I am …. no, I used to be terrified of spiders. Not that long ago I was terrified of spiders. When you have children, you have to start putting a brave face on. So I’ve slowly been acclimating myself to a world with spiders. 

And they aren’t that bad. In fact, you should be nice to them. Not cuddly. Just polite. They aren’t the worst thing. Spiders are actually quite useful. There’s a book about it. “Be Nice to Spiders” by Margaret Bloy Graham. It is a wonderful read. 

I live in a home where there are gnats. I’ve tried everything I can do to get rid of the gnats, but they persist. They mostly hang out in my bathroom. In the morning when I get up I stretch my hands and arms by clapping gnats out of existence. 

My parents visited not long ago, and my Dad gave me some gnat advice. “Try keeping a spider.” My innards recoiled. 

Last Wednesday I visited a zoo program with my children. The zoologists brought a tortoise, a lizard, a snake and a tarantula to show. They gave a multitude of interesting facts about Rosie the Chilean Rose Tarantula. Rosie was paraded around so everyone could get an up close look. Rosie mostly wanted to take her nap in peace. 

Spiders stay to themselves. Gnats don’t. Spiders don’t want to touch you or your food. Gnats do. They want to spread their bacteria and germs over everything. 

My girls and I were baking cookies a few days later. A little blur swam into my vision, and I thought it was a gnat. I swatted at it. My girls were pressing close around me, when onto the cookbook that we were all peering at there fell a tiny jumping spider. It had been in my hair. I grabbed the first thing my hand found and smashed it with the baking soda can. That was instinctual. Some actions are hard to untrain. 

Today, I was vacuuming my little home. There, in my bathroom, was Mr. Spider. A generic house spider with thin legs. I left him alone. He can live there. (Under the sink near the shower, in case you want to keep an eye on him while in my bathroom.) I hope he gets some gnats. He’s not as bad a thing as I have always thought him to be. Spiders aren’t the scariest creatures anymore. I’m acclimating. 

There are a few more things in my life that, with acceptance and patience and trust in a sovereign God, won’t be as scary in a few years. Keeping eyes focused on Christ.