everyone should have a mantra

mine is simple: "If God is for us, who can be against us." it's from paul's letter to the romans, chapter 8. when i am at the very bottom it's what i say to myself. it was a gift from my father when i was young and upset. he read it to me and i felt it... that thing that just made sense and put me at ease.

these last few weeks have been... trying.

the silent prince was sent home several days from school for tummy trouble causing all sorts of strain on hubby and my schedules.

if God is for us, who can be against us?

while at the doctor's office he became fascinated with the curtains hanging over the exam table with winnie the pooh, tigger, piglet, and eeyore. "where's pooh?" i asked then pointed to pooh. "where's tigger?" i asked then pointed to tigger. still fascinated i asked again: "where's tigger?" and darn it if he didn't point right at tigger and say: "tiggatiggatigga."

a few weeks ago hubby's car slipped into the cement divider on an off ramp during a rainstorm making him late to church, doing damage to the car, and getting him a ticket from a unhelpful police officer. not knowing if the car would be totaled he went to the garage and removed all of our belongings. weeks later we still hadn't gotten the car back from the garage, but it was being repaired. and then the garage flooded totaling 7 cars including ours and an audi that had a ding in the door.

in search for a new car we found two used vehicles that would suit our needs. we were turned down for the loan because of bad credit (another one of those long stories.)

if God is for us, who can be against us?

my mother-in-law (a saint if ever i knew one) is lending us the money and letting us pay her back within a generous time. now we are driving a chevy blazer (i still have guilt over the fact that i am now driving an suv, but living up north it is a blessing to have 4-wheel drive and it we are now paying almost $100 less in insurance.)

this past saturday the electricity went out over half of the city. bad timing for me. saturday is a prep day for work and i had a million things to do. not a day to loose the tv or the laptop.

the power was out by 8-8:30am. by 10:30am (still in my nightie) i grabbed a bag of clothes, threw the kids in the car, and drove to my parent's house. the power was off for 14 hours.

if God is for us... we spent the night at my parents who we now live 20 minutes away from. and while visiting my mother-in-law this weekend (arriving sunday and leaving today to buy the car she lent us the money to purchase) i slept for 14 hours straight... who can be against us?

yeah, we all need a mantra.