Wendi Barczynski

The Lord used our granddaughter to remind me of a very important lesson. Read further to hear the story.

Sorry, I Forgot It’s been awhile since I have written here. If you have been following my blog, you know that we recently moved from our RV, which we had been living in for the past four years, to our new home, wh…

We had some crazy weather in Middle Tennessee over the weekend. Tornados, flash flooding and severe thunderstorms filled the headlines here. We had two tornado warnings for our area. As some of my readers know, we have been living in our RV for four and a half years on my son’s land. Facing a tornado in an RV is not a great plan, so when the warnings are given, we make our way to my son’s house and hunker down in his basement until the “all clear” is given. Our collection of cats delivered a message from God as we faced off with the storms this weekend. Before I tell you about that, let me introduce you to our herd.

About a year after we moved to Tennessee, we started helping a little black feral cat that we named Shadow. Our one little cat started to gain weight at an alarming rate and we realized that she was pregnant. She gave birth while we were away on a mini vacation but we did not know where the babies were after we returned home. Over the weeks, we concluded that her babies probably died only to be proved wrong one night when we heard precious little “mewing” cries. That was the night that Shadow entrusted us with her babies…five of them! Over the next year or so, we watched these cute little balls of fur grow up and become their own little individual personalities. There were two boys: Chubby and Zorro. Chubby is the most feral of them. He is the gray and white one in this photo. He stays away a lot. He was gone for over a year and just recently, he has been showing up again every so often.

Zorro is the biggest but most chill of the bunch. I think of him as our little surfer dude. When he is looking at us, it feels like he is saying, “Everything’s chill, man.” When his sassy sisters pop him on the head, he usually just looks at us and then looks at her before casually walking away. Although, recently, he has popped her back and then walks away. He is not always super chill though. We have caught him in vicious fights with his brother, Chubby. The storm of fur with cat arms and legs occasionally popping out from a fight in cartoons is REAL! That is exactly how the fights look. Zorro has not always fared well and has had a few visits to the vet to clean wounds and get some antibiotics. He even lost part of his nose in one of his last fights. Now he is grounded to the house at night to keep him from fighting as much.

Sassy Sam is a beautiful girl with the coloring of a Siamese cat but her fur is long and luxurious. I nicknamed her Princess-Poufy-Pants because she walks around as if she is royalty. We had a little scare with her about a month ago. It is quite common for our cats to be out overnight (except for Zorro because of his fights) but they usually show up bright and early in the morning for breakfast. Sam failed to show up that morning. We worried about her all day while we were at work. When we got back from work that night, I suggested we walk around the property to see if we could find her. My son’s land is out in the country and borders several farmer’s fields. I knew it was a long shot for us to actually find her, but God is good! There in the midst of a pricker bush, she was lying very still and panting hard. My husband went to the house for a shovel and whacked away at the razor-like branches enough for me to get to her. She did not try to run. She just let me pick her up and take her back to our house. Something was definitely wrong with her. You are never allowed to touch Princess-Poufy-Pants unless SHE lets you. A trip to the vet confirmed that she had a lung infection. After medication and a lot of TLC, Sam recovered too. Her bout with illness has tamed her some (although, her siblings still get popped on the head when she is grouchy).

Then there is Tigger, a beautiful calico who gives me a wary look but does allow me to give the side of her face a rub and a scratch. Tigger is the friendliest cat to all the other cats. She seems to love them all.

Slate is the final sister. She is brindle colored and also quite beautiful. She loves to run up to us when we take our dog out for a potty run. Slate slams her body against our legs to get our attention and a little petting before she runs off on another adventure.

Along with our five cats (not counting Chubby who only occasionally shows up), we have two other cats who come for food, affection and an occasional sleep-over. Ruby is my daughter’s formerly-inside-turned-outside cat. She has worked out an unsteady truce with our cats. They coexist, but do not get too close to each other or a hissing fest followed by a boxing match ensues. She loves us though and wants to be picked up and loved on.

Our Bobcat is the last of our kitties. He is a stray orange and white old stray. His name is Bob because his tail is just a little nub. He stays clear of our cats as much as possible when they are all inside, but he loves attention. When we give him a little back scratch, he rewards us with a quirky meow. It is not uncommon for him to come over and sit next to me when on the couch when he is in for an evening.

I am not giving everyone a run down on our cats because we are crazy cat people (although, some might think we are). You need to know the background on our cats to understand the insight that God gave me over our storm filled weekend.

We knew about wild weather heading our way over the weekend, so we kept the cats inside. Late afternoon on Saturday, I received a call from my daughter-in-law saying that we were under a tornado warning and that rotation had been spotted. We have several little animal crates inside for just this kind of emergency. I grabbed Zorro and put him in the first crate. Tigger and Zorro are cuddle buddies so she was put into the crate with him. My husband grabbed the crate made his first trip to the basement while I crated the rest of the cats. Slate hung back and watched in horror as I shoved Shadow (her mom) and Sam (Princess-Poufy-Pants) together in a crate. Bob, our stray, was the last one in a crate. He was fighting me when my husband came back for that crate. With both of us working frantically, we finally got Bob inside and locked the crate door. My husband grabbed the crate and I followed him with our dog on the leash as we took shelter in the basement until the storm had passed.

We had two of my kids’ families in the basement with us. As we watched the TV for weather updates, the kids were playing. They were oblivious to the possible danger heading our way. Play gunfights were taking place over us, in front of us and behind us. Others were “cooking” us food at the play kitchen and brought us "delicacies" to taste. The teenagers were either coloring or playing video games. It was crazy loud and difficult to hear the weather guy relaying the current situation outside.

Soon, the “all clear” was given. Kids were forced to pick up all the toys they had recently played with. We started the tedious task of carrying crates back to our RV and setting the captive kitties free. As soon as their doors were opened, each one stuck their head out before making a beeline as far from their prison as possible. Except for Zorro, who stuck to his chill personality and came sashaying out in his own dear time.

I sat down and started thinking over the craziness of the past few hours. It was funny how differently some of the cats reacted to us crating them. The ones that we have had to nurse back to health were the most trusting. They seemed to know that we were not trying to harm them but help them. The cats who have not been through some tough times with us, were a little more scared when we tried to put them in their boxes. The one who had spent the least amount of time with us and never had to rely on us to nurse him back to help was the one who fought us the most.

“Just like my Children.”

My brain snapped to attention when I heard that thought. How many times have I fought the Lord when I was going through a storm? My early storms were met with total breakdowns and lots of weeping and crying out to Him for rescue. My more recent storms did not rock me as badly as they did in the past. Yes, I cried out to the Lord but I knew that He heard me and He was working it all out for my good. Because I saw Jesus come through for me time and time again, I was able to trust Him in current storms. Because I have felt the Lord comforting me when I was ready to freak out, I was able to walk forward in confidence that He did it once, He would do it again. Because I have gotten to know Him through His precious word, the Bible, I am able to put my confidence in Him and His character. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He will not forsake me in this trial. He is going before me and preparing the way for me.

We all go through storms. If you are not currently going through one, just hold on. One is probably coming your way. Storms come for many reasons. Sometimes because of the dumb choices we make. Sometimes because the Lord wants to grow us. Sometimes because there is evil in the world. The reason is not as important as how we are going to act as we go through the storm. We need to have a battle plan before we encounter the storm. Here are some pre-storm strategies that we all need to have in place before our next storm.

Pre-Storm Strategies:

Know your God. The more we know the Lord, the more we know His character. God is good all the time. Our Heavenly Father does all things out of His love for us. Our Lord hates evil and loves good. He does not take any twisted joy in watching us suffer, but Satan will try to get you to believe something like that. The enemy wants to keep us in the dark when it comes to who Jesus really is. The enemy will spread every kind of lie he can in order to keep us from knowing our savior. My husband and I have tried to share Jesus with people, but they go on to say they could never follow a God who allows so much evil or who propagates hate. How wrong they are! They do not really KNOW who God is so they are unwilling to come to Him in their storms. The truth is that when we truly get a glimpse of how wonderful God is, we will know that He is someone we can trust.

“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:17-18 NIV)

Trust your God. The disciples knew Jesus in a more intimate way that any of us and they still freaked out in the boat when the storm hit. So if you freak out…it’s okay. However, if you really want to weather your storm as a royal warrior, you need to trust the one who has your best interest in mind. Jesus is working in our storms. He is making us into people who resemble His Father. He is going before you and making straight paths for you. Every season of my life has brought different challenges, but because I learned to trust Jesus in past seasons, I know I can trust Him again in the new season I am walking into. The only way to get to the next level of trust is to spend time with our Lord.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;” (Proverbs 3:5 NIV)

Spend time with your God. The more time we are spending in worship, the more time we are in the Bible, the more times we are in church hearing His word preached, the more times we spend in quiet moments waiting on Jesus to speak to our hearts, the more we are “with” the Lord. Jesus does not desire a lot of religious actions; He desires a relationship with us. He wants us to know His heart and He wants us to share our heart with Him. Notice I did not say - God wants to know our heart. He already does, but Jesus desires the intimacy that comes when we share ourselves with Him and He with us. So look for times to be with Jesus. Time spent with Him will help to sustain you through any storm.

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16 NIV)

Royal Warrior, you might see yourself as the cool, calm collected Zorro just being laid back and trusting when storms hit your life. On the other hand, maybe you are Bob…fighting and hissing every time the Lord is trying to get you to safety. Or maybe you are like one of our other cats. I do not know who you are, but I know the one who does. He loves you. He is trustworthy and will get you through whatever you are facing right now!

The last advice I have for storm protocol is the last advice my earthly father gave me before he went to heaven: “Hang on to God!” Do not let the enemy trick you with his lies. Do not let go of the only one who can truly help you through your storm. You are a victorious warrior because Jesus has already won the war!

I am praying for you, my friend!

I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.

1 Timothy 1:18-19

For the fancy version of this (with pictures), check out "Warrior Stance" on Wordpress. For some reason, Facebook isn't letting me share the link any longer.

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