Winter's Bitter Cold

The day winter came to South Texas I laid in bed curled up next to my wife robbing her warmth and debating which course of action to take. There was the intense arctic cold on one hand and the unrelenting pressure of an over-full bladder on the other. I recalled being trapped in this same dilemma as a child. I was a third grader and living five hundred miles closer to the North Pole (Wink, Texas). I remember bunk-beds on an enclosed back porch of an oil-field company house heated by an open natural-gas heater with the little tray of water on top. The flame was only lit after the rooster had crowed several times. If I awoke before the fire was lit I dared not leave the cocoon of my warm bed. Even after the fire’s lighting I faced the quandary; “should I get up and brave the bitter winter cold or should I lie here writhing in pain, but warm?”

Back in the Forties houses had no insulation what-so-ever and were built on piers allowing the uncarpeted floor to equal the frigid outdoor temperature. Yet, I still refer to those days as the “good ole days”….go figure.

At some point the answer to my conundrum became self-evident…I jumped up and rushed to the privy…but then there was the decision whether to sit or stand. Sitting would be more prudent for someone lacking in marksmanship and not wearing night-vision goggles, but the thought of being frozen to the seat…as a tongue would be to a sub-zero flag pole…conjured up fears of being surrounded by firemen and national TV broadcast crews.

Finally…mission accomplished. On the way back to the bedroom I noticed the digital thermostat displaying 67 degrees…that can’t be right…it felt like minus twenty.

I crawled back into my warm bed next to my warm wife thinking…I am so glad that I am not an Eskimo living in an igloo…and I started counting my blessings.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving me more than I ever deserved.
Please help me remember, to whom much is given, much is expected.
Please give me the strength and courage to follow through with this critical bit of information.
Amen