Make the Noise Go Away!

My poor dog. She’s already an anxious dog by nature, but noises really scare her. She runs from the vacuum, hides if it thunders, and has to be drugged on the 4th of July. Well today she had about 30 minutes of “torture”… I had set the timer on the oven so I wouldn’t forget to pick up my daughter-(Mondays are early dismissal day.) As I walked back into the house,I noticed a frantic dog,heard a beeping sound and quickly realized that I had forgotten to turn off the timer. It brought back a memory of all the times our fire alarm used to go off due to a malfunctioning oven. My kids learned to ignore it or wave the dish towel to get the noise to stop. They knew I was just cooking and if it were truly a fire I would yell. Sadie the dog on the other hand would be frantically trying to get out of the loud house.

A couple years ago on a spring day I was teaching kindergarten and had a similar “I want to run away” experience. We had been outside having P.E. and had suffered through the terrible smell of the community college across the street having its septic system pumped. We were glad to finally get back indoors for lunch when I was informed that the firemen were testing the battery system and the alarms would be going on and off every few minutes for the next hour. Why couldn't they have waited until after school? Oh, the NOISE! We couldn’t even carry on a conversation! We ended up taking our lunches outside for a picnic. Not much teaching took place after that... Having a noise blare at you off and on is very annoying and makes it hard to stay calm. Maybe that's why I want to order the poster "Remain Calm and Carry On."

Satan is like a fire alarm. He interrupts our peace and quiet with his lies that come and go in our minds. We want to get away from our thoughts but he can be unrelenting when we’re weak. Just like the bleep of a battery that needs changing, we have to figure out a way to make the noise go away.

I’ve learned that Satan can’t read minds like God can (who is all-knowing). If we’ll speak aloud and tell him to L-E-A-V-E and/or say some scripture verses, then our hearts will be filled with the Holy Spirit and peace and the evil one will be the one running away! In Matthew 4:10 Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" I often have times when I lie awake in bed while my mind races. After tossing and turning I'll finally remember to speak a rebuke to Satan and focus on the goodness of God. Then the annoying noise begins to fade and eventually I go back to sleep.

I’ll bet my dog wishes she knew how to pray away the noise!