It’s been an interesting few days since my last post. Oh, where to begin…
The block I live on has gone through some changes this summer, and not much for the good. More kids have moved in, which my daughters initially welcomed – more people to play with.But, this summer we’ve had one boy threaten my oldest daughter via a note, kids running through yards, yelling, fighting (one boy had another pinned down in an alley and was beating him up), swearing, damaging property, dressing like future prostitutes, and finally, torturing a small animal in an apparent grotesque way. Now we have not witnessed all of of these goings-on, and I have witnessed less than most as I am usually at work. But what I have witnessed has been troublesome, what I’ve heard from my wife has been detestable, and what I’ve heard from a neighbor has been alarming.
Above all that, we’ve had adults selling drugs and guns, doing drugs, swearing, fighting, hitting their kids, and neglecting them as well. This has caused us to not allow our kids to ride down the sidewalk on their bikes let alone play in the front yard without us wanting to hover over them. (As I write this I am listening to yet another child crying out in pain – from what I don’t know. Could be just an overreaction, but how do I know it isn’t more abuse? But from where?) I know some will say we need to not shelter our kids so much, and to an extent we don’t, but given what’s been going on, we fear for them. Even more so my wife fears for them, as mothers are wont to do – loving mothers, that is.
So, with all that going on, after an afternoon of some escalated activity of swearing, yelling, and fighting, my wife and I sat out on our front steps to keep an eye on things, with a camera in tow. We took a little video to hopefully catch one of the kids acting up so that we could take it to their parents to make sure they knew what was going on. Nothing happened, so we stopped. But, now the kids had ideas that we were taping them all the time, even when just sitting in our front room on the phone.
Along comes Saturday, where we finally had a fun evening planned with some dear, close friends. Some dinner at TGI Fridays (buy one entree, get a second entree free – can’t pass that up!), some laughter at Comedy Sportz (man, they were good that night), and some discussions and sightseeing at John Hawk’s Pub (with a mediocre blues band – c’mon drummer, ever hear of syncopation?). It was what we needed to relax, relate to other adults, and just get away. Our friend’s daughter, the best babysitter ever, watched our children while we were out. More on these activities in another post.
We make it back home later that we’ve stayed out in a long time. Upon arriving, we find the door dead bolted, something we never do. As the babysitter is trying to let us in (that deadbolt can be tricky), I see a note under the door. It’s a note from one the parent in the neighborhood asking use why we are taping their minor children and threatening going to the cops. Well, back in the depths of reality we go! Come to find out, the mob of kids we’ve acquired in the area, along with a couple of parents, decided to visit our house while we were gone. Obviously, out kids and our young babysitter were a bit shaken by it. They had locked the door as one of the moms was leaving a note. Everyone was fine, just a bit unnerved.
That night found sleep hard to come by for my wife and I. I tried to assure her that no matter what, God is in control, and he is on the side of the faithful. It may have helped a bit, but it was still a relatively restless night. The next morning before we left for church, I called the woman (as she had requested), and left a message. I could certainly understand her concern if she thought we were constantly videotaping her children, so I apologized for her fears, and briefly explained ours, with a promise to call her later in the day as we had a baptism to attend that afternoon (more on that in a later post also).
Fast forward to later afternoon. For a while at church I had forgotten about my troubles and was able to concentrate on worshiping. But, as we were headed home from the elder’s house (where the baptism was located), I got more and more nervous. For those who don’t know me well, I hate conflict. I spend a lot of time avoiding it. But, there was no avoiding this. I played out many different scenarios in my head, from this woman completely understanding to her giving me an earful of foul language, contempt, rage, and threats. The later scenario being the most prevalent one entertained by my overactive imagination.
So, I called, I apologized, I explained, I listened (and listened, and listened, etc). And wouldn’t you know it, just as I suspected, God was in control and everything was very cival. Turns out she is very active in trying to clean up the block (her end anyway) and has had some success. Everything solved! Well, not quite. There are still kids with attitude, language, and wardrobe issues, but I do know that the most troublesome of the kids are on their way out. And, I have a connection to the heart of the issues whom I can contact, even the issues are caused by anyone close to this connection.
So once again, I fret, I fear, I struggle for control, but all along the one who promised He would look out for me was doing just that. I could have relaxed a bit more, and handed my fears over to Him. You’d think I’d wise up and grasp that concept each and ever time by now, but more often than not, I try to grab that control out of God’s hands as if He was just joking all these years.
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