Hey ya'll, welcome to my corner. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July.

Sarah's' birthday was July 1. She is a big 9 yrs. old. We had a party on the last weekend of June, to celebrate. She's never had a slumber party and she wanted a slumber party to be part of her birthday present.

I have a really sweet Christian friend at work who has four kids. She has three girls and one boy. The girls ages run from 11 years old, on down. They are beautiful children. She and her husband have raised them well. On that weekend, in the Halloran house, there were four girls, one bewildered son, three cats, and a dad who was so thankful for his third shift job.

On Friday night, the girls couldn't fall asleep. A giggle monster would appear to them every time it heard me plop down onto my bed. It was a very elusive creature. The sound of my footsteps coming down the hall must have made the creature scared, because the giggles would stop. Three times, I tried to catch that booger !

I think it was the hand on the hip, the third time, that did the trick.

I cautiously crawled back into my bed. I looked at the alarm clock - 2 a.m. Sarah's diva birthday party was at 10 a.m. the next day. The girls' mom, Christina met me at my house. We all rode together.

She asked how her girls had been. I told her they were having fun at our house. I told her that they had eaten well, before bed. She asked what time we all went to sleep. I said "2 a.m. ". Right on cue, The little one named Loren yells from the back seat "Mama, she let us have Dr. Pepper and Kit-Kats before bed".

Christina then falls out laughing. She then informs me that she doesn't allow them to have caffeine or sugar in the evenings. It keeps them up at night. Well, imagine that!

Have you ever seen the caption of the light bulb appearing over someone's head? Well, mine must have been burnt out on Friday night. I don't know what in the world I was thinking !! Dr. Pepper and miniature Kit-Kat bars???

Assumptions can be a direct result of loss of sleep. I assumed because caffeine and sugar at 9 p.m. didn't make my two children energized, it probably wouldn't hers. Looking back now, I recall that their eyebrows almost shot off their foreheads when I pulled out the sugar ammo. They were very excited. They skipped off with their loot, in hand. I felt like the best mom in the world.

At 2 a.m., it occurred to me that I probably would feel like the most exhausted mom in the world. Christina's girls are really good kids. They are sweet Christian babies.

At times, I come to conclusions because of my own assumptions. They can affect my spiritual life in a major way. When someone doesn't treat me in a way that I think is deserving, then I may assume that there is something wrong with them, or me.

It may sound like I'm trying to put too much stock in this whole assumption thing, but could having a habit of assuming motives and outcomes of situations be a bigger result of one's own prideful nature?

At times, my assumptions of others have been dead wrong. If I assume they're at fault, then that takes the focus off of me.

To love God is to obey Him. God says to love others. Assumptions can lead to loss of sleep, it can lead to tired minds, it can lead to dangerous self-pride. Pride is believing that we are so smart to know any outcome or motive before it happens. Only God knows peoples hearts.

Our Lord wants us to consult with Him first, before we assume the wrong thing. His motive for us is pure. He just wants to love us so much that we could be rendered helpless but to love him back.

Well, I've kept you hemmed up in my corner long enough. My light is flickering, they ate all the chocolate, so I guess it's time to flip the switch.

Thanks so much for coming.

Have a restful week.