The Doormat Incident

As a mother of course you want your children to be safe. I’m reminded of one particular incident my young son and I shared. As it unfolded, the truth of Psalm 34:7 came to my mind, “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear [trust] him, and delivers them.”

It was a nice afternoon, and I told my son we’d go to the park but instead of going out the front door we’d go out the kitchen door and down the walkway to the front gate. He opened the kitchen door and stepped on the doormat with me right behind him. But when I stepped on the doormat I thought I saw something under the doormat…and it had a long skinny tail!

Immediately without thinking I yelled ‘RUN, it might be a snake’. Boy did my son hightail it out of the yard, through the gate, and onto the driveway. I started to run then quickly stopped. I thought perhaps it wasn’t really a snake and I should find out what was under the doormat. I went back. Carefully I pulled up the opposite edge of the doormat. It wasn’t a snake but a long-tailed lizard. Harmless.

By that point, my son came cautiously back up the walkway, and I told him, “it’s okay, it’s not a snake…just a lizard.” Poor kiddo. He thought a snake was chasing him, I’m sure. He wasn’t too happy with me and didn’t like that I’d scared him. After that incident we both remembered to always check under the doormat whenever we walked out that door. There weren’t any more lizards after that one scared us both. My son, even to this day, doesn’t let me forget his traumatic experience, and we still laugh about it today.