RATS!!!

Yesterday was a hard day. My husband was gone all day and all night long (whine, whine, whine). My children wanted me to be SuperMom, but I wanted to crawl under a rock and curl into a ball. I wasn’t that shining, radiant light that prophets say you are supposed to be when you are the mother of a home. Sigh.


C.S. Lewis is one of my very favorite writers of all time. I love the Chronicles of Narnia (really, who doesn’t love them) but my true love is his book “Mere Christianity.”

In this volume, he has a chapter about rats in the basement which doesn’t seem like it would have much to do with God, unless you were praying for him to zap them all to bits, but it does.

Lewis describes how if you pound your way into the basement making loads of noise and yelling that you are on the way, the rats will, surprisingly, run away and hide before you get there. Shocking, I know.

However, if you sneak quietly and place your feet in just the right silent spots on the stairs and oil the door so it doesn’t squeak and whisper instead of scream that you are coming, then the rats don’t hear you and they don’t run off.

What the heck are you talking about Melissa?

Simple, someone’s true character doesn’t shine through when struggles and trials come pounding into life announcing that they are on the way. True character shows when a hard day or horrible moment sneaks stealthily into the room and pounces on you unaware. How will you handle those really trying experiences that you didn’t plan on?

I am by no means perfect at this. I have so much to learn. However, I did make it to bed without yelling at anyone and without locking myself in the closet for hours and shutting the whole world out. Today, that seems like success. Maybe today I can even do it with a smile. We’ll see how it goes. Watch out rats!

P.S. Even C.S. Lewis had bad days.

Also, my dad calls me "Rat"....what do you think he is trying to say?