take two teaspoons and call me in the morning.

"I can't stop coughing, Mommy!" she said as I tucked her into bed that Autumn eve. Wow, she really has been coughing all day, I pondered internally. "No worries, I'll be right back", I replied, and quickly retreated to the kitchen for some children's cough syrup. "Here, open wide!" I encouraged, and squirted the amber liquid down her itchy throat. She smiled. "Thanks, Mommy", she replied. "I have been coughing all day! I love that medicine. It tastes so sweet, and it has a bear on it". Seeing this as a ploy for a 20 minute anti-sleep convo about cough syrup, I quickly replied, "Yes, it is sweet because it has honey in it, and bears love honey. Okay, now time for bed. Cover up and good night!" "Good night!" she smiled, coughed a tad more, and laid her head on the pillow. I closed the door and walked down the hallway to the laundry room.

(photo credit)

All of the sudden I froze in the laundry room, amidst unwashed towels and recycle bins. Something's not right, I thought. I just felt it. The need to go back in there. RIGHT. NOW. That's crazy, I thought. I literally just left her room! GO.

The pressing urge to turn right around and go back to her room was too much to ignore, so I quickly paced back down the narrow hallway to open her door. And there she was, out of her bed, the medicine bottle open with the lid tossed to the floor, and a dropper full of cough syrup dangling above her mouth like a carrot to a slow turtle.

I gasped in utter shock. She jerked from the surprise of my presence, then burst into tears. The dropper fell to the floor, the sticky, amber liquid oozing into the cracks of the hardwood. "What are you doing in here?!" she exclaimed. "You're not supposed to be in here!!" 

"Why are you out of your bed?! Why are you trying to drink cough syrup?! YOU KNOW BETTER!!"

I rebuked, lectured, and reproved for what seemed an eternity. I finally got her into bed, took the medicine with me this time, and left the room, hands shaking. I have never left medicine in the reach of a child before. Thankfully, this cough syrup was a children's homeopathic liquid, containing honey and other all natural ingredients. If not, who knows what would have happened when I went in to wake her the following morning.

Call it a funny feeling. Call it mother's intuition. Label it however you'd like, but I know that "feeling" was too strong to be just a hunch.

"In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8

He kept us safe that night, despite my negligence.

"But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself; the Lord hears when I call to Him". Psalm 4:3

When you pray for your little ones and their safety, He hears. He remembers. Then He causes you to act. 

"Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; be gracious to me and hear my prayer". Psalm 4:1

He hears our prayers. Now, listen to His voice!


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