The other day I overheard my husband ask my 6-year-old son if he felt connected to God when he prayed. He answered, “I don’t know.” My husband started to explain that hearing the big words used by grownups in prayer could pressure him that big words were the way to talk to God. He encouraged him to pray to the Father with the words he would talk to his own daddy with – just normal 6-year-old language.
As I listened I thought how so many times we as “grownups” could answer the exact same way as my son: “I don’t really know if I feel connected to God when I pray.”
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“If we have learned anything over the last 22 years it’s this: God is able to do the impossible! We have seen it time and time again.” ~Tom and Allie Harvey, Safari Zoological Park.
I like to hear and share faith stories—stories of miracles and of God’s provision. Tom and Allie Harvey are living a story of faith through their Safari Zoological Park in Caney, Kansas.
This zoo is different from any other I’ve been to. Tom, Allie and their staff interact with the animals, including tigers, wolves, bears, and lemurs, just to name a few. Personal stories invite visitors into the lives of the animals, making you feel like you know them.
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The vacant field was a popular shortcut to school. Dividing the weed-covered square into two triangles, a path was rutted with evidence of bikes riding through the mud. Hardened by the sun, the deep grooves became permanent ruts from one corner of the field to the other.
I picture that rutted path now when I catch myself slipping into my mind’s default place of fearful thinking. Worry used to be my bedtime routine. Closing my eyes at night, I would meditate on the latest problem, looking at every side and angle in order to find the solution. Did I wake up refreshed?
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May I share something with you? I’m having one of those days months where no matter how hard I try, I don’t feel like I measure up.
We live in an age where I can compare myself to thousands of other women doing the same job I’m doing. I can read their blogs or spend time on Pinterest and catch glimpses of all the things they’re doing that I’m not. And never could.
I’ve never baked a flawlessly decorated cake for my son. I don’t sew or create magnificent scrapbook pages. The messiness of a sandbox gets the better of me sometimes and the thought of mud puddles or keeping any type of bug as a pet sends me into the fetal position.
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“Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger.” James 1:19-20 (The Message)
I have looked at these verses for the past 11 years mainly as parenting verses. Verses to team up with the wisdom of Proverbs 31:26, telling me to open my mouth with wisdom and to have the law of kindness on my tongue. You know, instead of having a tongue that attacks with the lethal skills of Chuck Norris, enforcing the law of “I’m the mommy and I said so!”
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The other day, I was looking through some magazine articles I’d written and I came across one of my poems that was published in a teen magazine years ago. It was written as a prayer and it went like this…
Not Perfect
Lord, help me know
that I’m your design,
unique, of your hands,
of your heart
and your mind.
It’s easy to look in the mirror and see
that I am not perfect…
but I am me.
Sometimes I think I’m too short or too tall.
My feet are too big.
My chest is too small.
My skin is a mess.
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It’s not always easy to keep the faith. Even when we know better, fear rears its ugly head, controlling our thoughts, our words, and our actions. It’s particularly difficult when one crisis after another seems to become the story of our life.
What are you afraid of?
I often feel like I can’t handle any more troubles. Over the past decade my husband and I have faced multiple tests of faith.
The scariest was a case of mistaken identity that threatened to put the love of my life in state prison for four years. An innocent and good man raised up in the ways of the Lord, prosecutors portrayed my husband as a menace to society.
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This month I was able to visit a family who lives in Guyana, South America. We stayed in their home, ate meals together, walked home in the rain after visiting other friends, and spent many hours in their boat on the river. I watched them give hearty handshakes, exchange smiles, hold little scared hands. I watched them give rides, give encouragement, and give hope.
I watched them love.
You see — they’ve been living in a remote part of Guyana for almost five years now, ministering to the needs of the people in areas only reachable by small plane or boat.
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