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Archiver > CRF > 2002-12 > 1039236313


From: "Sherri Hall" <>
Subject: RE: [CRF] Our chuckle for the day!!!!
Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 23:46:44 -0500
In-Reply-To: <3DF18673.90D40BC1@sprintmail.com>


-----Original Message-----
From: Patty Jo Allen [mailto:]
Sent: Saturday, December 07, 2002 12:26 AM
To:
Subject: [CRF] Our chuckle for the day!!!!



Hang in there, Moms!
My husband and I had been happily (most of the time) married for
five
years but hadn't been blessed with a baby. I decided to do some
serious
praying and promised God that if he would give us a child, I would be
a
perfect mother, love it with all my heart and raise it with His word
as my
guide.
God answered my prayers and blessed us with a son. The next year God

blessed us with another son. The following year, he blessed us with
yet
another son. The year after that we were blessed with a daughter.
My husband thought we'd been blessed right into poverty. We now had

four children, and the oldest was only four years old.
I learned never to ask God for anything unless I meant it. As a
minister once told me, "If you pray for rain, make sure you carry an
umbrella."
I began reading a few verses of the Bible to the children each day as
they
lay in their cribs. I was off to a good start. God had entrusted me
with four
children and I didn't want to disappoint him.
I tried to be patient the day the children smashed two dozen eggs on
the
kitchen floor searching for baby chicks. I tried to be understanding
when
they started a hotel for homeless frogs in the spare bedroom, although
it
took me nearly two hours to catch all twenty-three frogs.
When my daughter poured ketchup all over herself and rolled up in a
blanket to see how it felt to be a hot dog, I tried to see the humor
rather
than the mess.
In spite of changing over twenty-five thousand diapers, never eating
a hot
meal and never sleeping for more than thirty minutes at a time, I
still thank
God daily for my children.
While I couldn't keep my promise to be a perfect mother - I didn't
even
come close - I did keep my promise to raise them in the Word of God.
I knew I was missing the mark just a little when I told my daughter
we
were going to church to worship God, and she wanted to bring a bar of
soap along to "wash up" Jesus, too.
Something was lost in the translation when I explained that God gave
us
everlasting life, and my son thought it was generous of God to give us
his
"last wife."
My proudest moment came during the children's Christmas pageant. My
daughter was playing Mary, two of my sons were shepherds and my
youngest son was a wise man. This was their moment to shine.
My five-year-old shepherd had practiced his line, "We found the babe

wrapped in swaddling clothes." But he was nervous and said, "The baby

was wrapped in wrinkled clothes." My four-year-old "Mary" said,
"That's
not 'wrinkled clothes,' silly. That's dirty, rotten clothes." A
wrestling match
broke out between Mary and the shepherd and was stopped by an angel,
who bent her halo and lost
her left wing.
I slouched a little lower in my seat when Mary dropped the doll
representing Baby Jesus, and it bounced down the aisle crying,
"Mama-mama." Mary grabbed the doll, wrapped it back up and
held it tightly as the wise men arrived.
My other son stepped forward wearing a bathrobe and a paper crown,
knelt at the manger and announced, "We are the three wise men, and we
are bringing gifts of gold, common sense and fur."
The congregation dissolved into laughter, and the pageant got a
standing ovation. "I've never enjoyed a Christmas program as much as
this
one," Father Brian laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. "For the rest
of my
life, I'll never hear the Christmas story without thinking of "gold,
common
sense and fur."
They all are my pride, my joy and my greatest blessing," I said as
I dug through my purse for an aspirin.



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