You know most children, when they need to have help, call on Dad and his abilities.  But, my ‘Dad” abilities skipped me all together and now, when there is a need, it is Dad who needs the help and my kids who come to my aide. 

Thank you all, each of you has given me a boost in one way or another, and as with Teresa meeting my needs twice as in many days, this week, I do appreciate ya!

Yesterday I stated that Gerry had challenged me with her bat story:

Do you have any bat stories?  Some years ago I was on the deck at dusk and I felt something on the back of my shirt.  I reached around and didn’t feel anything.  I went in the house and cooked dinner and as Bob and I were eating on T.V. trays a bat flew by and went into the kitchen.  Well, that baby came in on my shirt.  It ended up upstairs on the bamboo shade hanging upside down.  We got a fish net that is used for scooping up fish and caught it.  It was screaming all the way outside.  I am thankful that my hand did not touch that bat.  We caught one on fly paper in the barn that was spread eagle in the glue.  I thought they didn’t hit stuff.  Guess his radar was not working that night.

It did bring to mind an incident.  I had been on the force less than a year when my Training Officer, Norm, and I were dispatched to a ‘bat call.’  It was well after bar closing and a very quiet night.

We responded to the call and sure enough there was a bat in a young couples bedroom and they were scared to ‘death.’  While we don’t have any history or rabid bats it is still in the back of your mind and of course they aren’t supposed to come into your home, let alone your bedroom.

Norm and I went into the bedroom to see what we could do with it.  It was extremely elusive and it was several minutes – as I think back I want to say at least half an hour, not sure that is accurate, but it was quite a long time.

We got on different sides of the room and tried to keep it between us, didn’t work, he just went around us and it too was a rather noisy creature.  Finally we were able to throw a blanket over the thing and take it outside.

Of course the incident went on the call log and we put in our response saying something to the effect we caught the culprit and released him.

The next day we came to work just before midnight and were met with grins and guffaws.  Seems it was also a slow news day and the reporter picked up on the call.

The headline read “Batman and Robin save the day.”  Fortunately they didn’t identify us by name, just that we had a struggle with that little critter, or we never would have lived it down.  As it was we were address by our new nicknames for a couple of weeks.

Psalm 29:1-5 Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.

² Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

³ The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.

⁴ The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

⁵ The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.

One of my many weaknesses is that I just do not trust God enough.  I forget how great He is, how powerful and how no matter the situation He is aware of my struggles and concerns.

I pray to Him to do something on my behalf, or the behalf of someone else.  I tell Him that I know He can do all things, that He is not limited by man’s ideas of thoughts.  It tell Him that I believe He can control every part of my life and guide me in my endeavors.

And then, all too frequently, then the next thing I do is do what ‘I’ think is the best thing to do.

Fortunately, most of the time it comes out okay, but when it doesn’t and I finally realize that my actions caused the problem to be worse and I ask forgiveness.  How much better to wait on Him.

I am impatient, I always have been, and while I can plan and organize I tend to want to get right into the work without asking or at least waiting for His counsel.

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

But I too often fail to listen.

2 Corinthians 6:4-5  But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,

⁵ In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;

I need that kind of patience, that no matter what is happening around me, I trust the God is in charge and He will do what He says He will do in His time – and I must not try to force it.

Later, Art :-)