Answered Prayers

Happy New Year Everyone! A bit late, but we went on a quick, hastily planned road trip and returned late last night. I think it was Saturday night when Eric said he wanted to go to NYC for his birthday. Actually he wanted it to be his birthday GIFT, not be there on his birthday, because he is currently on a company-wide, enforced "vacation". He decided he wanted to take advantage of the time off and do something fun together as a family, and his "something fun" was to take the train to NYC. Sad to report, that is NOT where we went. It was too expensive, probably due to being over New Year's Eve. Instead we drove to Charleston, South Carolina. We had a good trip, but I won't bore you with the details.

I want to highlight two HUGE prayer requests and one not-so-huge one that God has answered for our family this past year. If you know me, you already know about two of these, but one is brand new. Let me set the stage a bit:

In the spring of 2007 we began praying for Sarah, a little girl from Anna's school who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. She had a L-O-N-G, difficult fight with some unbelievably difficult (life threatening) side effects. We were a teeny-tiny part of an ARMY of people that were praying for Sarah. It was awesome to be a part of it. On May 11, 2008 Sarah was officially declared IN REMISSION. I had prepared my kids for the possibility that Sarah might die, so it was awesome for them to witness God answering their prayer in such a huge way. They prayed before every meal and at other special times that God would heal Sarah. Once she was declared in remission I must say we floundered a bit. Now what would we pray for?

About that time we were also floundering in our quest for a church home, so I suggested to the kids that they pray that God would help us to find a new church. Our search had not been going well... But it wasn't long after we began praying for a church that we visited Manassas Assembly of God - a church I had long resisted visiting. When we picked the kids up from their "Sunday School" classes (we actually go on Saturday night) Anna declared "Mom, we don't have to pray for a church anymore!" She loved it, and that was a wonderful answer to prayer because she had grown very tired of looking at churches. Two down...

Shortly after that I began receiving a series of phone calls from people with SERIOUS prayer requests. I shared just one of those requests with my kids, partly so that they would again have something tangible to pray about and partly because, for various reasons, the other requests are not things I felt should be shared with my children. And so they began praying. I will leave the name blank, but here is a part of what my kids have been praying at every meal for the past two months: "Please help ___________ not to get divorced." So simple. The problem was complex, but the kids boiled it down to that - help __________ not to get divorced. So guess what? Last night when we returned from South Carolina I began listening to the messages:

1. Hola. Blah blah blah blah Jose.... in Spanish. DELETE. We get these all the time - lots of Spanish speaking people who don't pay their bills use our telephone number on their credit apps or something. We get these calls ALL THE TIME!

2. You seem to have missed our appointment for... Yup. OOPS! Sorry...

3. Good Morning..... Happy New Year.............(Need to return that call and explain why we weren't here to answer the call.)

4. "Hi. This is _____________. I just wanted to let you know that I have moved home."

Oh my goodness! Do you realize who that is Anna? YES! Anna did a happy dance! God answered another prayer!!! ____________ is not getting divorced - she is back with her husband!!!!!!! Woo Hoo! I am in tears. God is SO GOOD! You know, it is BEYOND GOOD that He is healing my friends marriage - I am unbelievably, ecstatically happy about that. And I'm afraid to say this, but I am even happier about the fact that He is answering my kids prayers! They are learning, at such young ages, that their God is REAL and He CARES about everything they bring to Him! And He is BIG ENOUGH TO DO IT! Thank you, God.

What about you? Do you have things that need fixing? We all do. Bring those things to God. You don't need fancy words - my kids proved that. Just ask Him and trust that He loves you and He is BIG and He wants to help, if only you will ask.

May God bless you with answered prayers in 2009.

In Christ's Love,
Laura