Shut De Door...Keep Out De Devil

I had a wonderful weekend. Once it finally got going. I was a little worried though. Because up until Friday afternoon when it started I wasn't sure it was even going to happen.

See, I had plans to attend the Extraordinary Women conference in Pensacola. Not that I'm such an extraordinary woman, but one can always dream. Actually, it's a lot like the Women of Faith conferences, with inspirational speakers and singers and I was looking to be inspired. I was needing to be inspired. Desperately.

But last Thursday on my way home from the gym at 6am I thought I ran over a cat. Actually (and before you call PETA) the cat ran into ME. I was sitting at a stop sign and just as I pulled forward a cat came from nowhere and ran under my car. I never saw it again and frankly had an overwhelming fear as I continued driving that the cat was going to suddenly crawl from under the car and plaster itself on my window like Cujo. I was skeered. But it never happened and I made it home. Where I faced another of my greatest fears.

Catherine came running out of Stuart's room yelling "Stuie is awake and he has poo poo all in his bed." Ugh. I walked in to find that his lovely blue bedding was now brown and blue. Luckily those colors are quite fashionable so I considered leaving it alone. But I stripped and bleached him and his bedding and thought I was done with all my bad karma for the day. But no.

William had been sick all week, and by that afternoon Stuart had what William had. So as I was immersed in snotty noses and whining babies, Catherine decided to see how many DVD's she could stuff into the DVD player. I caught her as she was close to breaking what must have been the world record. At that point the poor DVD player would neither open nor close and was just groaning loudly. Nice.

So I get everyone fed, bathed and Stuart in bed so I could go meet some friends at a play that we'd planned long before the all the cat/poop/snot/DVD episodes, so I quickly dressed and jumped in my van. As I pulled out of the driveway I noticed a crazy sound coming from under the van. I drove a little further trying to determine if it sounded like it was going "Meow, meow." But it was a sound I'd never heard. So I turned around, pulled back into the driveway and saw I had a flat tire. Either I'd run over a nail, or Catjo had some sharp claws. Either way, I wasn't going anywhere.

All that to say that by Friday I was convinced it was all a sign I didn't need to be trying to go out of town. But then I realized it was a sign that I needed to go more than anything. I decided it was the "devil trying to steal my joy." I laughingly told that to my friend Amy who was going to the conference with me and she reminded me of a funny story that happened a while back where a woman thought Amy and her friend had stolen her place in line at a store. The woman yelled at her "You ain't gon steal MY joy...you just go ahead and take yo blessing."

So that's what I did. I went ahead and took my blessing. And blessed I was indeed. Renewed. Refreshed. Rehydrated. Re-energized.

And ready to face whatever else the devil throws my way.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is ~ his good, perfect and pleasing will. Romans 12:2