Bring the Rain

I can't believe it's been two days since I posted. So many things to say...so little time to sit in front of my computer. Because I had to post my 100 things on my hundredth post, let me back track a bit to Saturday...or really Friday night.

Friday evening, our roof began to leak. Well, really it began leaking about a week ago, but I never actually SAW it that time, just heard about it and had to deal with the aftermath of wet towels and waterlogged stuff. Friday evening, there was a steady drip (or make that 3 steady drips and one slow trickle) that I discovered in our playroom. I discovered it after it had been raining for quite a while, and apparently the rain had been dripping in for the whole time. My bulletin board that hangs there covered with the kids' art was on the front line. Ironically, it was at just the angle to the drip that it conducted water both down the front and back of the middle of the bulletin board, AND along the entire top edge to both sides where it dripped down and SOAKED the top of my couch in two different HUGE puddles three feet apart. They were starting to work their way toward the middle when I found them. Well, being a bit reactionary, I felt like we (by WE, I mean my husband in the third person way of referring to someone when you are annoyed) needed to be up on the roof making the leak stop NOW. He, on the other hand, was content to wait until the morning and just try to place a bucket under the leak. Did I mention that there were actually 3 steady drips AND one trickle that trailed down the wall and was impossible to put a bucket under? Needless to say, we have different problem solving approaches, and it was not a shining moment for my submissive, selfless, my-man-knows-best, wifely attitude.

Given the tension that night, we never discussed the morning, so fast forward to Saturday morning when I awoke before the rest of the house to go to worship team practice. There, we worked on a song that is getting a lot of radio play on our local station. It is by Mercy Me, and is called, "Bring the Rain." Ironic, huh? You have NO idea!

So for an hour I am singing in a very sincere heartfelt time of worship these words:

"Bring The Rain"

I can count a million times

People asking me how I can praise You with all that I've gone through. The question just amazes me, can circumstances possibly change who I forever am in You?

Maybe since my life was changed long before these rainy days, it's never really ever crossed my mind to turn my back on you, oh Lord. My only shelter from the storm. But instead, I draw closer through these times.

So I pray....

Bring me joy, bring me peace, Bring the chance to be free, Bring me anything that brings You glory.

And I know there'll be days when this life brings me pain, but if that's what it takes to praise You, Jesus, bring the rain.

I am Yours regardless of the dark clouds that may loom above because You are much greater than my pain.

You who made a way for me by suffering Your destiny

So tell me.... what's a little rain?

So I pray...

Bring me joy, bring me peace, bring the chance to be free, bring me anything that brings you glory.

And I know there'll be days when this life brings me pain, but if that's what it takes to praise you, Jesus, bring the rain.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty (repeat)

Wow! Just amazing lyrics, and an amazing song. My friend Marie's husband is still in the hospital, and I couldn't help but think of her and her situation. I forgot entirely about my very real bout with rain until...

I got home and was greeted with the fact that because my husband and I had a tift the night before, he never mentioned to me that he needed me to take his car to worship team so he could get all the kids to soccer...so TJ missed it, and it was my fault.

Oh, and have I seen my daughter's eye? Sari, it seems, picked up pink eye either from her cousin who had it last week, or just from being 2 1/2 and having a boo-boo in the corner of her eye. So my blue eyed girl had one disgusting, glowing-red eye and one normal white and blue one.

Add to that the fact that obviously things are NOT patched up with my husband!

AND, the soap making class I was supposed to go to, but which got cancelled the night before, got un-cancelled around midnight, and I didn't check my e-mail before worship, so I missed the memo on that one and missed the first 45 minutes of the class.

Be careful what you ask God for, even in worship...He just might give it to you. Boy, was I feeling the rain.

But I needed the rain. I needed it to realize how awful my attitude had been toward my husband just because he didn't want to hop up on the roof in the middle of a rain storm. And I needed to see how that spiraled outward to all the other events of the morning, all because my temper got the best of me. I needed to be reminded that my rain is nothing like Marie's. I felt wrong being mad at my husband when hers has a life threatening illness. And because God works all thing to good, it is actually good that TJ missed soccer, as he wasn't feeling great that morning, and that has turned into a 4 day weird fever/stomach pain illness that only today has subsided. And hey, since Bam-Bam had just had pink eye, we were able to just borrow his left over eye antibiotics instead of going to the doctor ourselves. And while the roof still doesn't even have a tarp on it, my husband did BUY one, and God has been kind enough to hold off the physical rain for now, so no more rain has fallen to leak inside anyway.

I had a blast at soap making. It is sooooo easy. Here is my finished product:

I had to make it unscented, as I have problems with many scents, but I definitely will make more of my own, and will use essential oils of non-allergy inspiring things to get around that problem. I can't wait to experiment! For these, I used tumeric and something else which is escaping me right now to provide the color. I love the marble look. I also used some foam stamps we had around the house to put designs on the top, since I was inspired by all of our teacher Sparkling Suzanne's samples that she brought for us to see.

So today's big blessing is the rain that God uses to cause us to seek Him more, to rely on His strength and not our own, and to trust Him with the details of our lives.

On a less reverent note, I am totally blessed to have spell-check because without it, you'd never even understand what I just typed. YIKES!

until tomorrow,

obm