the israelites and their candy-coated chocolates

i spent 95% of my work day trying to get things done for tomorrow. then by the time 4:30 rolled around, everything due tomorrow had dropped off the queue. didn't jesus say something about storing away in barns, or that tomorrow isn't a guarantee. i feel like i'm living today for tomorrow a lot. what happened to 'now'?
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needless to say, i was refreshed as usual to get home. the girls have been in an almost perfect mood over the last two days, and that makes everything so much more peaceful and enjoyable. i'm not sure sarah thought it was cute, but at dinner, sonja looks at mommy's glass and says,
'is that your water?'
'yes,' replied mommy.
'it's all gone?' she asked, testing mommy.
'yes, it is.'
'no, it isn't,' she corrected.
mommy stood her gound. 'yes, it is.'
'no!'
mommy tipped her glass slightly, allowing a small pool of water to collect in the bottom corner.
'see!' sonja exclaimed.
'ooooooh!' daddy said as mommy gave the 'okay, okay, you were right' look.
'two points for mommy!' sonja jested sarcastically.
i was so proud.
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sarah and i got to talking about animal shows at the zoo after the girls hit the hay. while we discussed the amazing ability of some people to train a wild animal to do just about anything they want, we also wondered if they were the perfect parents too. it went from there to, 'well yeah, i could get my kids to do anything if i gave them an m&m after every good deed.' then when we really thought about it, would they? sin nature doesn't follow the m&m theory (and you can quote me on that). i don't care how many m&m's you give a child, bed time will still be a chore. and if you keep popping them into their mouth(s), you'll never get them to bed. and this is a good lead-in into my deepest thought for the day...
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so in reading through the old testament, i see how many times god does some amazing things for the israelites. the amount of things he does is amazing let alone the magnitude of each miracle. yet countless times, the jews rebelled against god, bowing down to and serving baal and the other various gods of their neighbors. if they were seeing god do all of these amazing things, fulfilling promise after promise, what made baal so appealing? apparently satan can do some pretty amazing things too. if god handed gideon 299 men to take down the midianites, whose numbers could not be counted, and they could turn around and start worshipping some fake god, that fake god had to have pulled off some amazing things as well. i think this should be a lessen that we should not downplay the abilities of our enemy, that is, the devil.
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oh, how does that tie in with my m&m theory? well, if you didn't catch it, god does some pretty amazing things for us (m&m's), yet we still turn from him (sin nature). ergo, m&m's don't work while we're growing up, and the problem keeps growing deeper as we get older.
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favorite bible verse read today: judges chapters 6 and 7. i love the story of gideon, b/c i can relate to his person. yet it's encouraging to see how god can work some amazing things through someone like that. and if you're not a bible reader or have never heard of gideon, the closest thing to his story that i've seen is the battle at helms deep in the lord of the rings: the two towers. check it out, then read the true story. (side note: j.r.r. tolkein, writer of the lord of the rings, was a christian).
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favorite picture taken today: again, nothing.