On the day before, old lowly me was sitting here in my parlor-office writing away--faithful to my daily routine (as best I could be in the state I was in), and trying to stay on task until my own designated temporary quitting time, which is around 3-ish. That's when Brit Hume comes on the Fox channel down here in Southern Oregon. Sure, it was a measly 103 degrees, but I got so sick from the heat I almost fainted. (Some people call that a near heatstroke.) Only prayer got me back to myself by late that evening.
Well this hotter night, we were preparing to have guests over for our regular Tuesday night Bible Study. But by the time 7:00 came around...oh, my! It was probably over 95 degrees just in our livingroom. Even with fans going in a couple of rooms and all the doors and windows going, and all of us drinking iced tea and V-8s, and whatever else we could find around the house with ice, we still nearly suffocated by the time it was over and everyone returned home at 8:30.
At least I wasn't sick again the second night. But I sure felt sorry for my two wonderful dogs, Heidi (0ur Border Collie) and Eli (our Aussie). And man, did I pain for my sweet chickens in their chicken house! They have to be closed in at night because of the critters out and about. Then, there was my three cats, Allie, Ben, and Arabelle. (Oh, wow! How would you like to be a bundle of fur at a time like that?)
Back to my story....
After everyone returned to their homes, my husband decided to take the dogs on their one final walk for the day, you know, so dogs can do what they do.... And thankfully it was a simple narrow walk which wouldn't take much time. (I never did teach them how to...you know, do what dogs must do, at least not in the two powder rooms inside our house.)
Well, I can tell you now, it was a big mistake...him taking those dogs out on an exerted walk in that kind of heat. Just like me working too long in the hot parlor the day before.
After they returned and our little Eli (who had never experienced a heat wave like we were having) started acting very strange, and the next thing we knew he was down on the ground stiffening up and going into convulsions. The poor guy was having a heatstroke!
I watched the little guy suffering and jumped off the porch, my husband following me, and we immediately turned on the hose and started washing him down. (It would have been the second time in the evening we had washed our Eli down to cool him off.)
He continued with his seizure, and having extreme difficulty breathing, and I ran into the house to look for our dog medical book while Tom continued washing him down and talking to him. I was looking high and low for that dumb old thing to make sure we were indeed, doing the right thing!
Naturally, in times like this, it would figure I could not find it anywhere!
So, I got on my knees and just started praying for the Lord to intervene as we had to do the night before for me, and asked the Lord to please bring our little dog back to us! What else could I do?
I so believe in the power of prayer and that my God can do all things!
When I returned to the front of the house I slowly watched and helped as little Eli (short for Elijah) started returning to us. But he was so disoriented we had no idea if he'd gotten brain damaged in the circumstance or not.
Since I can relate to a seizure situation (I have a seizure disorder myself which I must control by daily medication) I figured Eli probably needed nothing less than sleep and relaxation after what he'd been through. (Not that in the past my family has had to get the hose and water me down because of it, I mean, if I happened to miss a med and have a seizure of some kind! But who knows...maybe they have wanted to turn the hose on me!)
Anyway, I was right. (No, not about the hose on me)
Eli just needed to be dried with a towel and layed at my feet in the livingroom with the fan closer to him so he could rest for the remainder of the night.
I do know the importance of staying on task just like I'd been doing the day before...and yet, because I did and wasn't considering the situation, I over-exerted myself and made myself sick. (Perhaps I should have thought about that.)
The dogs (and Tom) were used to staying on task too, by taking that walk. And yet, they should have reconsidered the situation by looking around at the elements. (Tom should have.)
Thankfully, once again, prayer brought things into perspective. God showed us in no uncertain terms that regardless of how much of a narrow road any of us are on, as we do what we are accustomed to doing, there are times when we should use a little more common sense (which he gave us in the first place).
I'm so glad we have Him to go to when we don't always think quite straight.
Can you think of a situation where you didn't use YOUR common sense and something happened because of it, and God had to pull you through?
Perhaps not. But maybe you have.
What was your situation?
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Good article about how we use our God sense when we don't have much common sense.
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Mary Alice Johnston
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