I thought back to the other recent challenges that had happened before my time with the Lord on Wednesday nights.  This too was another test.  Jason went to church and we switched and I went to Sunday School to teach.

When I got home from Sunday school the child was not crying and said he felt a little better.  I gave him a cool bath in some medicated scrub.  We are waiting it out to see what to do next.

Poison ivy is so much like the temptations we are faced with in life each day.  We may not even know we are in it and don’t notice it because we have grown accustomed to it in our society.  But once it is on us, it spreads until it takes us over.  And God is faithful, he will always give us a way out, but we have too look for it.  It might be in the form of a cold, medicated bath.  God never said the way out would be easy.

So be mindful of who and what you surround yourself with.  And remember “He answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and will all your mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27.

Be kind.