Let the lion starve!

I hope none of my Scrabble buddies read this one... I'm gonna reveal my top 5 weaknesses.

1) I don't play well if there's pressure. The kind where someone has a deadline and they need me to play fast so they can go.
2) I forget to watch the # on the tile bag and see how close the game is to ending. I have been caught with a Z or a Q in my bag several times.
3) I forget to watch the score. Sometimes I just play my own game and forget the other person might be winning and that I need to take a moment and strategize. (Good word, worth a lot of points.)
4) If I'm having fun with the person (like a good trash talker) I stop trying to make points. And lastly....
5) I get really impatient if someone takes along time to play or doesn't talk much and I've got no other games going on, again I fail to strategize.

So there you go... if that helps. Now my fellow Scrabblers have the inside track... may you all slip in mud and wallow in it. (Trash talk :)

We went to Africa on a short term mission trip 10 years back. At the end of this journey, we got to go on a little safari in these jeep/vans. The one thing I will never forget is when we were driving, we saw these, sort of, antelopes grazing so beautifully in the terrain. They had these amazing antlers, not strait, but twisty. As we kept on driving, we were awe struck to see lions crouching in the field... down so low... so intent... nothing could have taken their attention off of these helpless, clueless animals. The antelopes were dead already, they just didn't know it. A part of you wanted to yell out to warn them... but 1 that's not the way of nature and 2 you didn't want to be their replacement. It might have been another hour before they moved, you wouldn't believe how incredibly slow and methodical these lions were.

I also have a stalker who also knows my weaknesses. He knows how very open to sin I get when I'm in isolation. He knows what easy prey I am when I'm not prayed up. He knows what a good target I am when I'm not in the Word. I'd venture to say that he's a lot like those lions... as a matter of fact, I think I've heard it said that he is like a lion seeking whom he may devour.

Oh Lord, be my legs when I am weak. Be the wind at my back, and the air in my lungs. Make my heart strong so that it pumps fast when the chase is on. Be the reflexes I need and the sense that tells me not to ignore the scent in my nostrils. Be that internal compass that tells me left from right and zig or zag. Let me always be the victor... and let the lion starve.