I heard a story a long time ago about how to cook a frog. (Hang in there with me, this isn’t going toward gross!) As the story goes, one is instructed to take a large kettle of cold water and put it on the stove. Next, one puts the frog in the water. He loves the cool water and briskly swims around in his herky/jerky/quirky way.

     As the water heats up, the temperature changes so gradually, almost imperceptibly, that he never considers jumping out. Pretty soon, the water is hot enough to disable his sense and he just stays in the water. Well, I’ve never wanted to cook a frog. I don’t even eat frog legs! The thought of all those little paraplegic frogs sitting in wheelchairs is just more than I can handle! (g)

     Last week I wrote about the water in the bedroom and how much our local family helped get our ox out of the ditch. Tim and Debbie (parents of Rachael, Ben, and Steve) came over and helped move all the furniture out so the carpet could dry and be reinstalled.

     Well, Steve and Ben came over a few days later and muscled all the stuff back in the bedroom. While they were there, I asked Ben to please replace the two light bulbs in the bathroom light fixture. I told them both the story about how one bulb had flashed into oblivion a couple of days before AND that the next day, the other bulb did it’s big bang exit. Talk about planned obsolescence!

     I was pretty amazed when he took down the long glass decorative cover and saw that there were FOUR light bulbs in the fixture. You see, the first two must have gone bye bye when I wasn’t looking. I REALLY noticed the dimming process when #3 (which I thought was #1) bulb went. Of course, when #4 (which I thought was #2) blew out, I was quite literally "in the dark"!

     I don’t believe I’d ever realized how bright the room could be until I saw all four bulbs working. I guess they’d gone out, one at a time, in such a gradual manner, that I just didn’t realize how diminished my light was becoming.

     Hmmmmmmmmmm. Any lessons in the stories of the frog and the light bulbs? Have you ever thought about how desensitized we all have become to the language, sexual innuendo, violence, etc. that comes on the boob tube? Are we as shocked, jolted, etc. at the gruesome details of a murder in our town as we were, say, twenty years ago? Are we gradually becoming indoctrinated to changes in our society that we would have stood up and condemned just a few years ago? And how about our diminishing interest in spiritual things? Lots to chew on, eh?

     I’m sure you will have a lot with which to respond. Please send me your views, insights, comments, even differences of opinion and I’ll get right back to you. Just hit my name in the lower corner of this page.

"A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT"...

- Excellent one, PapaJ. Boy, sorry you had such a mess!!!! Bless your family's hearts for coming to your rescue and helping pitch in to solve the problem. You're right! It doesn't take much to clog up our lives. When we hold on to "What Ifs," "Should Haves," "Could Haves," and "Anger", it plugs up our lives until we are just miserable. BUT, when we release it ALL to the Lord, our lives will run freely!!!! GREAT comparison!!!!

- As I’ve thought about this event, it occurred to me that it doesn’t take much of a plugged drain in our lives to backup all the stuff that should come out and flow away. What plugs up our lives? What channel needs to be cleared?

- I KNEW you were gonna make a "spiritual application" about all of this. I was just waiting to see WHAT it was. In my case, I "think" things will be better in 9 days, 1 hour, 18 minutes and 11 seconds when we get through with a family member’s wedding [but, then again, my "thinking" HAS been known to be WAY OFF before!!!. We'll see].

     GOOD STORY...GOOD LOOKIN' CREW OF KIDS! How sweet of them to pitch in and be such a GREAT HELP!!!

- Glad your "ox" is out of the ditch!

- Thanks for doing the story on me. The responses are neat. I think God let all that happen to me so that someone out there will see that one can overcome with the Lord. And that He has a purpose when He puts us through hard stuff. And that He promised to give back double for all the stuff we missed or endured, so it is well worth it! I was tickled with the one that is praying for me. I really need that!

-I wish you would not refer to yourself as the "ox in the ditch." However, if that is what you want to be called, okay with me Mr. Ox.

     I believe there are times we allow ourselves to allow the leaves and dirt to clutter our little drain hole. We become so involved in what we are doing that we forget to take care of some personal care. Others come along in our time of quandary wondering what could be wrong and help us out of our misery that we’ve created for ourselves. Shame of us. BUT, that is what Christ did for us many years ago by dying on the cross for our sins.

- Worries " plug up my soul". The other day I found a saying that I had cut out of a magazine. It said, "Worry less - pray more." How true that is. If we would replace our worry with prayer, how much more effective our lives would be. Satan wants us to worry, because that way we are not focusing on God, but ourselves. We think that "we" can solve the problem. How foolish. What do we gain by worrying - nothing but frustration, ulcers, and gray hair.