I did. I prayed for the toilet. You might think I meant I had to go to the bathroom so badly, that I prayed I would find a toilet close by. That assumption is a good one considering my well-documented passion for good restrooms and the need to find them often as well as being a toilet paper expert, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean I prayed for our actual white, 20+ year old, porcelain, master bathroom potty. It had begun to leak and a new one would soon take its place. So in front of God and everyone else I laid hands on the tank, thanked it for its many years of faithful service and prayed for every facet of the upcoming replacement process.
What? You don’t pray over plumbing jobs prior to the commencement of said job? Anyone ever stopped the plumbers at the door to ask them to turn off the water to the whole house before they so much as look at a pipe? Just me? I figured. Well, you’ll be glad to know that I refrained from anointing the plumbers with oil at the doorway. But if you knew what we’d been through in this house, you would be praying over toilets and dumping holy water on the head of the plumber too.
A couple years ago, painters were working away downstairs applying coats of Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray to the two-story foyer and bathroom. To stay out of the way, I set up a temporary office in the master bedroom. I had a comfy desk in the window, snacks and I was close to the bathroom – typical me. Good to go, I joined a Zoom meeting. I was halfway through it, when one of the painters burst through the door. All I heard was one word.
“AGUA!”
I stared at him thinking he needed a drink. It took me a second to realize he had a bit too much panic on his face to just be thirsty.
I looked at the faces of my colleagues on my computer screen and back at the painter. Still not sure what was happening, I jumped up mid sentence and followed the painter to the top of the stairs. That’s when I saw it. Agua. My heart sank. Water was running down the hall and out both the front and back door. Scratch that. It wasn’t running. It was gushing!
“What the heck happened?” I inquired as I quickly grabbed every towel we owned from the closet.
I raced down the soggy stairs trying to figure out what was happening, stop it from happening and keep from choking the life out of the two painters standing dumbfounded in front of me.
“Go to the street and turn off the water!” I ordered.
The guy couldn’t find a tool to do that so we searched for a few precious minutes. (We now have one hung in a prominent place in the garage. I may or may not have several spare ones in various places. “As God is my witness….” < Say that in your best Scarlet O’Hara voice.)
Once we finally got the water turned off, over 50% of the downstairs of our home was flooded. Our new hardwood floors were ruined. As I worked to remove the inches of water from my home, I interrogated the painters. I learned that while painting the bathroom, they had broken a pipe leading to the sink. So that’s why knucklehead #1 had his finger in the hole when I first came upon this situation.
This scene was followed by months of arguing with insurance providers and a frustrating struggle to put the house back together. Oh and we still needed to paint. Actually we had to start that process over as the walls were damaged. Needless to say, we were not happy. On top of that, the painting company (a reputable one we had used many times over the past 15 years) did not take responsibility for their mistakes adding insult to injury. It was just one of those situations, you wish you weren’t in and one you have to simply learn from and move on. “Vengeance is mine,” saith the Lord.
We learned a very important lesson that day. No matter what you are doing in your house, turn the water off at the street. Let me save you from what happened to us. Just turn the water off. Off. Like at the source. Off. Should I say it louder for the people in the back? Just cut it OFF!
So now you understand why I was one step away from holding a prayer meeting in our bathroom and anointing the toilet with oil prior to its removal. I did rebuke broken pipes and water damage in Jesus name. No weapon, Satan, not a single one, formed against me will prosper.
And I had the plumbers turn the water off at the street.
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the LORD.
Isaiah 54:17
Such a wonderful reminder!