I survived April Fool's Day

In my family we aren't real fans of April Fool's Day. We used to be.

My mother has played some good ones on me. One year she woke me out of a dead sleep and said that we were snowed in and needed to start shoveling our way out. She handed me a shovel at the front door and told me to start shoveling (I was still in my PJ's and was frantically trying to get my shoes on.) I opened the front door ready to start shoveling only to see it was a bright sunny day with not a snowflake in sight... "April Fool's."

Another time she sent me to school with a note on my back that said, "My mommy put this note on my back... April Fool's." I was teased by a few people before a kind friend removed it for me.

I got her good one year though. She had just made a cake and it was sitting on the kitchen table. She was getting dressed and I stated yelling that there was an ant walking on the cake. (I was pretty young and we had just moved into our house. We had an ant problem at the time so it wasn't a far stretch that there could be an ant on the cake.) She comes out half dressed yelling, "Get it! Kill it!" I started yelling, "I can't." I had laid a dead ant beside the cake on the table. She saw it. I told her I was finally able to get it, but it had crawled all over the cake. She was ready to throw the cake away (I think she was afraid it had tracked ant poison on the cake or something.) Just before she threw it away I said, "April Fool's."

But April Fool's Day got out of control one year when I was about 13 years old. My mom was always so good at pranks that I would spend days trying to think up ways to get her. I made a list of all the things I was going to do. As a 13 year old, I didn't have a clear understanding of overkill. I played about 20 some pranks on my parents that day. I switched the salt and the sugar. I put Vaseline on the door knobs. I even locked my parents in the game room. About every half hour there was a new prank. By the end of the day no one was laughing and I had pushed my parents’ last button. The day ended with us getting into a big argument and me calling my dad and telling him I was coming to live with him. To this day he will tell you he thought it was an April Fool's joke... it wasn't. My parents only lived across town from each other. I moved in with my dad and step-mom for the next three years. That was the start of some really rocky teenage years.

I wish I could go back and change that day. I really hurt my mom and step-dad that day. And I really shocked my dad and step-mom that day. I am so grateful that my childhood is behind me. I wouldn't ever want to go back. I am also grateful for forgiveness. My family and I have survived April Fool's Day and still love each other. That is by the grace of God alone. I don't like to think back to that time in my life much, but April Fool's Day is always a reminder of what the Lord has done in my life and how he has brought healing to me and my family.

No one in my family plays an April Fool's Day prank anymore. But I would venture to guess that we are thinking back to that day today.

How grateful I am for my family. How grateful I am that we all survived April Fool's Day. Thank you Lord.