Camping fairy tale

Be the Light, Encouragement, God's provision, Gratitude, Holy Spirit, Humor, Jesus 2 Minutes

The weather here in the Colorado Rockies is glorious. Not too hot during the days, and cool in the evenings. Perfect for camping! I’ll bet you didn’t know this, but I am a hard core camper. I pack up snacks, my water bottle, set my laptop to a YouTube video that has a crackling campfire with crickets chirping in the background, and curl up in bed with my Malouf Active Zoned Dough pillow. (The company has a foundation where part of the proceeds of the pillows goes to help victims of sex trafficking.)

A client of mine gave me the pillow as a gift, stating that she is a “pillow diva” (ie: very particular about what she sleeps on.) And I have to agree. I was amazed at how well I slept on it. (“You will lay down and your sleep will be sweet.” Prov. 3:24)

When I was younger I did actually camp outside. I found I do not like things things crawling into my sleeping bag with me, mosquitoes eating me alive, and finding every rock and lump under where I made my bed. No matter how hard I tried, I was unable to completely smooth the area for it to be comfortable. My husband said I was like the princess in the fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea.

In the story, the princess finds herself stuck out in a huge storm, soaking wet when she knocks on the door of the castle where a prince lives. She asks for warm clothes and a place to sleep for the night. She also tells him she is a real princess. Well the prince’s mother has been around that block before, trying to find her son a real princess to marry, with no luck. So she devises a test. She puts a pea under 20 mattresses and provides a ladder for the princess to climb up for the night. Her theory is that only a real princess is sensitive enough to feel that pea under 20 mattresses.

Lo and behold, the next morning the mother asks how she slept and the princess replies, “Oh, not at all well. I mean to say, I am extremely grateful for your kindness in putting me up for the night, but there seemed to be something ever so hard and uncomfortable under my mattress. I didn’t sleep a wink.”

Well happy ending. They get married with the condition that peas are be used for eating only!

So when I read this verse, something struck me. “Don’t quench the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thes. 5:19) The NLT says, “Don’t stifle the Holy Spirit.”

As I know I am a real princess of the King, I want to live each day not quenching what the Holy Spirit is teaching me, showing me, and guiding me to do. I want to be sensitive to every little nuance of His promptings. I don’t want to miss a thing! I want it all! Because Jesus said that He came so that I might have life and have it abundantly: fully sufficient, more than ample, and overflowing.

That being said, I am now going to snuggle up with my pillow and snacks and enjoy a peaceful camping excursion in my comfy bed! (My bed with only one mattress, and not 20! No need to take this sensitive princess thing too far!)

© 2023 Fluffy Puppy Publishing All Rights Reserved

Unknown's avatar

Published by God Still Speaks

I am a follower of Jesus with an insatiable hunger for the Word of God! I am doing my best to be obedient in sharing what I learn with others, with my own unique spin, using the way God made me, linear with a twist!

Published

24 thoughts on “Camping fairy tale”

  2. I love it! We should be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit we can hear His quietest voice. I also like your version of camping. I think it’s called “glamping—“ glamorous camping? I enjoy your analogies and the applications you make from them.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  3. Thank you for your blog post today, Sister, especially for the part about your pillow company that I’d never heard of before but now will purchase pillows for my wife and myself and to give away as gifts because of the work that you informed me about that is being done at the Malouf Foundation. My wife and I are going to see the new movie “Sound Of Freedom” today with some friends from church. I actually don’t want to see this movie (even though I’m a big movie buff and have heard that it’s excellent) because the movie is a true story about a heroic man who almost single handedly took on a crime organization that had branched out from drugs to child sex trafficking.

    In my work, I have to read about harms done to children and then go to court to help protect children who either have no parents or have parents who are so messed up that the children are dependent upon our state for care and protection. I’m currently in therapy to address the work-related vicarious trauma that I’ve suffered these last half dozen years, and that’s why I don’t really want to see this fine movie that we, nonetheless, pray will raise awareness about this heinous evil in our midst and, by God’s Grace, this generation of believers in Jesus Christ will rise up and put an end to it like once the believers put an end to the open international world-wide slave trade in the 19th century!

    Here’s the website for Malouf Foundation that you mentioned. I know that this wasn’t the point of your post today, but it’s what I took away from it. Maybe you and I can write about this ugly topic on our respective blogs in addition to whatever else we do in our personal lives, and, thereby, light our own candles to help dispel this great darkness. https://malouffoundation.org/

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you for your comment and additions to my post. Thanks for being open and sharing, I will pray for your therapy sessions to help you get well. And for God assisting the therapist for the benefit of your soul. I completely understand about your reasons about not wanting to see the movie. Sometimes my husband will pick a movie for us to watch and it is more than I can cope with at that given moment, for whatever reason.
      You are going to love the pillows! After hearing about the foundation I bought some pillows and passed one out to my best friend, and to folks who regularly attend corporate prayer.
      And great minds thinking alike, I reached out to Malouf and asked if was okay to use the foundation in a post, and am waiting to hear back from them. I wanted to make sure they would be happy with what I was going to post first.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. Thank you. I just bought my first Malouf pillows, and set up a small monthly donation for the Malouf Foundation. I know that your post today was a true Godsend, because I’ve been feeling like, “What can we do?” Well . . . we can be like our 19th century forebearers in our faith and help end a heinous evil in our world, by God’s Grace!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yes we can end a heinous evil! One pillow at a time, if need be, and by posting to make people aware.
      Let me know when you get your pillows what you think! I cannot believe I slept so many years without one!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. That’s also why I am so thankful for screens in windows! You can still enjoy the cool air without the bugs! Back when my husband and I were truck drivers, we were in Arkansas sleeping in the sleeper of the truck cab, with no screens on the windows, I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos! To where the next morning it looks like had the pox! It got to be too much, so we found a motel room, but the mosquito population were greater in the room than the outdoors, so by then we were fully awake and started driving to out next stop!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Yes, mosquitos can make one miserable, especially if there is a cloud of them. But backpacking in the wilderness and seeing and experiencing the stupendous scenery makes it worthwhile. Bug dope, lots of vitamin B and eating garlic make you less attractive to mosquitos. I can understand why your husband and you went down the road. It sounds miserable.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. And besides, with your busy schedule, you can’t afford to miss a night of sleep!!! 😉. Yes, garlic keeps away ALL blood sucking creatures from mosquitoes to vampires.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Good post sister! I remember going camping as a lad, it was torture…I was glad to get home to a proper bed in the end. Also in Scotland we have our own breed of vicious mosquitos (Midgies) which are serious carnivores…another reason to stay indoors. In the comfort of my desk in the late evening I love seeking His Spirit through His Word, that I may find all the Heavenly goodies at my disposal. it makes for a good nights sleep eventually. 😁

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. Camping should have a door with a deadbolt, A/C that will cool the room to 65°, and room service. No prince here, but I’m with you.

    I’m always amazed at how we can look for God to “punish” us for misdeeds, but so rarely look for those blessings that come through His Spirit.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment