Hard Days

You do not even know how hard it is for me to not shop the day-after-Christmas-sales stores are now having.

This is the most wonderful time of the year when I typically start a stock-pile of clothes for next year.  I have a pretty good idea of what size all the kiddos will be next fall and winter, and I love to shop sales, so this season of savings was made for people like me.

Until this year.

Instead of gassing up the truck, dropping the kids off at my mom, and rushing to Des Moines, I am stripping The Beast of all Christmas decor and vacuuming up all the evidence that The Beast left behind on my carpet.

I caught a glimpse of a sale advertisement at a store I like to shop at while checking Facebook.  However, I did not click on it, nor did I check to see what might be available in my childrens sizes.  Instead, I kept scrolling, to see if there was anything else more exciting posted.

There wasn't.

Anyway, shortly after starting my fast I decided that it was in my best interest to "unsubscribe" to all those daily e-mails that filled my in-box.  Each one brought temptation with it, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to handle 6 months of that torture.  I mean, it would be like going on a diet, and then making cookies everyday and setting them on the counter and staring at them.  Failure would soon happen.  So normally I would have woke up to e-mail after e-mail, each one boasting about the "best sale of the year."

But not this year.

Instead, when I was doing my devotions this morning I came across this verse that I had hi lighted in my Bible found in Psalm 16:8:

I have set the Lord always before me.  
      Because he is at my right hand,
    I will not be shaken.

The crazy thing about that verse is that I was actually supposed to read a different passage, but for some reason that one a few pages later caught my eye.  It's funny how God knows what we need, and when we need it.  He knew that today would be a hard day for me to resist the temptations of the devil, so He reminded me that with Him, I cannot be shaken.


Please note that we will never be buying a Christmas tree as big as The Beast again.  Wow, what were we thinking...my vacuum will never be the same.