ANSWERS
If you've been hanging out here for a while, you may remember when I posted about my season of opposites--when every prayer I uttered seemed to be answered with the exact opposite of my request. I don't need to tell you what that kind of season does to a girl's faith, but I will say that Paul's words about "struck down but not destroyed" certainly ring a bell in my soul.
Well, I have good news to report. One of my biggest frustrations has been my weight gain, partially due to back-to-back pregnancies, and partially due to a gigantic lack of self control on my part. I'm the first to admit I love sweets...but am not terribly fond of sweat. For years I prayed about this situation, frustrated that God never helped me curb my appetite or speed up my metabolism or come to enjoy exercise. It was one more item to add to my prayer pending list.
Slowly but slowly the pounds have been melting off since last summer. So painfully slow, I might add, that it feels imperceptible. The other day as I was in weights class stretching with my friend, she made me laugh so hard I snorted and almost fell over, and this is when God nudged my spirit.
He HAS answered this prayer! Did he increase my metabolism or reduce my appetite? NO! Instead, He sent me a new friend. First we were gymnastics moms hanging out for endless hours watching our children, then we started working out together, and now we actually are becoming friend-friends!
God's answer to my prayer was not the easy way...but His way proved to be 10x more fun, and infinitely more satisfying. Sometimes we focus on what we want and how we want it so intensely that we don't see God's loving hand actually at work.
Have you ever done that, been so focused on what you wanted that you almost missed God's answer? I'd love to hear about it, as testimony can be a powerful faith builder :-)
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Weekend Memories
3 hours ago
11 comments:
I think I'm in the same boat - well the boat with the "God, help me lose weight and curb my appetite" prayers. I think I am still focused on what I want though...
I also came to the realization that I gained a LOT of weight when I got back from Korea for 2 reasons. The first is that I was once again eating more than just rice and noodles most every day (that was the majority of what I ate there - and some other stuff too. I had lost a lot of weight when I went there). The second is that I have come to believe that the other big contributing factor to my weight gain was the my dad's death. Instead of allowing myself to grieve fully, I pigged out on junk. Since then I have realized it seems like a bad habit that I can't break. I need to do something about it though. I think I'm bigger now than I have been in years.
I think I might be realizing that today! See my blog post about hubby's job. I'm hoping this turns into an example - we've been praying that his job would be saved, when it might turn out that it's for our best if he is laid off and goes elsewhere, whether that's to another city's dept or what. I have faith it will work out for our good and God's glory regardless of the details!!
I can SOOOO relate to what you're saying. Thankfully, I'm getting better, but I still tend to look for answered prayer to arrive in the package I believe it should be wrapped in. What I've noticed, though, is that God so often doesn't answer my prayers with the very thing I think I need. In fact, usually what He provides is so far out of left field that I never see it coming. And yet, what He provides with His answers is always perfect. He lovingly provides the exact thing I never knew I wanted and He makes everything all right. How cool is that?!
I'm so glad! A new friend is a treasure!
Oh, yes! I am well acquainted with God's unusual ways. How often I have an expectation of how he will work something out and it is something entirely different, beyond what I could imagine or ask for. But after all, isn't that what he promises? So glad you've been blessed with a new friend.
Congrats on better health. AND YES!
I arrived at a bend in the writer/teacher road. Oh, did I pray! Finish master's and keep teaching at Community College? Or write God's stories full time?
Thirty minutes with the university advisor slammed shut all my previous master's hours, any hope of my near-minor in Spanish being accepted in lieu of a fluency test. A rocky road was constructed, in the form of a degree plan!
On the way home, I fumed and huffed until God practically punched me in the chest. You WANTED an answer, didn't you? Write that story you heard from the brave Irishwoman. Now.
Three years later, my first novel was published.
Why am I soooo slow to learn???
Still stubborn in Normal.
Patti
I love hearing about how He works in all our lives! And it's fun that He blesses us with cyber-friends to share with!
I've missed visiting you. I so wish you were on blogger, then I could look you up so fast, this way, I have to wait for slow feedblitz to inform me of your posts. And I think it missed doing so on a few. :(
Missing God's answer? I must be doing that a lot, because I often think He's not responding to me. After reading this testimony, I'm going try to do better to see HOW He's answering. Thanks, Georgiana, and I'm so glad you're Hearing Him now! And a new friend-friend is an amazing gift, definitely a blessing to praise Him for.
The most recent answered prayer is for a bigger home. (Don't hate me, G!) But even that prayer wasn't answered like I thought. Bigger home, bigger problems, lots of renovations. But BIGGER HOME! And I feel I'm in a season of NO. Nothing I seem to be praying for is coming to pass and it is hard to see answered prayers in it all.
Though I do see potential answered prayers!
And btw, even though I'm off the sweets and sweating regularly, I'm scared to death to get on the scale! Hoping when I do it's not as bad as I think! You go girl with the weight loss, and pray for those of us over 40 while you're at it!
God answered your prayer in a powerful way!
Hi Sharon! Yes He did. I had to remind myself of that today when we were suffering through weights class ;)
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