One summer we were away from home for four weeks. Not understanding the importance of temperature control, we turned the air conditioner all the way off to save on electric bill. A friend mowed our lawn and checked on the house every Tuesday. The third week he walked inside the 90-degree house and was literally attacked by the sand fleas that had invaded the house. He said the top half of his white socks turned black with fleas. It still makes my head itch thinking about it. After several exterminator treatments and hundreds of dollars, we finally were rid of the fleas. So much for saving money on the electric bill.

Corrie ten Boom in her book The Hiding Place describes the flea infested straw mattresses she and her sister, Betsie, slept on in the Nazi prison camp, Ravensbruck, in 1944. That image has me reaching for the Benedryl! The fleas were so bad the prison guards stayed away from their cell. The blessing of it was they could read their smuggled Bible without being caught and possibly beaten.

When dogs have fleas they scratch and keep on going. We exterminated our fleas and it was an expensive inconvenience. Corrie and Betsie ten Boom thanked God for their fleas in bona fide affliction! Do you have aggravation fleas, inconvenience fleas or bona fide affliction fleas?

“Be joyful in hope patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.”
-Romans 12:12

An excerpt from the book in progress, Dogs Just Know.