GreaThings 2010:6

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What I am thankful for today:

Answered Prayers

I think this year has been a year of more waiting and trusting than the visible and obvious answers to prayers. Yet, there have been little prayers answered every day, and while some of them are almost hard to even explain, they have all meant a lot to me. They’ve boosted my courage when it felt like it was failing, it has strengthened my heart in the hard times, and helped me to stay focused on Him who does care about the little things… like boxes of kleenex or watching the sunset.

There have been some answers that haven’t made sense, at least not yet. But that is when we trust that sometimes “no” or “wait” is God’s best answer to prayer.

I’ve been unable to find any sort of steady, even temporary employment for 16 months now. Before Scott lost his job, this wasn’t so very much of a trouble, but in the past months, not being able to find work has been difficult and stressful at times in the struggle to stretch the pennies and make the ends meet somehow. (But they always have- a miracle because I really don’t know how they have more months than not) I’ve prayed over and over while scouring for anything, anything reasonable that I could do to earn even a little on the side. I’ve submitted job applications for everything from stocking to secretary, to entry level design and food service only to get rejection after rejection, even when I was well qualified. I’ve had a number of “maybe jobs” that fell through for one reason or another. And it was sometimes discouraging and probably more stressful than not having any hope of a job.

But, while I struggled sometimes, and cried sometimes, and wondered how ever it would work out a lot of times, I knew that God works things for His good. I knew that patience and faith and trust in His time and way were best. And I chose those things, and prayed that He’d make me feel patience and trusting. And He did. Every time I asked.

Tomorrow, I start training for a seasonal job with possible advancement to something more permanent sometime after Christmas. The hours are going to be crazy. I’m not looking forward to that. And at the end, I might not even get the job if the schedule isn’t flexible enough to allow me to keep Sabbath. But, I trust that whatever happens at the end of my training, this little answer, this encouragement and the way that He has worked even through out the hiring process has been an answer to prayer that makes the top of my thankful list this month. And even if I only work until Christmas day, the little boost will arrive just in time. So I’m still waiting, and still trusting, but so thankful for this little answer!

As I start training and preparing for this job, I’d covet your prayers, because I feel a little nervous about how it will all work out and about maintaining order in my home in the mean time. But… as a dear girl friend reminded me, His grace is sufficient.  It is. I know it is.

There are other little answers too.  So many of them wrapped up in the days of this year past, and even though some of them can’t be expressed in words here, each one glows in my heart and the pages of my journal as testimony to the fact that He does answer prayer. Not all of my answers have been easy ones, but they have all been good and perfect, because they came from Him.

What answered prayers and miracles have you experienced in your life this past year?

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