storms

One of my favorite things about Tennessee is the rain. In Utah, when the weather calls for storms that usually means about 15 minutes of sprinkling rain every 4-5 hours; and even that only comes every few weeks or months. I did not even own a rain coat or an umbrella before I came to Tennessee! Here, a stormy weather forecast is a whole different story. Water pours down from the sky in a constant stream for days at a time, and it is usually accompanied by thunder and lightning. Making a mad dash from your car to the grocery store will leave you utterly drenched from head to toe. Every time we think it's about to cease, it starts right back up again! I absolutely love it.

Sometimes, however, it can be a little frightening. More than once I thought our car was going to flood because the puddles on the road were so deep. The worst place to be during these kinds of storms is our third story apartment. Often we are awaken in the middle of the night by the wind and rain beating against our windows (as you may remember me writing about here). The rooftop outside our window becomes a solid river of water, and the thunder will shake our entire building. It's exciting but terrifying at the same time.

During several of these storms, I have taught little children the primary song about the wide man and follish man Christ refers to in Matthew 7. "The rains came down and the floods came up; the rains came down and the floods came up" yet the wise man's house stood still because he was built upon a solid foundation. The foolish man who built upon a sandy foundation was not as fortunate.

What is our foundation built upon? Do we spend the majority of our time and effort worrying about money, clothes, furniture, music, movies, and the way we look? Or do we focus on the things that matter most, like our relationships with God, our families, and our friends? These are the things I am constantly asking myself to make sure my priorities are in line and my foundation is solid. I know that if my foundation is stable, these Tennessee storms (or the spiritual storms we face daily) cannot hurt me. Bring in on...I can handle it!
"Remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the guilf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." -Helaman 5:12