Category: Watching for God

It was a crazy, exciting, anxiety filled weekend at my house. My 14 year old freshman was preparing to attend her first homecoming dance along with 14 (or so, depending on the day), of her friends. These girls didn’t have dates, but decided to go together as a large group. There were other groups who went as friends as well. I find this to be a really cool trend among these kids; back when I was in high school, if you didn’t have a date, you didn’t get to go. Sometimes traditions change for the better.

We bought her dress over a month prior to the big event and had shoes and alterations done well in advance. Still, my daughter was very anxious. Would anyone ask her to dance? Was her dress as pretty as everyone else’s? How would she do her hair and make-up? While these are normal teenage anxieties, I found myself overwhelmed with my own. Would all of these girls be kind to one another (teenage girls sometimes aren’t). Would we have enough cars to drive all of these girls to the places they needed to go? Would the restaurant be able to handle such a large reservation on a UGA game day? There ended up being twenty kids.

I took a walk and prayed for God’s hand to be on the evening ahead. I prayed that he would touch all of the girls’ hearts and help them to be kind to others and each other. I prayed that he would give them courage to stand up for what is right. I prayed for everyone’s safety and I prayed that they would have a night filled with fun.

The evening went off without a hitch. The girls all got ready at one house and we heard lots of laughter from upstairs. Then we caravaned to a little farm with a pond and got some beautiful pictures, some of the entire group and some individuals and some in smaller groups.  After that, three of us drove to a restaurant where they had dinner reservations and no, the reservation was not a problem. When I arrived at the restaurant, I realized I left my purse at the house where the girls got dressed. I prayed I wouldn’t get stopped by the police. I didn’t mind a ticket at this point, but I was on a mission to get these girls safely to the dance. The girls finished dinner and we were on our way.

We arrived without incident and I felt a little sigh of relief. I dropped them all out and told them I would return in a couple of hours and take them to another girl’s house so they could have a bonfire and spend the night. I retrieved my purse, went home for a little while and returned to the high school. The girls all came out laughing and with great stories. They had a blast. There had been an incident earlier in the evening with inappropriate dancing and quite a few kids left in protest to the administrations’ rules, but these girls stayed together and made some fun memories. I drove them on the last leg of our evening’s journey and helped them unpack their things. I bid them all goodnight, hugged my daughter and headed home.

It was 11:30 when I got home and I was exhausted. I slept in on Sunday and a friend brought her home. She had a great evening. They stayed up late watching movies and talking. She had great memories of her first dance. I was so thankful. I prayed little prayers of thanks all day long for God’s loving hand on the situation. My husband and I, went out later that afternoon to get groceries. We smelled coolant coming from the engine. We turned around and went home to check it out. The van was leaking coolant and was low on oil; it may have an oil leak too.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck and my eyes filled with tears as I thanked God once again for his hand on the events of the evening before. I had driven a van full of girls all over town, in traffic, then late at night. I drove home alone after the final drop off and not once did I have any indication that there was anything going on with my car. If the car would have stalled on the way to the dance, those girls would have been heartbroken, but it didn’t. I had prayed for God’s favor on the evening for the girls almost non-stop and he delivered as he so often does, in ways I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

I won’t know until sometime tomorrow what kind of repairs my van will require, but I will never forget the gratitude that I felt at the very moment I realized that so often when I pray blessings for someone else, God answers with blessings on me. I am just so thrilled that I had my eyes open wide enough to see it.  I could have missed it being upset about the repairs that we will have to pay for, but not this time. This time I saw the blessing because this time I was really looking. How about you? Do you look for the blessings in every situation? How do you watch for God?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My church has been going through some rocky times lately. While this is not uncommon, it still can be kind of miserable when it happens at your own church. The thing about churches is that they are run by people; they are people trying to serve God, but still people. People are broken by nature. Think about what a glass looks like when it’s broken; it has sharp edges. Broken people are like that as well. Most of us have certain parts of us that are sharp and we can cut others as well as get cut ourselves. Feelings sometimes get hurt and people leave the church altogether.  Who wins then?

I was recently talking to a dear friend of mine about our church and its current troubles. She had become very frustrated and was wondering what she should do. (Just for the record, we take turns encouraging each other and that day just happened to be my turn.) We talked for a little while and then we hung up. But, this particular day, I felt like God was in my ear and was putting the idea of pruning in my head, so much so, that I had to call her back and share it with her.

When you prune a tree or a bush, it’s very ugly for a time.  Sometimes you prune way back and sometimes just a little; either way, there’s a season where it looks bare and sometimes, it looks completely dead. But, then something amazing happens. The season changes and that ugly little tree or bush will burst out in growth and bloom more beautifully than it ever did before.  Jesus tells us in John 15 that the Father is a gardener who cuts off every branch that bears no fruit and he prunes every branch that does so that it can be even more fruitful.  She thanked me for calling her back and agreed that maybe I was right.

That was a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, she sent me a text and told me how a good friend of hers was going through a really  bad divorce. The friend called her late one evening for some encouragement. She shared the pruning story. She said her friend began sobbing and told her that was exactly what she needed to hear.

When I read the text, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. God gave me a message and told me to share. I did. My friend then shared it with her friend and was able to bring her some comfort. I think this is part of  God’s plan for us while we are on this side of heaven. I think we are supposed to bring comfort when we can and show kindness and encouragement to our fellow humans.

Jesus told us that the most important commandment was to love the Lord your God with all of your soul, mind and strength and then he said the second most important was to love your neighbor as yourself. He said there was no greater commandment than these two. (Mark 12:28-30) That seems simple enough, right?

Apparently not, just turn on the news. I have to ask myself, how am I doing with loving my neighbor and I have to admit I have a ways to go, but I’m really trying to listen to God’s voice and to take my direction from Him. I probably miss way more opportunities than I take, but that particular day, I think I got it right and I’m so thankful, that my friend listened as well and was able to share a positive outcome. Sharing the love of Christ through loving your neighbor is like tossing a pebble in a lake; you never know how far out the ripples will go. Let’s all toss in a pebble and see how much of a splash we can make today.

Have an awesome day.

Wendy 🙂