Fear of Fire

Our Home would have burned

The red curling iron and flashlight

     I was awakened suddenly about 11:00 pm from a deep sleep.  I could sense something was wrong.  I was very tired and did not want to get out of bed, I was so dead tired I would have gone back to sleep but the uncomfortable feeling stayed with me.  I finally said “ OK, I will get up, but I don’t know what for.”   I didn't know what to do so I decided to check and make sure both doors were securely locked.  I checked and they were locked with deadbolts on.  As I was walking back to my bedroom at the end of the hallway, I glanced into the bathroom, and there on the carpet laid what appeared to me, my husband’s big red flashlight glowing in the dark.  I reached in the dark to turn it off and burned my hand.  As I jumped back, I turned on the light and realized it was our big red curling iron, turned on and lying there on the carpet.  The carpet was as hot as the curling iron.  I put a wet cold rag on it for fear it was ready to catch fire.  The palm of my hand burned the rest of the night, and I couldn't sleep, not because of the burn but because of the thought that our home very easily could have burned with our entire family in it. 

     I just lay there in great awe and gratitude that I was prompted to wake up and check on something.  I could just imagine at church the next day everyone saying “Did you hear the fire trucks last night, did you know the Lee’s home was burnt with their whole family in it?”

     The next morning I asked my 3 teenage girls, who left the curling iron on, no one confessed?  I presumed that it was knocked off the counter by one of the three granddaughters that were spending the night, when they got up to go to the bathroom. 
     We also checked our smoke alarms and neither worked for lack of a new batteries.

     I learned two good lessons that night.  I cannot afford to live without the companionship of the Holy Ghost.  Oh how glad I went to bed that night with a prayer blessing my family, an open heart and mind to be able to receive the spirit, instead of the "Late Night Show" or other worldly things to occupy my mind.  I also was reminded that I need to always follow the promptings when they come no matter how inconvenient it might be (like exhaustion).