Cable TV

About ten months before Rebecca was born Dr. Lowery gave a sermon on how people in church are not significantly different from people that don't go to church. Same or higher divorce rate, same or higher rate of addictions and many other interesting stats. Then he said that churchgoers also have a higher rate of TV viewing. He challenged us to think of what God could do in our life if we acted like we were supposed to and maybe even gave up TV. Dr. Fred also said we should spend quantity time with our kids and that is the only way that we can get quality time. He also said kids spell love t-i-m-e.



I wasn't ready to give up my vices, so I thought I would give up TV and spend more time with my kids. I was going to show God how good I was by giving up Fox news, HGTV, Seinfeld, NFL, Tiger Football, etc., and I had no idea what He had in store for me. At that point in my life that was a sacrifice. Well the girls got restless, so I bought all nine seasons of "Little House on the Prairie" for them to watch. And for the next ten months, that's what we watched. Sounds corny, but me and my kids could tell you anything about Little House.



Also, we heard a sermon that talked about how infinite eternity was. I read a book about how the time between birth and death geometrically, is like a dot, and that the time after our death is like a line. (A life God Rewards by Wilkerson). The dot represents our time between birth and death and the line represents our eternal life. The majority of our life happens after we take our last breath here on earth. After I read the book, Katherine asked me where her great grandmother was, who has passed away. I told her that Nanny was in heaven and that we would spend more time with her in heaven than we could ever spend with her here on earth because most of our life happens after we take our last breath on this earth. That comforted her. I almost did not tell her this, because I thought it would be too much for her to wrap her mind around.

Months passed.

The night Rebecca was born the whole family was in the waiting room. Katherine was interviewing everyone with the video camera and Elizabeth was coloring with Hollye. Labor was taking longer than expected and the doctor seemed to be acting unconcerned. Susan went into shock and she was given oxygen. A fear came over me that I had not felt. As the nurses rushed around, I walked over to Susan and asked her "are you ready for the worst case scenario?" she pulled the oxygen mask away from her face and said "yes." I then asked her "who are we relying on?" and she pulled down the mask and said "God." Her voice was strained but quiet. Even though there was chaos in the room, peace was in both of us.

I then called Robbie from my cell phone and asked him get everyone together in the waiting room and pray. Eventually the doctor decided to do a C-section. We later found out that he had misplaced the internal monitor and therefore what was supposed to be Rebecca's heartbeat on the monitor was Susan's. As they whisked Susan next door for a C-section, they told me to go to the lobby and wait. I knelled down in the hallway and prayed. God gave me a peace and told me not to rely on my own understanding and He reminded me of Peter walking on water to meet Christ. As long as Peter kept his eyes on Christ, he did not sink, but once he focused on the storm he sank. So I knew that I had to stay focused in my minds eye on Christ. Believe me this worked. He told me not to rely on my own understanding , because I am a nerd and I have to figure things out. He reminded me of Peter because Peter got a scolding from Christ "ye of little faith." and because I was new in my faith.

The next few hours were crazy. The baby was transported to NICU in south Shreveport and Susan stayed at Willis Knighton Bossier. Susan's mom and dad stayed with her and I stayed with Rebecca. Curt and Jeff took me to WK South at 2:00 in the morning.

At 6:00 am they clean the NICU so everyone has to leave. I went back to Bossier to wake up our girls and tell them what had happened. They are smart just like their mom. They are intuitive and loving.

It was a long drive from WK South to North Bossier, so I had time to think about how I would tell the girls that their sister had died, was revived but was in severe pain and their mom was going to be in the hospital away from Rebecca for a few days. I thought about each of their personalities and how I could tell them without upsetting them. This could be the most important conversation I ever had with them in their life and I just prayed that God would give we the words to comfort them and keep them from losing faith in Him. I planned a 5-10 minute explanation that I thought would cover both of them and leave them with hope and understanding.

I called ahead and told Elizabeth Guice, who took them home from the hospital and stayed with them, to start waking them up, because I needed to talk to them. I got home and told them I needed to talk to them about something serious. They were still excited from the night before. So I told them again, that we needed to sit at the kitchen table, because I wanted to be serious.

At that time, Katherine was 7 and Elizabeth was 4. They both sat near me and I said " you know girls, sometimes babies come easy and sometimes they come and its difficult..." Before I could finish my sentence Elizabeth said, "You mean like on Little House when baby Charles died." and then Katherine put her arm about ME and said "you know Dad, we're gonna spend more time in heaven with mom and Rebecca than we could ever spend with them here on earth." Elizabeth then said, "we can make it through this." Then I told them basically where the situation was at that time. That Rebecca could die and that Mom was better. The conversation was over, Elizabeth said a prayer for Mom and Rebecca and I had time to run by Willis Knighton Bossier to see Susan before the NICU reopened at 8:00 am. GOD IS GOOD.

You know if I had never given up cable, I would never have known how God uses our decisions to help prepare us and our loved ones for adversity in the future. By giving up cable time, God filled it with Little House. By watching Little House instead of Disney and Nickelodeon, my four year old learned a Biblical Truth. More importantly, Elizabeth had a point of reference on how to get by after the death of a loved one.

I almost did not share the "line and the dot" with Katherine, because I thought she was too young. But God says we should teach our children these truths. I am glad I did, because I had forgotten this concept and when Katherine said this it comforted me. God's truth returned to me from her mouth.

Since then, my kids have struggled with Rebecca's pain. They have had to learn how to "break" her seizures and feed her through her stomach tube. Most kids, would be sad that their sister was blind and could not smile and could only experience hunger and pain. Put my girls talk to Rebecca like she's fully healed, because they know that even it they lived to be 120 and she lived to be 120, they are going to spend more time with her in heaven than they could ever spend with her on this earth.

Just my thought for the day and why I gave up cable for 40 days of purpose /lent. God bless you!