Journal of a Living Lady
By Nancy White Kelly

Our son Charlie related recently that his two-year-old son feared a big, mean elephant that supposedly hid in his closet. After bedtime, Micah would hurry down to his parent's bedroom and, with wide open eyes, describe the monster. With his limited vocabulary, Micah demonstrated this terrorizing menace by making a huge bellowing sound and thrusting his arm away from his chin to imitate the elephant's trunk.

Like a dutiful dad, Charlie walked Micah back to his room, examined the closet with all the seriousness of a monster detective and declared that the elephant had gone back to the wilds. Micah was satisfied and obediently went back to bed for some restful sleep.

This parental anecdote led to a conversation among Charlie's friends about the monsters they feared when growing up. Charlie confessed that he feared the Hulk, a green giant that was popular in the early eighties. He also admitted to other fears, like being afraid of putting his feet on the floor after bedtime. He imagined that some creature far uglier than an elephant would snatch his toes for a tasty nighttime snack.

I would laugh except that it reminded me of my own childhood fears. Probably a few of you older readers remember the movie, "The Thing." The original version was scary. I spent many nights wondering if the

strange noises I heard in our old house were that post-frozen creature about to bust through my bedroom door. I also imagined that Frankenstein was in the woods, awaiting

the opportunity to

take my body for needed spare parts.

Like his grandmother and daddy, Micah will eventually grow out of his fears of imaginary monsters. There are too many real things for adults to concern themselves with like the drought and war.

Let us hasten to our Heavenly Father. Dear God, please bring rain and peace