Fire

     My husband, JC, and I are going through the adoption process in hopes of adopting two sweet lives from Ethiopia. As part of this process, we needed to update the smoke detectors in our home. We did so earlier this year. We went to the home improvement store, studied our options and chose two different units.
     Not long after their installation, we discovered just how sensitive our new smoke detectors are. For those of you who haven't been to our home, we have a rather small kitchen. Apparently, it doesn't take long for the heat and any cooking vapors to make their way from the kitchen to the location of the detectors. Our most recent encounter with this problem was when I was frying onion rings for dinner. Cooking the onion rings required a dutch oven full of rather hot oil. I'd only managed to cook a few batches of the rings when the smoke detectors decided they'd smelled enough!
     Let me remind you, that we purchased and installed two different types of smoke detectors. The first one to protest my cooking, was the unit with the ear piercing beep. When this unit goes off, I'm sure the whole block can hear it! JC grabbed a chair, reached up and pushed the stop button. Ah, peace! It was a short lived peace, not a minute later, the other smoke detector started going off!
     Now, this detector, has a lower toned beep that is not as painfully obnoxious as the first detector. However, along with its beep, it says in a somewhat digitized, monotone voice, "Fire! Fire! Fire!" over and over again. This sent JC scrambling for the hallway, which is obstructed by the baby gate we use to keep the dogs out of that part of the house. Once he managed to get past the gate, find something to climb on and quite that alarm, the first alarm decided to go off again. Back and forth we went between smoke detectors for the duration of cooking the onion rings. I was so glad to finish cooking those rings!
     Isn't that like life! There are so many activities, so many situations, so many noises demanding our attention. We have so many things in life that are speaking into our ear, "Fire! Fire! Fire!" demanding a response. It's easy to let those things distract us and sometimes frustrate, discourage and defeat us. With the smoke detector, sometimes we have to stop and take the batteries out until the air clears and we can hear ourselves think again. I'm enjoying one of those times in life at the moment also. The house is quiet, there's nothing going on, no noise, I'm here by myself and I'm reminded of the verse from Isaiah 30:21, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."" That's the voice I want to hear!