Doing Life Right: Practicing Counting My Blessings

This week, we had several notable events, including the birth of Baby Amos, the fixing of the air conditioner in our car (very good for a heat wave), the second round for the car when the serpentine belt broke, and Father’s Day.  These things are neither earth-shattering nor mundane, but it is easy to lose perspective.  As is true in most cases, we can be constantly grumpy or constantly joyful, and it is our decision which it will be.  So we must practice doing life right.

Baby Amos Haley was born on Thursday in a small Catholic hospital in Kokomo, and we’ll need to get his entry in our family Bible soon if we’re going to keep up with this.  He’s a very good-looking child, but he was keeping everybody in suspense, so Kim’s labor was started up on Wednesday night, well past her due date.  He clocked in at 7 lb. 13 oz.  

Blessing #1: Though I was concerned she might have been perceived as “taking too long,” Kim had a good delivery, without even a hint of a C-section. 

 

Blessing #2:  Both Kim and Baby are healthy.

Blessing #3.  Amos.  Period.

Amos has bright blue eyes and super-soft, dark hair, and as babies generally are, he is an endearing little human, so Rori is enjoying this, her first and only actual sibling.  It may be that Amos will be a life changing experience for her.

Blessing #4:  Amos and Rori are bonding, as siblings should. 

Blessing #5.  Amos has been born into a home where his parents love God and love each other..

Unfortunately, Eric and I didn’t get to meet him face to face until Friday night, since about the time he was born on Thursday, we were camped out on the lawn in front of the Caterpillar plant in Lafayette, waiting for a tow truck during a heat wave with our dying smartphones.  The air conditioner in the car had just been fixed the day before, but it didn’t really make much difference on Thursday because we couldn’t even start the car.  Therefore, it was okay for us to be there in front of Caterpillar, we told ourselves while eating a scant picnic dinner under their tree.  Besides, we’re stockholders!

Blessing #6:  The breaking of the serpentine belt happened on Thursday because the folks at Leonard’s informed Eric that there was an immediate urgent need for supplies.  So he went to town in the cool air conditioned car.  Though it was a bit inconvenient, we are thankful it happened on Thursday and not when I was on the road to see my dad.

Blessing #7:  The car problem and the need to drive the old car to town to rescue Eric gave me ample opportunity to shop for Father’s Day gifts and a few other things we needed as well.

Blessing #8:  The smartphones stayed working long enough to get messages from the dispatcher and towing company and didn’t die in the middle of the ordeal.  We don’t know how, but we had enough charge.

Blessing #9:  Even that tree, and the “winter emergency” blanket we had in the car were blessings.  Remember Jonah and his complaint to God about the worm that had killed his shade plant on a stifling hot afternoon of waiting for the destruction of Nineveh?  Remember how the Israelites moved in the wilderness when the cloud moved? Yeah, shade is a blessing.

Blessing #10:  I bought some food, just Smart Carb bread and sliced turkey breast lunchmeat, while we were waiting, and that proved useful when our wait time extended past dinner time.  We didn’t go hungry.

On Father’s Day, I left for Southern Indiana by myself after church.  I mostly let Siri tell me what to do and I don’t get lost anymore like we used to before we had smartphones.  I know this is drawing us into the spring-loaded trap of the New World Order and the NSA is tracking our every move at all times.  But for now, I would rather know I’m not going to get lost.

My dad has had some hearing loss that started in February, on top of what he’d already lost.  An ENT told him it was just fluid in his inner ear, but so far what he has prescribed hasn’t really helped.  Unfortunately, his worst ear is the right one, and when he’s driving, he can’t hear me well.  So at times when we were having animated conversation, while driving to a restaurant in Seymour, he would turn his head to face me so he could read my lips, and once, he just pulled off the road completely.

“Dad, what are you doing?”

“I pulled off the road so I can hear what you’re saying!”

Dad will be 88 next month.  He’s still getting on pretty well!  Both of us ordered something from the senior menu because we dislike large price tags on more food than we could ever comfortably put in our small frames.  Dad ordered liver and onions, which he said he hadn’t had for a long time.

“Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!”

(I don’t like liver and onions.)

But the restaurant must not have had enough help because it really took a long time to bring our small portions of liver and chicken stir-fry.  It was okay though -- more time to sit across from him in the comfy booth and talk.  That’s what I was there for.  We become a little bit Ultra MAGA when we get together, which is good for Dad.  He can’t talk to my little brother about things that matter.  My sister won’t talk to him at all, because she still thinks Joe Biden is doing a good job.  But there’s me, and we’re on the same page.  Except for liver and onions.

Blessing #11.  The auto repair place fixed our serpentine belt quickly on Friday and I had a car that was safe and cool to drive to my dad’s house.

Blessing #12:  The gas in Southern Indiana was cheaper than it is in Lafayette.  

Blessing #13.  Talking with my dad.  He and I have so much to talk about and don’t often get to do that.

Blessing #14.  My dad.  Yes, I still have my dad on Father’s Day.

Blessing #15.  Even though I somehow missed my turn on the way home, Siri was there to do a quick recalculation and tell me what to do.

Eric went with Joe and Susie after church and spent time with four of our kids altogether.  Three others have checked in for Father’s Day by phone so far.  We are blessed!  There were grilled burgers for lunch, with two families in attendance, and there was pizza for dinner and a cheesecake with two other families, including Chris, Kim, and Baby Amos -- his first “outing.”  

There was news from the families, including their current events like a Chick-Fil-A convention in Atlanta the next day, …

… and their aspirations for the future. Believe it or not, parents of adult children really love it when they are asked for advice and input.  We may not have all the answers, but we can sure pray about it!

Blessing #16.  Having all our kids talking to us and wanting to be with their dad on Father’s Day.  Nowadays, it seems to be more common for your kids to shoot you, or at least talk back.  But there’s love and respect there, and love for Jesus, and we couldn’t ask for more.

Blessing #17.  Twenty-one air-breathing grandkids to snuggle, and more on the horizon.  Okay, some of the grandkids don’t really want us to snuggle them anymore, but they don’t mind if we transfer that to their own kids now.

Blessing #18.  Father’s Day gave Eric a good excuse for having grilled burgers on Juneteenth.  Even though it was broadcast that white folks weren’t allowed to go to any Juneteenth cookouts.  Even though it was a new federal holiday.  Father’s Day is still around, and we’ll take it!

And then we came back, and we still had jobs and income.  All our kids still have jobs and income and food.  Until recently, that wasn’t so big a deal, but it is now.

Blessing #19.  Jobs.

Blessing #20.  Income

Blessing #21.  Food.

Here’s what I posted this morning on Facebook:

I have heard and know full well how much evil lurks within Big Government, Big Education, Big Pharma, Big Abortion, Big Tech, and Big Ag. I do not know the full extent. There’s also great evil and corruption in the Mainstream Media and even the Mainline Church.

BUT there are forces far greater than these that have them trembling in their boots. Those are the Power of our Heavenly Father and Great Creator God, the Name of our Almighty King Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word of God and the Gospel, the True Saints of God and the Prayers and Praise of His Church.  We are truly unstoppable.

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

    ~1 John 4:4

There will be a final reckoning. Guess Who wins?

Dear Father in Heaven, that’s a lot of blessings.  But I know not everyone has all the same blessings I have.  Some people don’t have their dads or their kids aren’t on the same page with them.  Some people are not in good health anymore; rather, they are in pain.  And their situations are grievous, to be sure.

But most of us can still thank you for our blessings here in America, choose to focus on them rather than on our own set of difficult circumstances, and trust You.  Because You are bigger and far greater than any power that comes against us, and we will fear NO evil, for Thou Art With Us.

And so we will trust You.

In the Wonderful, Matchless Name of Jesus,

Amen