The Snow Pants Rule

When my daughters were in grade school, we had a rule they hated. If the temperature dropped to zero or below zero degrees, they had to wear snow pants to school. In their opinion, this was a rule from hell. They didn’t mind wearing the snow pants to play. That was a worthy cause, but just to go to the bus stop and get on the bus? Unacceptable.

Of course, frigid Minnesota weather generally saves a lot of dastardly energy for January. This is the reason “snowbirds” migrate to the south at the turn of the calendar year.

One January, when my daughter Shannon, now a successful litigator, was about six or seven years old, she did her very best to dissuade me on the snow pants rule. Even as a child, she was an excellent negotiator, but she could see that her best efforts were to no avail. I would not budge.

To my surprise, not one day in January dropped to zero degrees or below. I didn’t really think about it much, but the phenomenon occurred to me at the end of the month. So I said something like, “Wow! I can’t believe you didn’t need snow pants for school this whole month.” I had lived in Minnesota for most of my life and never experienced an entire January above zero degrees.

Her answer? “I prayed, Mom.”

“What did you pray?”

“I prayed that I wouldn’t have to wear snow pants to school any more.”

That was the end of the snow pants ritual. I figured if the Judge of the universe sustained Shannon’s objection, it must have been a lousy rule.

Thought for today: If you have something that looks hopeless, go over everybody’s heads and give it to Someone with eternal clout. If He can make a Minnesota January stay above zero, He really is a miracle working God.