This week has been a tight week to discover the best (most viewed) post of the week on itsawonderfilledlife.
I believe that My Daughter Is Twenty-One was the most viewed for two reasons … it was one that people knew would be personal (and therefore more ‘real’), and it was one that readers would relate to, as parents who watch the days pass like years, and the years pass like days …
At the end of a busy, responsibility-laden week, all I wanted was to come home and go to bed, delighted in the fact that the following day was Saturday … no alarm clocks to set!
… but first, to let the beast out to relieve herself so that we could all sleep in peace.
Ah, good intentions …
Our beast is a bit of a … Houdini … she lives to get free. When she is free from the chains that we good, civilized humans have placed on her, she has the most joyful, wonder-filled look on her face, that radiates to the tip of her tail.
At eleven at night, though, her escaping from my hands before the chain got locked onto her collar was anything but joyful or wonder-filled for me.
Typically, when escape has been achieved, she runs herself ragged, and returns after a couple of hours on the lam. It seemed pointless to go hunt the fugitive down, as it was dark, foggy, and there was little concern that she might drive our sleeping neighbors crazy. It also seemed pointless to go to bed, knowing that she would be scratching at the door in a couple of hours.
Well, she did scratch on the prison door … about five in the morning, and less than an hour after I had fallen asleep! As soon as I stumbled, like the middle-aged warden I am, to the door, and she saw me … off she went for round number two!
If you had been in my kitchen you would have heard.
“I hate you!” coming from my pursed lips.
Her ‘game’ was repeated about a half hour later.
I was not impressed!
Finally, I decided to go search for her, in the fog of the dawn. Every time I got close, she sprinted off.
Around nine in the morning, I awoke our daughter, as she has ‘dog whisperer’ tendencies (and because I was just about in tears … not with sorrow, but anger).
I opted for a warm shower, while the dog whisperer did her thing (thanks, in part to the lab next door that she used as bait).
It was there, with the warmth of the water coursing that I had my pity party …
the rough week
the plans that were not going as planned
the struggles in the everyday of life
It was there, in the midst of my pity party, that I blubbered,
“God, you know I can stay positive if I get enough sleep, why did you allow me to lose what I needed most?”
No answer …
Dog found.
Just an hour and a half, after my pity party, I sat in a small church sanctuary, with family and mostly teen friends, of a good friend of my daughter. We were there to witness two young women make their public statement of faith, in following God, through the act of baptism.
To that point, it was the highlight of my twenty-nine hour day!
As the first girl read her testimony (her life story), I got my answer to that blubbery question.
She said, “I need to rely on Jesus more than anything … more than … (pause, as if she didn’t know what to say next) … sleep …”
… more than sleep …
It sort of changed my day, my week, my outlook, my anger. It sort of reminded me of that hymn that says :
“I love thee because Thou first loved me And purchased my pardon On Calvary’s tree”
itsawonderfilledlife 