When lightning strikes

As I sit here typing I can't help but chuckle at what I am about to write. Don't mistake my chuckle though because really it is not funny. It's just that I am trying to find the joy in all things.

If you're local, you may have been awoken throughout the night by all the lightning and thunder. I know I was several times. A side note: This was a bummer for me because I was so incredibly tired. You see...after I wrote my post on discipline and had set my alarm for 7:15 a.m. on Monday morning, I could not get to sleep that night. In fact, I was up until 4:00 a.m. on Monday. It made getting up really difficult and I hit that snooze button for an hour. After a long day at work, I was looking forward to a restful night of sleep. So with each crack of thunder I tried harder and harder to fall asleep, only to be woken up about every hour.

Ok...back to the point. Well, at 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning I was awoken by the biggest, loudest bang ever! The TV had been on and instantly it went out. I knew we had been hit by lightning. My ears hurt because it was so loud. Hubby and I got up and searched the house. The odd thing was that some of the power was still on. Hubby went down and reset the breakers. Everything appeared to be ok. I got back in bed and suddenly my right shoulder was throbbing with pain. The power went out again in certain parts of the house. Back to the breaker. Back to bed. Now my knees and toes were aching. Dave's head was pounding. It was after 5:00 a.m. when I would fall back asleep. 7:15 a.m. came too soon and of course, I snoozed for an hour.

I get ready to head out the door to work and the garage door won't open. We find that the wall in the garage has been hit. The sprinkler system box was blown open...cover on the floor...door open...wires blown apart! The outlet was blown off the wall.

We went out to the backyard to see that the lightning hit the tree. There was a strip of bark blown away. One of the roots was uprooted. The lightning must have hit the tree and then ran through the ground and up to the house. Or maybe it jumped from the tree to the house. I'm not sure. But wow! How blessed are we that it didn't hit the house and we didn't have a fire. As I was watching the news I saw houses that had been hit and burned. My heart goes out to those families.

It turns out that at 3:45 a.m. Dave's dad was at his house down south. He couldn't sleep and was out on the porch watching the lightning happening up north. He asked the Lord what he should pray for. Then he was prompted at that moment to pray for protection over Dave and I and our house. Now THAT IS AMAZING! God is good! I am thankful. Very thankful!

I have had a headache, earache and some body aches today. Not sure if it's related to the lack of sleep or possibly to the lightning. Either way...I am so thankful that we are all safe.

I will try to post pics of the tree tomorrow. Time for bed!

Thank you Lord for raising up intercessors and for your protection!