Breaking In

Happy Sabbath

Lot’s of things to thank the Lord for.

Monday I came home with my son close to sunset.  I leave very early on Monday mornings so I always leave lights on, curtains drawn, and Alexa plays Christian music loudly in the kitchen.  I came home and went about my normal routine, unpacking, preparing dinner, and encouraging my son to start his home work.  Around 5:30pm or 6pm, not sure, I heard a knock at my front door and was surprised to find a police officer on the other side.  He told me that my neighbors (a lovely family that live to the right of me) experienced a burglary sometime today.  I was in utter shock and more so because when I was driving from my parent’s house after picking up my son, I looked at one house I had previously considered buying and thought it was not in a good location and not the right choice.  I came to my area and saw a suv had run off the road up on the lawn of this home and then thought again to myself that I had the perfect home.  If I had purchased the other house, anyone racing down the block would run straight up on my lawn too.  I thought to myself that my house was in such a safe spot, in the middle of a small street in a quiet neighborhood (one of which the well to do would pick out of all the neighborhoods that are available to move to in this town).  I was shocked and filled with anxiety and my heart ached for the family next door.  Throughout the night, I heard them using a drill to try to repair the damage to the front door that was kicked in during the crime.  They have two daughters, I think around 9 or 10.  They go to a Sunday church and seem to be kind and friendly people. I finished helping my son with his homework Monday night and he is given vocabulary and spelling words to write sentences on and memorize.  One of the words was printed next to an image on his sheet of a thief breaking "into" a house.  The vocabulary word was "INTO".  The timing of this home work assignment didn't help my anxiety one bit.

The next morning I went for a walk around my property and was alarmed to find that my screen door to my patio was partially pulled back.  I never leave the screen this way.  I keep the screen flush closed because I don’t want bugs especially spiders and bees getting in the space.  Some weeks back I was burning a gorgeous fire in my woodstove and for some reason smoke started to come back in the house.  The flue was open but I think there was too much cresote buildup and I ended up opening windows and the patio door to get fresh air in.  I never opened the screen door to the patio and I made sure to secure everything once the smell died down. 

I didn’t see any foot prints on the snow that remained on the grass in a small section that is in front of my bedroom and bathroom windows.  A shed would shield any thief from view if they wanted to try a break in, but I do have a neighbor behind me that usually is home during the day.  Their home is part of a cul-de-sac and other homes down there are in view as well.  If they had tried the front door, they likely would have made it in, that is if they could pick a lock (fortunately I have neighbors who are retired and home and peeking out their window as well as their little dog to watch all comings and goings. 

I thank the Lord that my neighbors were not harmed during this crime.  I pray that who ever committed the burglary is brought to justice and that no one on this street has to feel anxiety and fear for anything like this again.  I also thank the Lord that no one got into my home.  If they tried the back door, they would have to break the sliding glass and that’s too much effort.  All of my windows have window stoppers on them.  If necessary, I will go behind and reinforce them by drilling screws into the windows.  My garage door has an extra lock on the inside and my fire door in the garage also has a good lock.  I purchased a little security system for now but need to get a new dead bolt lock for the front door.

I thank the Lord that my son had his sixth birthday this week.  I bought him a drone back when Toys R Us was in last days of business and my dad bought him this psychotic stunt car (looks like a roly poly if you ask me) and he lost his mind between these two gifts and had a blast.  I celebrated his birthday in our house, decorated the kitchen, balloons all over the living room floor, glow in the dark thing-a-ma-gigs, and made him an ice cream cake and he had family around him to sing and celebrate another year of life and blessings. 

I thank the Lord for healing me of my sciatica.  Yes, let me get to that.  So the day after my son’s birthday, I woke up with some lower back pain and was not sure why I was feeling this way.  As the day wore on, my back became worse and when I returned to get my son, I could hardly walk and tears came from time to time.  I refused to take medicine.  I don’t want to start taking pain meds and get in the habit of taking them for everything and not really address the problem.  I also don’t want to get hooked on any pain medication.  Friday came and I was in the same amount of agonizing pain.  I went to my appointments and got through them.  I came back to my parent’s house and after reading up on Aleve, I decided to take it (I was skeptical that it would do anything).  The pain eased up and I took a second one before I went to bed. 

If I were still dealing with this, I would not have been able to bring my son home today.  He acted up in church and I ended up having to carry him out.  Yesterday, he disobeyed me and didn’t put his glasses in the place I tell him to put them whenever he is not wearing them.  He stepped on them (the ones with the transition lenses) and broke them.  I talked to him about why he needed to take care of his things and said that if my glasses were broken, I would be blind and need someone to drive me around. 

Today when he was having a tantrum, he knocked my glasses off my face.  I thank the Lord that they did not break because I didn’t have a back up pair with me and I live on the other side of town.  He scratched my hand and tried to bite me.  I set him straight with a lecture in the car and a belt at home. 

I thank the Lord for my church family.  I thank the Lord for the 10 days of prayer that just passed.  For protection from dangers unseen.  For the delivery of my charcoal grill and the kerosene heater (I expect power to go out a few times this winter so we needed it).  I thank the Lord for providing for us.  God is good, continue to give Him praise and magnify Him. 

I pray that you have a great Sabbath and new week and He continues to bless you and keep you.