I Have Hidden Your Word in My Heart

We’re learning new memory verses. So far, we’ve learned 5. Psalms 119:11, 34:1, 18:1; Phillipians 4:13, and James 4:8. I’m very excited about how quickly the kids are learning and how they are motivated to learn more and how they are reminding me that we need to practice them.  It has become part of our routine that every time we’re in the car, I call out addresses, and the kids take turns reciting them. We have index cards rubber-banded to the visor with the “to learn”s on the back side and the “to practice” on the front. The most recent verse, Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden (or cherished) Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” This reminds the kids (and me) why we’re learning the Bible. It wasn’t one of our verses, but something they learned in church, but Chloe recently had a great opportunity to learn that Truth can be very helpful in difficult situations. She was having a tough time sleeping and was being plagued with scary thoughts that she said she couldn’t get out of her head. The “big word” at church that week was “The bad times are the best times to praise God”. So, in her fear that night, she started to sing and to tell God what she was thankful for. And before she knew it, she fell asleep.


In their class at church, they don’t always have a memory verse. Sometimes, like lately, they have had “big words” or “big ideas” and these ideas are carried over from week to week. They also talked about courage, honor and integrity at one point during the summer. Then, from week to week, they talked about people in the Bible who exemplified these characteristics and those who didn’t. They learned about David, Daniel, Mary and Paul, among others.

I have spent a huge amount of time over the past 2 weeks fighting with our cell phone company. We have Nextel and the coverage in our area is getting less and less reliable so we were going to look into switching to Sprint. They are the same company, but different networks. So, it started that they were going to let us switch without having to extend our contract, but we would have to buy Sprint phones. Then I called again and I was told that they were having a promotion for people in just this situation where they could get me a phone for $.99. The only condition was that I could only pick from a couple of phone styles. Fine, I can live with that because I just need phones that actually work without hanging up on everyone that I call. I placed the order for two of these $.99 phones and they were going to overnight them to me – free of charge. This was on Thursday. Friday night I get a phone call saying that the order wasn’t really processed because the lady forgot to get my credit card number. So, I gave it to them and at that point, it was too late to send out the order Friday so I should expect the shipment on Monday morning. Monday at about 3pm, I looked up the tracking number and discovered that they had delivered our phones already --- to the wrong house. They used our old address. When I placed the order, the lady didn’t confirm the mailing address and so they got shipped to our old address. This began what has amounted to 10 days and literally 7 hours of time spent on the phone with these people. I have called them 10 times (not exaggerating) and have gotten 8 different answers. I believe the only reason I got the same answer three times was because I spoke to the same person twice and the other time, the person I talked to left a message in my file to transfer me back to him should I call again… I’ve been promised a call back from them three times now… The first was on the 8th, the second time was the 10th and then again today they promised me a call back. I told them I was infuriated and that this was completely unacceptable. I let them know that if I didn’t get a call back today by the end of business, I was going to cancel my contract with them and demand to not be charged an early termination fee. Also, I need to have my bill for the last month refunded because our service has been so terrible, and I’ve had to spent most of my time on the phone with them. It has really been an emotional deal – you may think I’m silly, but fighting with people is something that I tend to avoid, not go in search of. I have had to argue with these people, be overly assertive and often control my temper with them to avoid screaming or crying at whatever representative has just told me another wrong answer. I don’t like these situations and to have to get up every morning and intentionally put myself in the middle of it has been exhausting. In addition, I have had a less than perfect week since Sunday…. But more about that later.

So, I am waiting… Its 3:15 right now… Will I hear from them, highly unlikely. Will I cancel my contract… I’m still deciding simply because I don’t know what other cell phone carrier to get and I don’t want to go through all this again… Not Verizon, they’re too expensive and not ATT… We had problems with them and so Lowell has sworn off ATT… So, what’s left? If we use a company who doesn’t have a contract, we have to pay for the phones… So, I feel stuck. I’m forced to deal with this completely unacceptable customer service. I feel like I’m being taken advantage of. Does Sprint care? It certainly doesn’t seem like it – so what are my options? Spend money I don’t have (and shouldn’t have to spend) on phones for another company, or continue to get screwed (there’s just no other word for what they’re doing to me) by Sprint…. There is not good option here.

I’m sure you didn’t want to spend the last few minutes “listening” to me rant about large corporations, but I am just furious about this. I’m stressed and angry and upset… So, instead of feeling that way -- I'm going to remember - The bad times are the best times to praise God. When I get put on hold for the 7th time, I'm just going to use that time to pray for a friend, or to hum a worship song, or to count my blessings. Or maybe I'll work on some more memory verses. :)