Boogers Beware

It was time to repaint the twins’ bedroom and replace the drab, flat paint with something more appealing and easier to clean.  We began the process of preparation, which I consider the worst part of painting: shoving furniture, taping off borders and window frames, etc.  Blah!  It was while we were wiping down walls that I came across a portion of wall that my cleaning rag snagged on.  I rubbed and rubbed but the particles were in-penetrable.

Frustrated, I asked the young girls, “What is this?  Do you know what this is?”

They looked a little sheepish and nodded.

“Well?”

“It’s boogers.”

“What?”

“Boogers.  We wiped them on the wall.”

“You wiped them on the wall?”

They nodded again.

“Why?!”

They shrugged their slender shoulders.  “We don’t know.”

If boogers could be patented and sold as an adhesive we would be millionaires.

“Why bring up boogers, Christi?  It’s gross.”

Yes it is.  You should try scrubbing crusty ones off a wall.  Or better yet, challenge yourself not to puke when you see a kid pluck out a long, slimy snot and in one swift movement, pop it in his mouth.  Gives me the shivers just thinkin’ of it.

I bring up boogers in honor of “cold and flu season”–so named by the powers that be in the world in which we live and everyone who’s looking forward to cashing in on our being ill.

Recently, Laura and I were folding clothes when she says, “Mum, I need to tell you something.”

She said it in the tone that makes a mother’s heart sink into her belly.

I looked her in the eye.  “What?”

“I have a little sore throat.  I had it yesterday and thought maybe I slept with my mouth open and it’d go away.  But it didn’t.  I still have it.”

And so began the snowball of sneezing, coughing, sore throats, throbbing, stuffy heads, restless nights, etc.  We all fell like Dominoes–except for Bob.  I’m glad that he dodged the bullet.

Anyone who’s been reading my blog for any amount of time knows that I’m getting built up in the Word and pushing to break out of this world’s beliefs and things we automatically accept as true.  Like, giving our doctors all of our family’s history knowing full well that every physical affliction any relation of ours has ever had is going to be looked for in our own life…and we should expect to get their disease.  I don’t like that.  Jesus paid with His blood, His very life to deliver us from every curse, family oriented or otherwise.  This I say in the midst of nose blowing and coughing.  Ahem.

We have prayed.  Rebuked.  Anointed.  Took communion (and various herbs and cough syrups).  Made proclamations.  Etc., etc.  Anyone who’s been reading my blog for any amount of time would also know that it is usually at this point in the battle that I get a little frustrated because it isn’t over yet.  Not this time.

I’ve decided God’s Word is true.  It is His will to heal.  It’s bought and paid for.  And He can not lie.  Toying with unbelief has cost me too much.  Jesus said, “It is finished.”  Could I not believe Him?  Even when I stumble, could I at least approach Him like the loving father on behalf of his son and say, “LORD, I believe.  Help my unbelief”?

God has given insight, some of which came from my mom in the form of a conversation she recently had with a friend.  Mum wants to look into it further, but it was about black spots on the mind.  You know, things we keep returning to mentally that we shouldn’t.  We girls had one of those.  Well, several.  But one in particular.  See, Laura was hesitant to tell me about the sore throat because of the awful ordeal we suffered almost exactly two years ago.

We had been camping, our last trip of the season as I recall.  Rachel had a cold.  I didn’t give it much thought at the time.  We all have colds.  They pass.  Right?  Wrong!  We all fell down, even Bob.  All of us were on antibiotic (which is a rare occasion in this house) and we girls, twice.  We tried everything.  I can’t tell you how many nights I heard creaking on the stairs only to find one of my girls awake, sitting on the couch, with tear-filled eyes.  She could not sleep because she couldn’t breathe or she couldn’t stop coughing.  On and on it went like this.  The sleepless nights did ease up but we still had symptoms as late as Easter.  Mind you, this began the September before.  Getting a cold now to us is like the equivalent of seeing a bee after being stung and having a terrible reaction.

That thought struck me.  I took out my anointing balm, the one that smells a bit like cloves or cinnamon and a little piece of Heaven.  I went into the twins’ bedroom and anointed all of us.  I prayed something like this: “We have this black spot on our minds, LORD.  Every time we’re sick we return to this place and fear and dread come up inside of us.  I’m asking You to take Your finger and stick it on the black spot and make it white.  Heal the memory of what we went through.  Banish discouragement and fill that place with hope.”  I envisioned that mentally.  (Perhaps you want to take a moment to do that now with a thought/memory that’s been plaguing you.)

While walking in the process of healing this time around, I’ve been saturating my mind with scriptures, testimonies, and Christian music.  A phrase that turned up twice in one day was: Focus on the LORD; not the problem, not the trial, not the suffering.  Focus on the LORD.  The last time I stomped around this mountain I couldn’t focus on anything but my kids’ suffering and how I could make it stop.  I was operating out of fear, not faith…and that’s probably an active war zone for most parents.  I had to come to the place of letting go.  I have done all I could do.  Do I trust God or don’t I?

I have gone on to life as normal to the best of my ability.  Various couples in our church are hosting small group ministries.  I’ve joined one that I am thoroughly enjoying and didn’t want to miss this week’s chapter.  I resigned myself to going no matter how I felt.

Laura asked, “Isn’t there something in the Bible about being healed as they go?”

“Yes.  It’s about the 10 lepers who cried out to Jesus and He told them to go show themselves to the priests and the Bible says they were healed while they went.”

“I pray that for you tonight.”

I took her hopeful prayer for me to heart.

I was glad Bob joined me that evening and drove because I felt awful.  My head ached, my throat hurt, and I felt overall awful.  I spoke very little.  Still, I enjoyed the class and hung on to Laura’s prayer.  I would not let defeating discouragement take root in me.  When we came home, I sat in my glider chair to decompress a bit before bed and simply pondered the evening’s events.

I don’t know how many times over the course of this whole trial I said, “I believe Your Word, LORD.  No matter what it looks like or what it sounds like, I believe Your Word.  I am healed.”  I also coveted the flowering faith of my daughter concerning me and did not want her to be disappointed.

The pressure in my head ceased.  My sinuses opened up.  I still felt a little funk in my throat but the searing pain was gone.  I didn’t take any cough syrup that night and went to bed rejoicing.  It was the best night’s sleep I had.

As I said before, this faith walk ain’t no cake walk but the preciousness of it is increasing inside of me.  What an adventure!

Join me today in taking God at His Word.  When everything gets melted down in the pot, His Word is the only thing that’s going to remain.  Let’s get as much of it into us as we can so we can withstand life when the heat is on.

In light of today’s topic, I leave you with one of our Veggie Tales favorites.  We watched a lot of Veggie Tales silly songs during the midnight hours 2 years ago.  Hope you enjoy it.

p.s.

If you have something that will not stick, put a little booger to it 🙂 .

As the Scriptures say,