Rushville Republican

February 27, 2010

Angel, the church mouse 022710


Hi, all you kind folks in Readership Land. My name is Angel and I’m a church mouse. I get to see a lot of things most folks are either too busy (or something) to notice.

Here’s an e-message that seems appropriate for these gray days we’ve been having. It’s called “Lord prop us up.”

Every time I am asked to pray, I think of the old fellow who always prayed, “Lord, prop us up on our leanin' side.” After hearing him pray that prayer many times, someone asked him why he prayed it so fervently.

He answered, 'Well sir, you see, it's like this. I got an old barn out back. It's been there a long time. It's withstood a lot of weather; it's gone through a lot of storms, and it's stood for many years.

It's still standing. But one day I noticed it was leaning to one side a bit. So I went and got some pine poles and propped it up on its leaning side so it wouldn't fall.

“Then I got to thinking about that and how much I was like that old barn. I've been around a long time. I've withstood a lot of life's storms. I've withstood a lot of bad weather in life, I've withstood a lot of hard times, and I'm still standing too. But I find myself leaning to one side from time to time, so I like to ask the Lord to prop us up on our leaning side, 'cause I figure a lot of us get to leaning at times.”

Sometimes we get to leaning toward anger, leaning toward bitterness, leaning toward hatred, leaning toward cussing, leaning toward a lot of things that we shouldn't. So we need to pray, “Lord, prop us up on our leaning side, so we will stand straight and tall again, to glorify the Lord.”