Hiccups

We've all heard every line in the book about 'How to Cure Your Hiccups'. In fact, I bet we're all authors of our own novels about how to get rid of the hiccups and why our way works best. Hiccup remedies usually consist of drinking water, holding your breath, drinking water while holding your breath, or drinking water while holding your breath and doing some sort of upside down somersault. I hate the hiccups.

I got the hiccups today. If you know me well, you know that my hiccups are incredibly painful, last FOREVER, come in multiples throughout my day, and no home-remedy ever works to make them stop. Every once in a while I'll get the hiccups during class and random people I don't know slide water bottles across tables, suggesting I should drink some of their water to get rid of my hiccups. When I was in second grade, I had to sing "You've Got a Friend in Me" from ToyStory in front of the whole class...by myself...in spanish...while I had the hiccups. I hate the hiccups.

I decided that I today was the day that I was going to fool my hiccups through a common method used on younger siblings known as 'reverse psychology'. I convinced myself that if I told my hiccups that I loved them and wanted them to stay, that they'd leave. It didn't work. I then moved on to bigger and better ideas. I decided that I should use my hiccups as a form of talking with Jesus through prayer. After every hiccup, I prayed for someone new--whether it be whoever popped into my head at the moment, or whoever I saw as I was driving home from the beach, I prayed for them. To the man driving the blue cherokee, I prayed for you. To the woman pushing the shopping cart on Redondo Avenue, I prayed for you. To the man in the black shirt jaywalking, I prayed for you. Twice, actually. To the woman at the bus stop, I prayed for you. To Josh, I prayed for you. To my mom, I prayed for you. To my dad, I prayed for you. To my brother, I prayed for you. To leigh, nato, hyde, and mer, I prayed for you. To Jesse, I prayed for you. To Jesse's family, I prayed for you. To the man pulling out of the driveway in Signal Hill, I prayed for you. To Anthony, I prayed for you. To Christian, I prayed for you. To Tay, Kendall, and Lindsay, I prayed for you. To the two boys walking on the right side of the sidewalk and the woman walking her little dog, I prayed for you.

At first it seemed really funny...almost like a game...as if I had to think of something really good to pray about for a specific person. I quickly realized a few very valuable points--the first was that it didn't matter if I couldn't form words quickly enough or think of anything to say fast enough in time for the next hiccup to come, because that meant two things--1, that Jesus already knew how they needed to be prayed for, and 2, if I wasn't finished with my prayer by the time the next hiccup surfaced, that I was supposed to pray for them for one more hiccup. We could all use a little extra prayer. It also means that because my heart is in tune with Jesus' heart, He was able to give me the words to say in order to pray for a certain person's needs--I believe that for the people I prayed for who are strangers to me as well as those who I know well, Jesus not only gave me words to say, but also placed people who were in desperate need of prayer on my path and directly in my sight or into my mind. I believe that he sent me down Redondo Avenue for a purpose today--to pray for those I knew and those I saw. Today caused me to love the hiccups.

Speaking of loving hiccups...

Meet Hiccup and his dragon Toothless from 'How To Train Your Dragon'......also known as...

'The Cutest Movie in the World!!!'

It's a MUST-SEE!