Things that go Bump in the Night

If you asked me to list my 10 favorite things, being awakened by sudden, loud noises is not going to be one of them. I really dislike to be awakened in such a manner.

Last night, in the the middle of the night, The Prince and I were awakened by a LOUD banging and crashing. He was out of the bed and down the stairs in a flash...Full-fledged Protector Mode. I, being scared half to death, moved a little more slowly...not wishing to run into the arms of whatever form of danger may have made that horrible noise. Instead I moved a bit more cautiously and inspected my immediate surroundings first. I pushed on the bathroom door. It would not open. I pushed harder, and discovered the source of the crazy loud banging in the middle of the night. A shelf that I have that I use to hold towels had fallen over. I had a hard time wrapping my sleepy mind around HOW a sturdy free standing shelf could just fall over. While wondering, "How in the world?!?" I began to clean up all the towels and things that were scattered all over the bathroom floor. I had called to The Prince to let him know what had happened. He came back upstairs, and we picked up the shelf, realizing then why the shelf had fallen over. The front right leg on the shelf, had come unscrewed, and the shelf fell.

You see, we live near a set of very active train tracks. And sometimes, we even feel the house shake due to the trains.

So, unseen to us, each time a train would go by, and shake the house, the little screw in the leg of my shelf, would work its way a little looser and a little looser. And last night, it wiggled completely loose. At 1:00 a.m. The pressure was too much, and the whole shelf came toppling down.

For the forty minutes after that, while I lay in bed waiting for my adrenalin rush to subside, and for my heart rate to slow down, I prayed, and talked to the Lord. We talked about many things, and God brought some of you to mind, so I even prayed for some of you!

This morning, I thought about how "little" sins are like those trains that pass by. They rattle the very foundations of our lives. We may not see it. We may not worry about it, because they are tiny almost imperceptable tremors, and surely they can't do THAT much damage.

A simple little white lie.

A thought we shouldn't have thought.

Gossip we should not have repeated.

An unkind word said in haste to someone we love.

A bad attitude.

Rattle by rattle, little shake by little shake, our testimonies are coming unscrewed while we "sleep." And we don't even realize it until everything comes violently crashing down.

The shelf falling was a rude awakening, that prompted me to spend some time with my precious Lord. Today, as I have thought about it, I have prayed that God would bring to my attention the "little" sins I often overlook. Because, I don't do "big" sins. Therefore, I am okay(Right where Satan wants me). And as God brings them to my mind, I repent, and pray for forgiveness. I do not want to allow the "little" things to compound, and bring me crashing down. I want the foundations to remain firm, not just in my home, but most especially in my spiritual life. If I do daily spiritual maintanence, paying special attention to the small details, then there will be no rude awakenings by the things that go bump in the night.