Tonight within my walls…..
It was hair washing night in the Pruitt house. Even mommy washed her hair today. (trust me, this is not accomplished as often as it should these days.)…BUT ‘hair washing’ night for the boys means excruciating screams and cries for the entire duration of their bath from the first rinse until the last, and sometimes a little longer, depending on their moods and tiredness. Based on the fact that both children screamed for twenty minutes after their bath was over, I knew they were pretty tired. I watched them one by one leave the bathroom in their hooded towels… wailing as they walked the narrow hallway back to Will’s room… a trail of tears, if you will…. then they continued while I dressed them and dried their hair. At one point, Will, (you know my lazy one)… asked me to please wipe his tears….Josh is now coughing with snot pouring from every opening in his face. Does this ever happen to any of you? Am I the only parent forced to attend such theatrical productions? Sometimes it can be overwhelming, the two of them altogether “melting down”….I used to get all stressed out, but now I look at it as a little exercise in exhausting oneself before bedtime. In my mind, I’m sort of like… keep on crying, ‘cause you are gonna hit that pillow so hard… your eyes are going to be burning, your voice is going to need to rest… it’s going to be beautiful. And sure enough… I had NO problems tonight. So ladies out there… think positively of these nighttime meltdowns…..you may have to go through the fire for a brief period… but the end is a glorious evening in the quiet and usually a good night’s rest. J Bring it on, I say!
So, alas, my day is pretty much done. Chris has left for work and I’m here with my thoughts. I think that’s why I’m loving this blogging thing… I feel as though I’m not alone… like I’m talking to someone. Thank you for being my company. These nights tend to get harder as the weeks progress. The minute I’m left alone with time to actually think… Satan begins drumming up scary scenarios… fear begins to surface… sometimes I’m panic stricken. In my weak moments, I give in to these lies. In moments I am walking in strength… I begin claiming the scriptures….there are SOOO many places in the Bible that talks about fear and the Lord always comes back with..”HAVE NO FEAR…” I’m tired tonight, but I wanted to leave you with something that the Lord placed on my heart tonight as I was rocking Josh to sleep… sometimes I write my songs while I’m rocking him… he loves being rocked and listening to me sing…. He would sit forever… mostly, it’s because he’s fallen asleep… anyway, I praise the Lord because it’s as if the Lord was anticipating that tonight I would fear.. so he began recalling scripture in my mind before I even had time to think about being afraid… this is a little of what He said as I sung….
Lord, you are a shield about me
My glory
You lift my head
Lord, you are a strong tower
I need not cower
But run to you instead
‘Cause you surround me
You surround me
Like a mighty mountain, never shaken
Like a fighting fortress standing tall
You’ve gone before me, behind, beside me
You surround me
My God, My Wall
–jenny pruitt
For all you sleeping beauties out there… may you wrap yourself ‘neath the covers of your faith and rest peacefully within our Almighty Wall.
