LIFE IN THE PETRI DISH

Photo Credit-Storify.com

I love my sweet-precious---ALL BOY--grands.  Life is never dull when they are around.  HOWEVER they are walking, talking, eating, sleeping, real live --boy sized PETRI DISHES!  And with three of them--5 1/2, 4, & 2---somebody always has some illness. Their home seems to be the perfect breeding ground for germs--with three little hot bodies serving as incubators.  The spread of kudzu across the south does not hold a candle to the spread of viruses through the germ breeding ground they call home. Top that off with living in the prime zone for Cedar Fever and we all have open spigots where noses once resided. For a little side note- here is a brief description of Cedar Fever-

" Cedar fever is not just any allergy. It's a scourge, a plague that smites the just and the unjust who have the misfortune to live anywhere in a broad strip of Central Texas that stretches from the Red River to the Rio Grande. The progenitor of all this misery is a medium-sized, frankly undistinguished tree with sinewy limbs covered in shaggy bark that vaguely resembles orangutan fur. Despite its common name, the mountain cedar is actually a juniper (Juniperus ashei). Every year around December, we blunder into the midst of the cedar's mating ritual. It begins with the appearance of the male cones--embarrassingly small, amber-colored structures no larger than a grain of rice. In good years (or bad, depending on your viewpoint) they blanket the tops of the trees, turning them an aggressive tawny orange. When the wind rises, great gritty clouds of the pollen drift aloft, making the woods look like they are aflame. This airborne mist can waft for miles until it runs into something sticky, like the small green cone of the female tree or the inside of your nose.  Once cedar pollen gets into your system, its evil nature is revealed. Compared with it, ragweed is a wimp."

The Little Man spent the night with me before the holidays--his holiday gift to me was a cold.  He never slowed down--I stayed parallel to the floor for several days.  He spent the night this past Friday night--His mom informs me Monday, "Oh yes, Little Man is sick--he began running fever Saturday afternoon."  Would that be immediately after you left my house at 1 PM?  Today, I had the two big boys---Biggest Brother announces, "My throat hurts."  "Really," I ask, "Do you need some medicine?"  "My mom gave me some this morning."  SERIOUSLY?  When I took them home, I told their Mom I gave him some medicine after he said his throat hurt.  She said, "My throat is sore too."   AAAAGGGGHHHHH!  Now I am home sniffing and snorting and a little achy.  Praying it is all in my head and NOT in my body!

Here is a simple rule of life--when you live in a petri dish--you are going to get sick.  "IT" is going to get you--whatever the "IT" might be.  There is not enough Germ-X or Lysol to keep up with the contamination.When the germs are inches from your nose, even if you wash the skin off your hands, you are going to get "IT."  The only solution is the Little People growing up and with a new one soon to arrive--that will be no time soon.

It reminded me of how we live our lives.  If we surround ourselves with sin and sinful behavior and stick our heads out in the sin filled air--we are sticky and some of that sin is going to cling to us.  We will find ourselves infected and affected by the environment we have surrounded ourselves with.

NOT to say--we should not be in the world--BUT instead--before you jump into the petri dish--be sure and dose yourselves with the only known supplement for a healthy life.  Put on your armor and lift your shield--and then proceed-protected-into the petri dish of a world that we call home.  

Whoever goes to the Lord for safety,

    whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty,

2 

can say to him,

    “You are my defender and protector.

    You are my God; in you I trust.”

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He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers

    and from all deadly diseases. 

Psalms 91:3