Use your heel

We have a problem at our house.  Snakes.

Oh!  Believe me, I HATE it.  I HATE snakes.  That verse in Genesis when God curses the snake,

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; [s]he will crush your head and you will bruise [her] heel.

Yeah, I fulfill that "[s]he will crush your head" portion of the verse every chance I get.  (It's Genesis 3:15, by the way.)  And for all of you out there thinking I wouldn't come near enough to them to crush their head!, let me respond that if I don't crush their heads at the first glimpse, I'm bound to see them again, and get startled/freaked out/grossed out/scared/and otherwise terrified.  (I will clarify here that the snake problem is relegated to the yard - not the house.  Those of you who have lived in houses where snakes have joined you, I'm SO sorry!!!!)

Last summer we killed 26 snakes between July 17 when we moved in and the end of the year. This year we're somewhere around 35.  I quit keeping close count because it was too depressing.

Because we have such a snake problem, we've been trying to figure out where they're coming from.  We've had all kinds of theories - maybe they're coming up from our yard well; maybe they're coming from the empty lot on the far side of the block; maybe this part of town is just cursed with lots of snakes.

Well, the other day when I was talking to our neighbor, I had a breakthrough in our investigation.  I asked if they saw a lot of snakes at their place.  From his position on the other side of the fence, he was nonchalant, "Nah, not really."  Then I continue, "Really?  We killed 26 last summer, and we're around 30 this year already."  He raised his eyebrows, "You kill them?  Oh.  Well, they may be coming from over here.  I don't kill them.  I think I've seen them breeding on the other side of the house there."

REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

*Sigh*

It got me thinking about not just snakes but about life.  You can only control so much - your yard, your lawn, your time, your attitude, your heart.  Your "neighbors" (i.e. family, friends, coworkers, neighbors) may have crap (snakes) going on in their lives.  That crap can slither over and try to take up residence in your life.  You can do what I've only dreamed of doing - giving your neighbor a good piece of your mind, and not necessarily in a respectful, quiet, patient tone of voice...  But that won't solve the problem.

All you can really do is exert control over what you can rightly control:  your yard, your life.  When the snakes sneak across that property line, give them a piece of truth straight from the Bible - a heel to crush their heads!!!

The analogy extends further to the crap/snakes we inherit from our families or the crap that's snuck in and is lying in wait, hiding, lurking, waiting for that opportune moment when our arms are full of groceries and we're wearing flip-flops, and the shovel is on the far side of the house.  When we don't have time to deal with crap, that's when it rears it's ugly head.  And that, my friends, is when we must (after screaming hysterically) figure out a way to juggle the groceries, run for the shovel, pull up our big girl pants, and crush that fang-wielding skull.

And when I get the opportunity to do that, I relish the fact that it's a God-ordained activity dating back to the very beginning of time.  Use your heels, my friends.  It's God's will.