unless you are plastic barbie doll, my guess is that your life is full of hemorrhoids.

you know… unexpected events, annoying peeps, pesky mice and other fun things we can’t control.

hemorrhoids happen...

unexpectedly, they can creep in and hang around.

inevitably, they will pop up under pressure.

and ultimately, they will irritate you. 

whether it’s election results, sickness, inclement weather, financial flubs, mouse poop and mangled trash, grey hair, rocky relationships, kids misbehaving, family fiascos and other annoying things people do… or don’t do… and their responses or lack of response… or a misunderstanding about something you did or something you didn’t do… or something you said or didn’t say which has been misinterpreted, misjudged, misinformed… the *hemorrhoid happenings* can go on and on and on.

those *fun* life circumstances that you have no control over… they can hang around to irritate like hemorrhoids. 

sooo… whacha gonna do, whacha gonna do, whacha gonna do when they come for you?!

in recent *hemorrhoidal news* our country was divided, choosing between two puppets Presidential candidates to lead us. 

politics. schmolitics. (sigh.) 

is it really worth peoples blood pressure skyrocketing or getting their panties in a wad???

for part of our country, things went “their way” with the re-election of President Obama… and for the other part, “their guy” wasn’t elected, so they consider this another huge hemorrhoid to deal with for the next four years.

our fab fam of five was sick all week. the sickness slowly crept its way around our house, eventually infiltrating all of us. by the end of this week, i personally wanted to scream and took a trip to target for no. reason. at. all. just to get out of the house. aaand *bonus* i ran into a friend there. i felt better temporarily, but the hemorrhoids popped up again in other forms.

in its weakened state, our family had more than its usual share of hemorrhoids. the kids were acting like loony toons. there were all out family feuds. household blunders. leaky toilets. a clogged up sink. bills i kept forgetting to pay. general tasks were neglected. anything extra to do felt like a pain in the a**. and to top it all off // another grey hair emerged on my head. oh hemorrhoids. 

and over the weekend… mouse poop and mangled trash invaded our mini van. about a month ago we found mice *camping out* in our camping equipment stored in the garage. after cleaning everything out we were hoping the mice would just leave. but nope. they had other plans. they boldly hid in our garage for a month and waited for the opportune time to sneak into our mini van and devour fresh snack crumbs. we discovered this fun surprise after the three wee babs and i ran errands all morning, accompanied by the hidden mouse droppings. prepping for a fam bike ride, we were moving things around in the van… and found the droppings. ugh. as we continued cleaning, we found more droppings and mangled trash behind the kids car seats, in their cup holders, on the floor board, etc… adam did an awesome job of cleaning and sanitizing the van and car seats while still salvaging enough daylight to enjoy some family time together. now these little hemorrhoids mice have some lovely traps patiently awaiting their arrival and imminent death. 

but our minor family hemorrhoids [and the major presidential race of hemorrhoids] pale in comparison to the east coast being hit hard by the inclement ridiculously terrible weather, given the sweet name of “hurricane sandy”.  hundreds of thousands of people were in the middle of this catastrophic storm, losing their homes, possessions and some even their lives, while the rest of us went on with our daily routines relatively unscathed. 

{our hearts and prayers are with NYC~when we served at our church Glad Tidings, we lived in Battery Park City~we dearly care for our friends who still live there}

sooo… what do we do when *hemorrhoids happen* in life that we can’t control?

with the Living Water. 

When the hemorrhoids happen and we are in the middle of life circumstances we can’t control, our only hope for true, deep-rooted, unshakeable, peace is a relationship with Jesus. 

what are you going to put your hope in?  who are you going to put your trust in? 

our hope and trust can’t be in our government, health, wealth, weather or anything else… 

these things won’t last, they will disappoint, they will fail…