My husband has a literal obsession. He is in an ongoing battle with the squirrels that live in said pine trees. There are three particular squirrels that are in rare form this August. They are covering every square inch of our property with chewed up pine cones, pine straw, and sap.
In my husbands defense, I too, have never seen anything like this. Our gutters are full, the grass is covered, our windows and driveway have sap covering them. Those squirrels literally mock us. From atop the trees we watch them take aim. Our cars are pinged and sapped to pieces. When getting out of our vehicles it's like navigating a mine field.
This past weekend, after paying the weekly yard man, and having all of our cars washed, my husband decided it was war. His yard was going to stay clean and, by God, so was his new SUV. In self proclaimed, premeditated, self defense he was going to take down the three mocking squirrels. With his shot gun. Inside the city limits. His plan? Not to shoot the squirrels but to shoot the pinecones literally out of their mouths. Let them rethink their actions.
After re-blowing the yard, the driveway, and the roof. After re-washing our vehicles. And after re-raking the pine straw off the lawn he prepared for battle. I heard him come in the back door and walk to the utility room to load his gun. He shot pinecones out of all three mouths. Mission accomplished.
About an hour later I heard the back door chime as he walked out back again. And then I heard "Are you kidding me?" The squirrels, once again, had won. Regurgitated pinecones all over the driveway and cars. Squirrels 3 Husband 0.
Sometimes things are just what they are. Or in the words of my husband "it is what it is". We can not change people's actions. We may be living with situations that are heart breaking. Or frustrating. Or infuriating. We can take things into our own hands by trying to better, in our eyes, the situation. The fact remains we can not changes anothers actions.
We can speak truth. We can demonstrate righteousness through action. And we can pray. We can pray for God to change either our perspective or their hearts. Or both.
Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 and 7 tells us:
"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus".
Whatever you are living with today? Give it to Him. Our job is not to control "it". The frustrations, the fears, the anguish, the anger, the heartbreak, the unknown? We are called to live in peace. The peace that surpasses all understanding. Give it to Him. If we don't? God's probably going to take care of it anyway. Let Him. Let Him be in charge so that we can do the work of loving those who need us to love them. Let Him be in charge so we can be loved by those who want to love us. And then thank Him, no matter the outcome.
That, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is no squirrel shoot. That is a win win.
"Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving"- Colossians 4:2
