Tim and I found out the hard way that bright ideas don’t always work the way you think they will.
For over a year now, we have been working on our deck. It came with the house. Last spring, we noticed one of the posts had a rotten place at the bottom of it. We replaced it. Then we examined the other posts and realized they needed replacing as well. Now, we already knew the deck floorboards were in bad shape, so we thought we would go ahead and replace them too. When we tore the old boards out, we saw bad places in the floor joists as well as the skirt boards around the deck. In essence, the more we looked, the more problems we found. Basically, we ended up rebuilding the deck.
After what seemed like forever, we were finally ready to lay the new deck floor. Tim sat up his miter saw in the backyard below us. He climbed up and down the ladder as we worked. I climbed up, but never back down. Why? Because I would have had to get on the ladder backwards to go back down. I still can’t walk forward and chew gum. Instead, I went through the kitchen and down the basement steps. So, when it was time to work on the hand rails, we decided to sit the miter saw up on the deck.
At first, it worked out great. But since we were using white composite railing, small flakes flew everywhere when Tim sawed a spindle. At one point, it looked as if it had snowed on the deck. The composite flakes were difficult to clean up, especially those on the saw. It seemed as if the little piece were sticking to it. That’s when Tim had the bright idea to use the leaf blower to clean it. While I swept flakes off the other side, Tim turned it toward the miter saw. Soon I heard a big “BAM!” Then I heard Tim say, “Oh no!”
“What was that noise?” I asked as I spun around. “Notice anything missing?” Tim asked as he pointed to the now empty board. “The leaf blower blew my miter saw off of the board and onto the ground.” I peered over the side. Yep, there it lay on the ground with the top part broken off of it. “I had no idea this leaf blower was so powerful,” he whined. Being the kind hearted and sympathetic wife I am, I answered, “Well, you do now.”
“He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.:” Luke 6:48 (KJV)
The miter saw took flight because we just sat it on top of the board instead of securing it onto the board. Since we didn’t give it a good foundation, it couldn’t withstand the force of the leaf blower and flew off the deck. That’s the same concept as the above verse. To withstand the storms and leaf blowers of life, we must build our house solidly into the rock foundation, which is the Lord himself. Where is your foundation laid?
At first, I felt bad for Tim. He kept saying, “I had that saw for years. It was such a good one.” Then he sat up the new one we bought. Now I hear, “This saw is amazing!” Kinda makes me wonder if him sending the saw off the top of the deck with the leaf blower was really an accident.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.