What was I thinking?

Not sure if you can tell, but that is a SNAKE! At my front door! I was walking out and before I opened the door, I saw him resting on my stoop. I immediately shut the door. That is a big NOPE for me!

But then I did what any sane person does, I went out the garage so I could video tape it! Looks like about 3 ft long.

After all the excitement and trauma calmed down, I got to thinking about growing up and all the times I could have come face to face with snakes. Let me share some of my experiences growing up.

We would go out and visit my g.ma and when I was young, they had a farm. It included a corn field. My mom and aunt would warn us and tell us not to go in the corn field. Even my g.ma told us to stay out of it. But did that stop us? NO. You already know if you tell a 10 or 11yo not to do something, we are going to do it! Me and my cousins and friends would go play hide and seek in that field. We would run up and down those rows. I think if the movie children of the corn was out and mom would have allowed us to watch it, we would have definitely stayed out of that field. 

Well one day, we were all playing in field, shhh, secretly! And then we hear our parents yelling for us. So we all started running toward the house so we wouldn't get caught. Well guess what, we got caught. But it was a traumatic way to get caught. I think I would have rather seen a snake that day. I got "clothes-lined" by the barbed wire fence! Right between the eyes! I still have the scar to prove it. Growing up can be rough but it only makes us stronger...right?!

Another time when I was around 13 yo, was when our parents and even my g.pa telling us to stay out of the barn. BUT...you already know, Yep, we went right into that barn. There was probably a ton of snakes in that old barn. But we didn't seen any.  The barn was falling apart, the floors on the top floor, well if you want to call them that, you could see right through them to the bottom of the barn. If we fell through it, we would have been hurt badly. But as teenagers, you know it, we didn't listen and went in that barn! And I bet you already know something happened. When we were trying to get out of the barn, we had to climb down the side wall. Well, it was not really a wall, it was planks barely hanging. When we did, my friend started screaming. We didn't know what happened. I would have bet it was a snake, but it wasn't. We had to go to mom and tell her where we were because my friend disturbed a bee or wasp nest and they got into her shirt and stung her a bunch of times. Not only did she get stung, we got caught and worse, got in trouble.....a talking (yelling) too, then grounded because we didn't listen. 

I have many other memories of where I could have come face to face with a snake, and that probably would have been better than the outcomes I experienced, but I won't bore you!  And really, I was a good kid! I think I will blame my disobedience on my cousin. She was a bad influence on me!! haha. (or maybe I was, you know it is always the quiet ones!). 

So I will leave you with some great knowledge from the book of life, no matter how old you are:

Ephesians 6:1-3 "Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”

Love to all,