Sheltering - Part 1

{Miracle update: You people are some praying folks, that's for sure. Thank you so much! Let me give you the lowdown on blood levels...it includes my platelet levels and also my iron levels which were only tested this last time to make sure they were normal: Normal range for Platelets -> 150-400

Dec. 18th - Platelets were 137
Feb. 27th - Platelets were 127
Mar. 7th - Platelets were 161 (HELLO!!)
Iron levels (2 different tests) - both in the middle of the normal range

Truly, I think this is no short of a small miracle. Yes, I had been taking those extras (folic acid, Vit. C, and iron), but only for 3 days before my levels were tested again. I had started drinking that greens shake, but had only done that for one day before my levels were tested again. Maybe it only takes that short of a time to really turn things around with those extras...I don't know. I will be continuing all of that for sure, but I am now within completely normal limits. What an answered prayer!

I also started feeling SO MUCH better over the weekend, but as I told someone today, I wasn't sure if it was because I was making myself take it easy or if I truly was better...it was hard to evaluate. Of course, I wasn't making myself take it easy last week...there was no other option for me...my body just wouldn't go, so I should've known the difference. But, I even went to church last night and oh...also at church our pastor spoke on miracles and he really felt at the end that it was a real time for miracles last night...to come up if we needed a miracle for something specific. I went up for my blood.

Anyway, we are very excited. I'll be going to my Dr. again tomorrow and will give you an update tomorrow evening afterwards. Thanks so much, again, for your prayers. Also, the rest of this post is a bit heavy maybe...but, it's just what's been on my mind really heavy in the past 24 hours. Hope it doesn't offend any of you, but I think it's important and also even important to say the specific things that I said to make it clear what we are dealing with here. Again, not my intent to offend of course.}

Joel and I were struck really hard last night with SUCH an urgency to pray for our kids. This is a little obvious, is it not? But, you know...certain times in your lives when you hear about certain things in others' lives...you just really are reminded of what an awesome responsibility you have as a parent. And, that no matter how much you do yourself as far as watching your children, monitoring their every move, etc....it is God, in the end, who has the power to really protect them.

The term “sheltering” gets such a bad rap I think. It’s associated with the “backward” children who are never allowed to leave their homes. They can’t relate to the outside world, they dress weird, etc. There are definite extremes in this area. There are those people who go to that extreme. But, sheltering can also be looked at as just protecting. Your house is a shelter. It shelters you from the elements of the outside world...rain, extreme heat, cold, etc. Your car is a shelter for you too...allowing you to travel in comfort without having to battle, again, the elements...rain, heat, cold, etc. As parents, we need to also be a shelter for our children. They need to be protected under the umbrella of our shelter.

There are so many things that your children can be exposed to that can alter them and change their lives forever. Of course, the first thing that I always think of is abuse of some sort, but more specifically sexual abuse. It can be scary and you can't live in fear, but you also have to live very carefully. I heard the example given once of your little child being lost in a store. The child is playing among the clothes racks and all of a sudden you realize you are no longer hearing the child. Suddenly a nice, kind, stranger man approaches you and asks if this is your child. Although only out of sight and lost for a few minutes, the reality still remains...what did this seemingly nice man do with your child for the past few minutes? It only takes a few minutes to change a child's life forever, to change that child's countenance and outlook and whole being. A very sobering thought. It is so good for me to be reminded of this...not so I can live in fear, again. But, I actually tend to be a little lax sometimes and too trusting. I have to be aware and on guard for my children who can't be on guard for themselves yet.

It almost never happens to the children where the mother says, "I could see it coming" now does it? It's the same old story. "I can't believe it" or "I never suspected it in a million years" or "I'm just so shocked that this would happen to us, in the town where we live, that this person would do such a thing," etc. etc. etc. I have talked to mothers who did have a suspicion, but we all second guess ourselves don't we? Why? Because sometimes we are wrong. Because some of those suspicions come from our selves and not from God leading the way and warning us. Gosh, it is so very important to stay in tune with his Spirit and know just what He is trying to tell us every step of the way. And, to be quite honest, I'd rather err on the side of keeping my children out of harm and going with the possible "only paranoid" suspicion than having it turn out it was a God thing that I was suspicious after all, but I didn't protect them...and the worst happened. Believe me, the parents I've talked to where this was the case...they wish they'd opted to be seen as "paranoid."

Another thing that I know from personal experience and experience of many of my friends throughout the years is that children are exposed to SO MANY THINGS that they shouldn't be exposed to at others' houses. I won't even list the horrible details here of what I'm talking about, but I will gladly share if you want to know...just tell me. But, one thing is of course pornography. How many marriages, of personal friends even, have been affected by this one issue? There are almost always several things at play in the breaking down of a marriage, but this is definitely a huge issue these days. Not that it hasn't been before, but the internet really catapulted this issue into a bigger issue than it even was before. Something that is just the same as adultery is seen sometimes as acceptable even. Some we know have had this struggle since a small child (in the single digits of age). I was shocked and surprised when I heard about one person in particular. How did it start that young?!? But, then I started thinking about it. I was about that same age when I was first exposed to pornography!! Now, thankfully I wasn't prone to struggling with it...satan was not able to hook me with that. There are ladies who do struggle with that (it is not a man-only thing, although men are definitely more susceptible...just the way God wired them), but I am not one of them (thank God). But still...that's pretty young to be exposed.

Another thing that children can learn from others at an early age..."self pleasure." I know...not a nice little Sunday School type topic, but it's true (sorry, I don't always stick to the Sunday School topics). That can become a real struggle for some. I won't get into that subject...but let's just say I don't want my children learning about that at someone else's house from their friend's older brother. All of these reasons, by the way, are just some of the reasons why we don't and probably will never allow sleepovers (it’s not like my parents knew this was going on and just threw us to the wolves...you never know...that’s the point). I know that choosing the rule of no sleepovers is a very, very unpopular path, but sometimes the unpopular path is the best one. And all of the things that I talked about and learned about concerning the experiences (bad experiences) of others...honestly they all happened at others' houses, usually during sleepovers. I had tons of fun during many sleepovers through the years. I'm grateful for those times and memories. But, it's worth it to me to make memories and have other fun times doing other things instead of sleepovers in order to shelter my children from the bad experiences and exposures I had (and have heard about from others). Sometimes it is impossible to avoid...our children will be spending the night somewhere else probably once I go into labor. Thankfully we have some very trusted friends who were very carefully chosen to help us out. Believe me, this is/will not be the norm.

Also, a quick clarification. We didn’t live in the slums of some inner city. We lived in a very small, Christian community. This kind of stuff happens...anywhere...everywhere.

Man, what a role we play in protecting our children. And, more than just protecting them in the physical as far as what we allow them to do and the places we allow them to go and the people we allow them to be with (and all of those things are important), we MUST shelter them and protect them and hedge them in with prayer. We must do our part in the physical, but God can see and protect even when we aren't able to control the circumstances our children are in.

Help us, Lord!!