I want to tell you about some answered prayer that were a very long time coming. On a day like Thanksgiving, I am overwhelmed with my countless reasons to be thankful. So often, I feel like we toss around the words, “blessed” and “blessings,” but I do not want to take my blessings for granted. If I were to list them, it would take me weeks to try and count them all. Even then, I would fail listing my many, many blessings. My precious Terry is my blessing. Michala is my blessing. My sister-friends are my blessings … you see where I’m going with this.
I am so fortunate to have been raised by parents who poured Jesus into us, and filled our hearts with total love and built us up with a foundation in the love and grace of Jesus.
Not everyone has that kind of background and upbringing, though, and I get it. I really do. Not everyone was raised by people who breathe Jesus into them. But Jesus is available to every single one of us to love, bless and refresh us. He brings light into our darkness. And when we ask Him to bring people into our lives to refresh our spirits, He never fails us.
For so many years, I prayed specifically over Michala’s future. I have always prayed for sweet, Jesus loving friends to fill her life. I have prayed over her future husband ever since I was pregnant. I have prayed for her college roommates since she was in middle and high school. I have prayed for her future inlaws to be loving, welcoming and gracious.
Y’all. God hears all of our prayers, and then some. And He answers them in His perfect timing, according to His will.
Michala’s first big event during the first week of her freshman year, she went to Cru. (Campus Crusade for Christ) On that first night, she met one of her now roommates. Then, as the freshman year began to unfold, she met her other two roommates. These girls are not just her roommates. They are her sisters. The, “get in the trenches, and do everyday life with one another, sisters.” The girls who see one another through the good times and the bad. They live together and they love one another, together. They pray and they worship together. Yes. Their apartment is super cute, and decorated beautifully. But more than that, it is decorated with the love and kindness a mama’s heart dreams of, and prays for, for her child.
One of her roommates texted me a couple of months ago and asked what Michala likes when she’s sick, because she hated to see her not feeling well, and wanted to do something to cheer her up. The other one pops out of her bedroom anytime Michala has a big exam and asks her, “How did it go? How did you do?” The third roommate and Michala do a weekly Bible study together. They all have very different majors, but they have one thing in common: their love for Jesus.
I love these girls so much. I cannot adequately express the amount of love Terry and I have for these girls. They are more than precious … they are her sisters. These are going to be her “friends for life,” sister-friend girls. We live too far away for me to be able to go over there and hug them every single day. But I pray for them every single day. And I thank God for them, every single day.
I have so many reasons to be overwhelmed with thankfulness today and every single day. For so many years I prayed about and for Terry. My heart was shattered for so many reasons when we broke up; I resented the distance. I was too impatient. It’s a very long story. I was a fool. But God.
God had such a beautiful plan … a plan for immeasurably more.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” - Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
Today, may you place your trust in our God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. But remember, The immeasurably more part is according to His will, not yours and mine. If you cannot think of another single blessing today to count, when it comes to counting our blessings, count that one. Because of Jesus’ gift to us on the cross, He is able to do immeasurably more in your life.