UNWISE CHOICE
Have you ever thought back on some of the things you did when you were young? Sometimes you wonder how you survived; or as my mom said a lot, only by the grace of God. This is so true; even though we may not know Him as we should, He watches over us to protect us.
I have also discovered, now that I am one, we need to thank our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers, for their prayers of protection. The Lord hears everyone if we are aware of them or not. Believe me, mommas know how to pray.
Spring is the time of year for rain in the Ozarks where we lived. At times it comes down so fast and heavy that all the little creeks and streams can’t contain it. Flash flooding can happen without warning. This happened once on the day the milkman, Mr. Hughman, came to take our milk to the dairy. He drove an old Chevy pickup that smelled of spilled milk and pipe tobacco.
It had rained a bit early that morning, but not enough to hurt anything. He crossed the little low water bridge across our road and came up the hill to the milk house. After loading the cans in the back of the truck he and dad came to the kitchen for a cup of coffee before he started on the rest of his route.
He left but came back saying the water was over the bridge and he didn’t think he could make it across without drowning out his motor. There was nothing to do except wait for the water to go down; which usually happened as fast as it came up, but not this time. They put the milk back in the cooler and sat on the porch where they could see the stream. They talked drank coffee and smoked until they ran out of tobacco.
They thought up and discarded several ways to get the truck with the milk across the water that looked to be about 8 to 12 inches deep. My brother volunteered to wade across, walk to Mr. Marley’s farm to borrow some. This seemed like a plausible idea, dad said I needed to go with him. We didn’t bother to tell mom, which turned out to be a bad decision on all our parts.
When we started out the water was around our knees and flowing very fast, we were able to cross holding on to each other. Then it was a half-mile round trip to The Marley Place. It was noon and Mrs. Marley asked us to stay for lunch, we said no we had to get back. She gave us each a couple of cookies for the trip back. Back at the creek, we discovered that the water had come up a lot. We could see dad on the porch and started yelling to let him know we were back but couldn’t cross.
Dad and Mr. Hughman came down to the bridge on dad’s big Farmall tractor but didn’t think it would make it across either. Nothing to do but wait, my brother and me on one side, them on the other. After about an hour we noticed that the water was slowing down and going down. When it got back down to a point dad could drive the tractor over safely, he came and got us. We went back to the barn, loaded the milk back in the truck and dad was able to pull it across the bridge. Mr. Hughman decided he better bring more tobacco with him next time. He was going to the Marleys next so he would return the borrowed tobacco.
I don’t remember our parents ever arguing in front of us but that day were could hear a loud discussion going on behind their bedroom door. Later dad said we all should probably try to stay on mom’s good side for a few days. Do some extra chores and be nice to each other.
Did you have times in your life when you wondered how you survived? Remember that sometime someone has prayed for your protection and the lord has given His angels charge over you.
Psalms 91:11
I like the Passion Translation for this verse. God sends angels with special orders to protect you where ever you go defending you from all harm.
If you would like to know more about the protection of the Lord send me an email and I will get back to you.
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