Don’t Lose Your Power

Losing electricity doesn’t make for an ideal Mother’s Day. What can we learn from my “powerless” Mother’s Day?

Have you ever lost power in your home? No lights, no heat or air-conditioning, no working appliances. We have lost power many times in my lifetime, but the last power outage was on Mother’s Day. Yes, Mother’s Day! I was talking to my son who lives in Kentucky and was telling him we were having a storm, when—click. He was gone. There went our Mother’s Day talk.

Hours went by, and still there was no power. It was dark now, and my husband decided it was time to get out the generator. It powered our lights, refrigerator and freezer—preventing our food from going bad. After running it for a couple hours, it was time to go to bed. Without air-conditioning, it would be a hot and muggy night.

My attempt to use the generator

The next morning there still was no electricity. My husband went to work, and I was in charge of restarting the generator. I read the directions on the machine and tried to get it started. Nothing. I thought to myself, If I don’t get this started, we will lose our food!

I tried the starter cord again. Still nothing. I decided to wait a little while and laid down on the floor, a little depressed.

Finally, I said to myself, What am I doing? I need to go to God and ask for His help.

I got on my knees and asked God for help.

Then I went back and tried again to start the generator. I thought I must have choked it out. I prayed again. I kept going back and trying without success.

Finally, I read the directions on the machine again and this time noticed I had missed a crucial step. I hadn’t turned on the gas valve. I looked for it, turned it on, pulled the starter cord, and it started! Immediately, I started to cry and thanked God.

What can we learn from all this?

Here are some lessons I learned from this experience.

1. Never take electricity for granted. When you don’t have it, you see how much it is needed.
2. Persevere, never give up. Try, try and try again. Perseverance is a Christian value (2 Peter 1:6). God wants us to persevere in life—not only on our journey to His Kingdom, but in everything that we do.
3. Read directions carefully and thoroughly. Never miss a step. God’s Word gives us our spiritual directions. Pay attention to what you read, and don’t skip anything!
4. Most important, rely on God. At baptism, God gave us His Holy Spirit to empower us to follow Him. Just as I needed fuel to power the generator, so we need God’s Spirit to guide us.
5. When we’re having a problem, we need to talk to our Father in heaven. He is there to help no matter how small the problem. Even when you’re just trying to start a generator.

Remember these spiritual lessons, and don’t lose God’s power!

To learn more about using God’s Spirit, read “Armor of God: Sword of the Spirit.”