I think we are experiencing a genuine Indian summer here in Southeast Alaska, home of the Tongass National Rain Forest. The past two years I have been here in Haines (can you believe this is my third August here?) it has rained all through August and even on sunny days the drop in temperature is really noticeable. But this year, it has been hot hot hot (which yes I am aware is a relative term because hot to us in Alaska is pleasant for Arizonans or maybe even cold) in August. The worst part is, that while its warm in the daytime and not too bad in our house, the place heats up like an oven at night. We have watched the thermostat in the house go into the mid 80's the past four nights. By the way, its at those times I'm a bit jealous of my wife's daisy dukes or those guys who are comfortable enough with their masculinity to wear kilts (because let's face it they're plaid skirts but the air conditioning must be great). I think they'd be a bit cooler than my long shorts.
While this has been a bit uncomfortable for my wife and I, our Alaskan kids find it downright miserable. They've been grumpy and irritable. I almost don't want to give them baths because we're already breaking one Gremlin rule. 1. Keep them out of sunlight (not usually a problem here, but has been hard to do lately). 2. Don't get them wet, hence my concern to bathe them. 3. Don't feed them after midnight. I wondered last night who fed our kids after midnight. Last night we put our kids to bed and both fell asleep really quickly. But, as the temperature rose, our daughter turned red and woke up screaming bloody murder, like she was auditioning for the shower scene in "Psycho: Babies" or something. It rattled all of us, and none more so than our son, who woke up, heard his sister screaming and ran out of the bedroom looking for a fight to defend his sister. He's an awesome big brother by the way.
When he saw that no one was hurting her, our little Superboy got scared and cried. The more she screamed, the more he cried. He wouldn't lay down, wouldn't go to sleep. Finally she went to sleep, after blowing out my ear drums and bringing every dog with 100 miles to our house. But he was still shaken. We tried everything. Gave him some cooler clothes to wear since its hot. We gave him some ice cream, turned down the lights in the house, and nothing worked. Midnight came around and we started getting desperate. I need a good night's sleep before Sunday, because if I'm tired I talk too fast and can be hard to understand, not a good thing for a preacher but great if you're an auctioneer. So my wife did the unthinkable. She took him into our room, laid down with him in our bed (he promptly took my side and told me "bye bye", I think he's trying to get rid of me) and watched Cars thinking he'd sit still long enough to fall asleep.
Good idea, except it left me with no where to sleep. So I waited, checked everything for Sunday, watched Pirates ("You ignored the rules of engagement. In a fair fight I would have won." "Doesn't give me much reason to fight fair" "You cheated" "Pirate.") and tried to be supportive while waiting for my son to fall asleep.But, Cars finished and he was still awake. We couldn't get him to fall asleep until after 1:30, which means we were awake until then too, and we were planning to leave by 8 to make sure everything's ready for Sunday. As I sat listening to him struggle and cry as my wife made our son lay down, I couldn't help but think, "Seven nights a week, and you two choose the one night we all need a good night's sleep to have a rough night."
After the struggle we had with them last night, I wasn't exactly happy with them when I woke up and saw my beautiful bags under my eyes. Lisa can hide hers with makeup, and I can't, and coffee doesn't make them go away. But as we went about our preparations and the kids slept in, obviously they'd sleep in on the one day we have to get up and going all together, I walked past them a few times. They looked so innocent when they were asleep, back to being Gizmos instead of Gremlins that I struggled with holding on to my annoyance at the hard time they gave us last night.And then when they woke up, and the day was brand new to them, their memory of last night more than likely gone. They woke up innocent, and when they smiled at me because they were happy to see me, my frustration went away, my irritation disappeared. Their smiles mean they love me and all I could think about was how special it is to be loved by my children.
It really put things into perspective with me. My father, your father, God does the same thing. We screw up and make life hard, we struggle and our struggles affect others and even our relationship with our Heavenly Father, yet He offers us a fresh new start each morning, a chance to wake up innocent, and the promise that once we confess and repent of our sins they are erased and forgotten, giving us a chance to bask in His love for us and show Him how much we love Him. I know now why He offers us that chance for a brand new day, a fresh start when we turn from our sins, why He forgets our mistakes, because He's our Father and He loves us and wants to spend the day with us.
It was quite a night last night. It made Sunday interesting, but a few cups of coffee and we were able to make it through and have a good Sunday with our people. But looking back at last night and this morning, God offered me a chance to learn something from this crazy night. My role as Daddy and as Pastor Daddy is to teach my kids, and while I'm working on it, I'm so amazed at what they help teach me. Thank God for new mornings, new days, new chances, erased misdeeds and opportunities to love Him more.
BLT says.....take the opportunities God gives you to wake up from bad days and bad nights to a new start, a new day and another chance to fall deeper in love with Him.
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