Faith

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Shortly after their small wedding, Rick and Mari knew it was time to start making plans for how Rick would run the science lab and for Rick to prepare a speech on those plans. He'd need to give his speech on a Tuesday. They knew they wanted to replace all evolutionist material with material that covered the Creation and include field trip guides who would explain science from a Christian perspective. Rick intended to say quite a bit in his speech. He intended to talk about his faith and how he came to believe in Jesus and how he had led Joe to Christ, the new materials they used, and ways he wanted to incorporate discussing his faith whenever he explained science to large groups of people. He needed to give his speech a lot of thought and prayer and would probably need to pull an all-nighter coming up with one. The night he decided to work on his speech, which was a Friday night (the Friday before the Tuesday of the speech), as he and Mari were carrying their daughters to bed, Rick said, "Wow, I'm going to need to say a lot in my speech. This has to be well-planned, specific, and professional. I'll need to write a lot of notes and pray a lot, and I'll probably be talking myself hoarse when I give my speech and kill my throat, so I'm thinking that, the day of my speech, I will need to bring Chloraseptic." He laughed a little and hoisted Ashlyn higher onto his hip.

Mari laughed, too. "That's probably true," she agreed, hoisting Emmy higher onto her hip. She and Rick carried Ashlyn and Emmy into their bedroom, which was Ashlyn's but now she shared it with Emmy. They laid their daughters down in their beds, tucked them in, kissed them good night, and left the room. A couple of hours later, Rick kissed Mari and said, "Honey, you go on to bed without me.  I'll be up probably all night working on this long speech and praying."

"OK, Rick, but I'm worried. I want you to get some sleep," Mari said.

"I'll sleep during the day tomorrow."

Mari shot him a look. "Rick, we have two giggly eight-year-old girls. Get real. Come to bed and get some sleep and work on it tomorrow."

"Honey, this is a long speech. If I do it while the girls are awake, I'll just get distracted with their giggling and running around," laughed Rick. "I'll be fine tonight." He kissed her again and went into his den to work on his speech. He prayed that Jesus would give him the right words and that He would help Rick to lead the other scientists to a saving knowledge of Him. Jesus spoke to Rick all throughout the night as Rick wrote draft after draft.

In the morning Rick ate breakfast with Mari and the girls, but then he went straight to bed. "Why is your daddy sleeping during the day?" Emmy asked Ashlyn.

"He was up late working on a speech," Ashlyn answered. "He was up all night. We'll need to be really quiet today."

Mari smiled at the girls as she cleared the breakfast dishes from the table. All Ashlyn and Emmy did was read books and play board games in order to keep the noise level down.

Six hours later, Rick awakened. Yawning and stretching as he came into the living room, he noticed Ashlyn and Emmy playing Scrabble on the living room floor. He walked over to them and said, "Hey, girls." He bent over and kissed each of them on the top of their heads.

"Hi, Daddy," Ashlyn said. "Did you sleep well?"

"I sure did. Never felt so refreshed," Rick said, picking his daughter up and sitting on the couch.

"We were really quiet," Emmy said, "so we wouldn't wake you up."

Rick pulled Emmy onto his lap, too, and kissed both of them. "Thank you, girls. You're both really sweet." He hugged both of them close.

Mari came into the room. "Hi, sweetie." She bent down and kissed Rick on the lips. "Did you have a good, long nap?"

Rick nodded. "I slept really well, and I think it's safe to say my speech is ready to go."

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