Wow....wanted to write a great post on the ressurection of Brett Favre last night. However, we had a storm that came through our town. I grew up in Saint Charles and never heard or have seen what I saw last night.
It started with my brother and sister and our spouses and my father taking my mom out to celebrate for her 70th birthday. We got to dinner and the storm rolled in. The place that we ate at made us leave the restaurant and move to a place with no windows as the epicenter of the storm rolled over. After 1/2 hour it passed over. We finished dinner haphazardly after connecting with our children and my wife and I fled home to check on our 6 kids.
We couldn't get down the street as there were many oaks down across the street and we couldn't get to our property. We parked far away and traversed the logs and limbs and came into our home. There was no power. All of the 5 youngest kids were in the basement sleeping in their sleeping bags. I got them up and told them that all was well and that mom and dad were there.
Thomas Edison watched his barn burn down with over 300 inventions inside. "He said look at this fire...isn't it magnificent?" His son said "dad, aren't your upset that all your inventions are burnt up?" Edison responded, "some of them were duds, others needed more work." I can always invent new things, but a fire like this you'll never see again. This is glorious." Wow...talk about perspective. Fortunately I remembered that when walking outside with my 9 year old son.
Our power was out. There was limited water. Our back window was broken. We lost our roof. 13 of our mature trees were torn down. The nails from the roofing shingles flew into my wife's tire, sticking into it and flattening the tire. It was a microburst with over 70 MPH winds. BUT NONE OF OUR CHILDREN WERE HARMED. You know what I told my son???? "This is cool dude. Not one scratch came upon the things that we value most. I'm so thankful that God has his angels protecting us. And think about it. This is like a new painting. God has allowed some trees to be removed so that we can paint another painting in our yard. This will be fun. Never forget tonight. This is a night to be remembered."
I'm not looking for sympathy (sorry bout your house lar) or you sure are lucky feedback. Nope...I want my kids to always look at the opportunity that God presents to us no matter what happens with circumstances. This is, I believe, what God is looking for from us. Do you trust Him and do you see the opportunity in the situation...no matter what that situation may look like. That's what's cool.
My mom, now 70, came over today to help remove some of the 13 trees that went down. My 71 year old dad took a tree apart in seconds with his 21 inch heavy duty chain saw. My sister showed with her 5 kids and my neighbors all helped each other in removing our trees as well as each others trees. The builder who's building our new home came by to put a temporary patch on our roof while we duke it out with our insurance company. A couple of hours ago our power came back...just before the 24 hour mark. We still have another day or two of tree cutting, but the fact that we're as close as can be is so awesome. Isn't this what life is all about? Many people would crumble about what they lost (we have significant losses), but I'm stoked TRULY about what we've gained.
Isn't there a commercial that ends with PRICELESS!!!!!
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