I was with my family today at the Choctaw headquarters when on our phones we got an alert for a tornado. It wasn’t a watch telling us that there were possible tornados in the area. It was a warning telling us that there was a tornado in the area. The alert said to take shelter and the best place was in basement or storm shelter. A security officer asked us to go to the basement of the building. There were sirens going off outside.
This situation might be familiar to some people, but it wasn’t familiar to me. The worst part is I had just watched a documentary on tornadoes a couple weeks ago. The film showed how dangerous and destructive they can be. In my mind, I could imagine all the destruction that could happen to our car and everything above us. I knew all the worst-case scenarios and I just didn’t want to face them.
The part that I hated the most was my family didn’t want to wait for the storm to pass. They didn’t think it was too bad. My faith tells me that God will be with me and take care of me. I believe that I won’t die until my time comes and because of that I’m not afraid of dying too soon. Yet, I am afraid of seeing the people around me die. In my worst-case scenarios, I could see my family and I getting into a car wreck due to the tornado. I don’t want to see my loved ones suffer. I started to have a panic attack just thinking of it.
I think I could suffer through anything, but I’m not sure I could handle seeing those I love suffer. I didn’t realize how much that idea scared me until today. I can take anything God wants to throw at me, but it’s very difficult to remember that God has a plan for everyone. If something happens to my someone I love, then I am going to have to accept that as part of God’s plan, too. That’s going to be very difficult.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
