It was the first day in our new house. . . a rental place with a story of its own.  Ken went off to his new job.  I went back to work after many years of staying home.  The kids headed to school for the first day of the semester.  All on one day.  Often I talked of new chapters in our lives.  This was one of them.

It was 1984.  That means that Nate was nineteen, Matt almost eighteen.  Ginger was sixteen and the twins, thirteen.  Five teenagers.  It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.  In addition to struggling our way through family issues, there were two huge piles of garbage in the one car garage and the skinny one lane driveway.  Each was probably ten feet in diameter and perhaps three feet high.  They were a housewarming gift from the previous renters, and the nature of the rubbish does not deserve a line on this page.  It is enough to say that they had several pets. My pioneering spirit was dampened.  Not only would we have to pay to have it removed, I would have to touch it!

Life was hitting me in the face.  Working full time made me tired.  All the “stuff” I used to do, still had to be done.  That meant a combination of doing it myself, setting the rest of the family in motion to help, and sometimes leaving everything go.  A kind of hilarious insanity moved in upon us.  We were happy, sad, tired, content, troubled; we sailed joyously over many a sea, and yet, often found ourselves bailing water for all we were worth.  We were bailing and I was weary.

Every time I went out of the side door, the garbage piles laughed at me.  I was not amused.  My devotions during those days had me in the book of Nehemiah.  One dreary day I read, “The strengths of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish, so that we are not able to build the wall.”  I gasped.  The word “rubbish” leapt off the page.  I read on.  “And our adversaries said, ‘They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.’”

The rubbish was a problem, but there was an even bigger danger. 

“And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, ‘Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.’” 

With renewed strength I determined to “fight for my children,” for our family, and for our relationship with God.  And I did fight and…by the way, I won the battle against the rubbish piles!

(I wrote this a long time ago…probably around 1995. I’m still going to that verse because the battle doesn’t let up very often and for very long!)