Yesterday, my very wonderful, and very wise SIL posted as her Facebook status: "Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers." And it kinda hit home for me. I've been thinking...actually, I have had this nagging thought in the back of my mind about the concept of answered/unanswered prayers for a little while now. I like the Garth Brooks song, because it's sweet and romantic, but something about the lyric, "Unanswered prayers" always got me, because I don't think there ARE unanswered prayers...just probably not the answers we were looking for. For example, in Garth's case, he wanted to marry his high school sweetheart. He probably also was praying at the same time that he would marry the person he would and could love for his whole life and be in love with the forever (or something else sentimental like that), thinking that that person had to be his high school sweetheart...of course, a loving and omniscient Father knows that maybe the person that you're with isn't the person you're supposed to be with, like forever. Prayer answered. And perspective, or the passage of time, helps us understand.
Well, I am grateful for all of my answered prayers. Even when the answers come in ways I don't expect.
I seem to remember praying a few weeks ago that I could figure out some way to get Logan back on track. Ever since day-light savings (which I hate), he had been waking up early. Half hour, 45 minutes or so. Not really a big deal, unless you know me. Then it is a big deal, because I like things just so. I'm like that. So I kept wondering what I could do to fix this. I darkened his room, even more...because cardboard and duct-tape on the windows, plus blinds and a blanket wasn't enough. I added another blanket and more stuff around the edges to block out all light. Worked great for naps...still no difference in the mornings. And then this wonderful flu bug hit our house...starting with Max. He was up in the night MANY times...everyone else slept through it (BLESSING!). Logan was next. Dealing with Max and Lucy in the night is one thing. Dealing with Logan in the night stresses me out. Logan never ONCE woke in the night with this flu. Not once. (BLESSING). And...he was so exhausted from the sickness that he started sleeping in until 9am...9:30 even. And now that he's better? Still sleeping. NICE. So even though the flu is not really the answer I was looking for, it was the answer that worked.
Then there's Lucy. I seem to remember blogging about her recently and how she's growing up so fast and she's at school 5 days a week and I feel like I barely get any time with her, and dealing with 3 kids at once sometimes stresses me out, because I'm out of practice. Well...welcome flu. Lucy gets sick next. Now I have 3 kids at home. 3 sick kids at home. And I did it. It was pretty boogerie, with lots of phlegm and mucus, and fevers and whining...but I did it. And I was sweet, and sympathetic (except when they whined about taking their medicine...seriously, do we have to have this fight 4 times a day? Just take the medicine!) Max got better and started going back to school, and suddenly, there were all these beautiful afternoons where Logan would be sleeping and Lucy and I got to just hang out. We watched movies. We watched TV (not a lot of energy for much else). We wrapped presents. In the mornings we did some shopping, which mostly consisted of her sitting in the shopping cart while I shopped, but she was with me. We read. It was great. She's back at school today, and I'm happy for that, because there's only so much time for sitting around when there's learning to be done. But a week or so of hanging out with my girl was really nice. Now, I don't know that blogging about something really constitutes as a prayer...except that it was a prayer of the heart that I could spend more time with her. Again, even though the flu is not really the answer I was looking for, it was the answer that worked.
Lastly, today, I realized that a little something that I thought *might* be happening and I was begging and praying was NOT happening, isn't happening. I don't want to go into more detail then that, except that when I realized that it wasn't happening, I was crazy relieved...but also disappointed. So what does that mean? This prayer was answered EXACTLY how I wanted it to be. And I guess the disappointment is something that will need to be fasted and prayed about sometime very soon so I can figure that one out.
Today, I am grateful for answer to prayers...however they come. Because it may not be what I want...but it's always what I need.
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