NaturallyResilient

About

As a 3rd Grader, a well-meaning Sunday School teacher told me that we should not pray for “things”.  I have developed a different viewpoint on that.  Not only does God listen, He acts.

The Christmas I was 14; I received a ring from my sister-in-law. You need to understand, this sister-in-law was a very hard person to like. She was one who could dish it out but couldn’t take it. She also took things very personally.  I really liked this ring. It had 7 small rings banded together with a dangling gold heart.  I wore this ring whenever I went out.

This was the year the High School Band took a band trip to a pool in east Texas. Don’t ask me why we had to go to east Texas to go swimming but we did. There were changing rooms and lockers where I stored my clothes and my ring, which I snuggled down in the toe of my tennis shoe so it would not slip off my finger while swimming. When it came time to go, I pulled out my clothes and shoes then remembered my ring.  Looking into my shoes I could not find it.  I retraced my steps. Looked in the looker room, the bathrooms, around the pool were we had been standing.  No ring. I was upset. I left my name and phone number with the pool attendants and went home on the school bus. Dur­ing the next week I prayed some one would find that ring and turn it in.  What really worried me about loosing the ring was how my sister-in-law would handle it. I did not want her to think I had been careless with her gift, which in her mind would mean I did not like her gift and so did not like her.

I imagined all kinds of ways that ring would be found.  Some one would be walking along and see something shining on the ground and pick it up or the janitor would be sweeping under the lockers and locate it.  My imagination went wild.

My mother was surprised to receive a call a week later from the pool attendant, they had found my ring! They were in the process of draining the pool and a maintenance man saw something shiny in the pool. He jumped in and pulled it out right before it went down the drain. That was one scenario I had not anticipated.

All through my life, my prayers have been answered in ways I just could not anticipate. It is almost like God saying “Got you”. I think God does have a sense of humor.