The Itsy Bitsy Spider!

Have you ever had the experience where you know that God is trying to tell you something or lovingly teach you a lesson but you just don’t seem to be catching on?  Well I have and in fact it’s been happening quite regularly lately!  Throughout the day I will find myself asking my wife how’s she’s doing, only to catch myself with a slight hesitation and a laugh and then quickly rephrasing my question by telling her instead, how God’s Word says that she is doing.

One morning a few weeks back, I was gently awakening my wife and singing one of my silly little personal ditties I made up which went like this:

“Good morning, good morning, good morning,

 Good morning Piper Kaye.

 Good morning, good morning, good morning,

 How are you today?”

When I got to that last line, the revelation of what I was saying or rather what I should be declaring to her first thing in the morning came to my mind.  I stopped in mid-verse, looked her in the eye and declared: “You know Honey, I know how you’re doing… and instead of asking you how, I’m going to tell you what God says about how you’re doing!”  Then right then and there I changed the last line to:

“Good morning, good morning, good morning,

 You’re doing well today!”

Well, ever since that morning I have tried to sing the new version of the silly song to her.  I say try because I still regularly catch myself about to say the old line and ask the question that God has already answered for us!  Like I said, I know that He is trying to make a point to me and my wife, but for some reason I have had a hard time getting this new way of thinking into my mind!  You know that saying that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”  Could I be that dog?  The good thing is that this saying has been proved to be false… so maybe there’s hope for me yet!

This morning as I sang that tune to her, I caught myself ahead of time and began to sing the updated, biblically correct version to her.  But as I was about half way through the song the weirdest thing happened.  Out of seemingly nowhere, a little spider dropped onto my wife’s arm that she was resting her head on.  Once it landed, it took off like a flash and scrambled between her hand and head, right under her left eye!

Needless to say, I was more than a little surprised and without much thought I quickly reached in and grabbed the little arachnid between my fingers, pulled it away and squished it!  Then when I realized what I had down, I tossed the mess between my fingers onto the floor and uttered “Yuck!”  In that mille-second before I reacted, I had all kinds of thoughts flying through my mind like “What am I going to do?” “I gotta get it out before it bites her!” and most importantly… “I hate spiders!”

As I sat stunned on my knees by my wife’s bedside, I thanked the Lord for helping me to get the little bugger before anything happened and then broke into a hearty chuckle and said “You’re not gonna have your way with us today Mr. Devil!”  Then I recalled the familiar verse in Deuteronomy 28:13 where the Lord told the children of Israel that He would make them the head and not the tail! 

I also had to laugh because while I have usually tended to shy away from spiders (did I ever mention the large ugly ones they had in Oklahoma… both in our yard AND inside the house…) my little wife would show no mercy, fearlessly whip off her shoe and smash them against the wall!  Then she would give me that sassy smile I mentioned yesterday, turn and walk out of the room leaving the mess for me to clean up!

Well, I was pretty proud of myself as I looked over to Piper so that she could shower me with praise and wouldn’t you know… she slept through the whole thing!  So with a triumphant smirk at the enemy of our souls, I gently woke her up, grabbed our confession sheet that we keep at her bedside and preceded to read to her what the Lord says about her health!

This incident this morning was slightly weird and somewhat shocking to my system, but nevertheless was a great example of taking what is dished out to us and turning it into a victory for God… no matter how small or insignificant the event is!  In this journey of my wife’s health that we have been walking over the last few years, I have learned to not give the devil an inch because if you do, he will help himself to the next mile of your life!

I love that old hymn where it says:

“Oh victory in Jesus,

 My savior forever.

 He sought me and He bought me,

 With His redeeming blood…”

And I choose to live in the victory that He bought for me to enjoy!  When push comes to shove, He gives me the ability to step out of my fears and walk in the authority and victory that the cross provided for me to live in.  How about you?  Are you going to let the surprise spiders of life direct your day, or move in the victory that He has provided for you?  Kind of a No-Brainer!  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting (to squish!) today?”