He Answers Prayers

Several of the blogs I read have chosen this month to take time to share a few things they are thankful for and with it being Thanksgiving this week, I thought it appropriate to share one of mine:

I’m thankful for a God who answers prayer.

Last night at our church’s annual Harvest Dinner, I listened with tears in my eyes as some friends of ours got up to share about their struggle with infertility these past several years. After countless surgeries, different medications, and multiple opinions from several doctors they had been told, more or less, “You are never going to have a baby.”

She is now nearly three months pregnant.

As I recalled all the hours we spent praying, all the tears that had been shed, I couldn’t help but think, “What a good God we serve!”

But would He still be good, even if He hadn’t given us the answer we wanted? It’s a fair question.

The answer is yes. His goodness doesn’t depend on our satisfaction with our circumstances. In fact, at times He brings difficult circumstances into our lives because He is good and He knows what’s best for us – even though it doesn’t always mesh with what we think is best for us.

Yet other times He does choose to answer our prayers with a “Yes” instead of a “No” giving us tangible evidence that He cares and wants to hear about the details of our lives – the big things and the small things.

And speaking of small things…

Last week was a long one. Dave had to work all day on Saturday, we were going non-stop all day Sunday, and by the time we collapsed into bed, I was beat. Sophia hadn’t slept well the night before and I turned to Dave and said, “I just don’t feel like I can do this tonight. All I want to do is go to bed and sleep till morning.”

He said, “Why don’t we pray about it?”

And I said fine even though in the back of my head I was thinking how silly and selfish God must think my request must be. I wouldn’t have verbalized this, but realistically, I didn’t think praying would make any difference.

Do you know what?

For the first time ever in her five and half weeks of life, Sophia slept through the night. Like, EIGHT HOURS.

Do you know what eight hours of sleep feels like after several weeks of being up for middle of the night feedings? It feels amazing.

Some may call it coincidence but I know better.

So I’m thankful. Thankful for a God who graciously reminded me this week that He cares about the big things, like pregnancy, and the small things, like a good night’s sleep.