when answered prayer takes time...

Time is such an elusive concept.  Try as you might,  you cannot nail jello to a tree, nor can you hold on to time.  It oozes in and out and around your fingers, runs down your arms as you try desperately to hold on to it.  And, all that is left is the sticky residue.  

Why is it that I know this about jello, and, 

yet, I fail to remember this about time?  

The greatest question is this... why, when I pray, do I expect the Creator of time, who is indeed timeless, to be bound by this elusive concept I call time?  


He created it when He separated the day from the night.  He owns it.... He owns my time as He is the only One who knows my days.  This my heart knows and recognizes...  

...the part my heart struggles with... 

His time and my time are not the same time.

Yesterday, I sat and watched and listened.  My man, the one who stole my heart 20 years ago or so, stood with a microphone, his Bible and the elements of communion on the table in front of Him.  He read of us, mere mortals, partaking of Christ's body.  He prayed that we would hunger for Him... desire more.  He stood there as a leader of our church, one of five elders who lead the sheep.  


He stood and read and prayed and my heart finally remembered.  My heart that suffers daily from amnesia, had forgotten the time I spent praying for a spiritual leader in our home.  My forgetful heart had forgotten the time on my knees with tears on my face praying that God would intervene... that He would raise up a leader within the walls of the house I call home.  I prayed that their daddy, those who were probably ages 7, 5 and 1, would lead them.


Yesterday, I looked and saw my girl who will soon be thirteen.... I saw her 15 year old older brother... and the 8 year old not-so-little-one.  Time has gone by while my heart has forgotten my prayer.  While the days between those prayers and now have been filled with ball practice, birthdays and family vacations, God was at work.  I couldn't see and I didn't know... the work that was done in the deep and private place of a soul that loves Jesus.

...all that time went by and I thought God had forgotten. 

 I forget, He never does.  

He who created time and created me... He who created my man and the three we call ours... He knew what this mere mortal thought she recognized years ago...


... He knew that NOW is the time for leadership in my home.  Now is the time to take a man cub and make him a man.  Now is the time to model for the one more woman than girl what a godly man looks like.  Now is the time... because time ticks by second by second and soon they will be the man or the woman looking for the godly man.  

Each evening, I sit and watch and listen as the leader of this home takes us through the Old Testament.  He who is faithful, even when I am not, gathers us around God's Word as we read and we pray together.  Sometimes I am tired... sometimes the kids are tired... sometimes we come with less than joyful hearts and yet he never waivers, he just reads and he prays... and we follow him.

Yesterday, my heart realized that answering prayer sometimes takes this elusive thought called time because God's time and my time are not the same... at all.


Joining in with the gratitude community at Ann's... counting the daily gifts of grace given by Grace on this Multitude Monday.  


~*~


... for a quick trip to Mama and Papa's
... for snippets of conversation on the way
... for a few moments each day with each of my 3 before the jello runs down the tree


... for rest
... for prayer
... for recognizing a spiritual battle for what it is


... for time with friends, new and old
... for the privilege to pray for loved ones
... for a mental-health day for the girl


... for a loose splint and less swelling
... for a PE teacher who understands
... for healing


... for times when He moves me from my comfort zone
... for words that came while fingers typed an email
... for prayer coverage


... for the recognition that the leader I prayed for is my life teammate
... for answered prayer, even when I don't realize it
... for the time between that makes us all more in His image