This Christmas caused a lot of genuine gratefulness in my heart and reminded me of where I was last year. I am so glad God answers prayers and our wonderful church reminds us of that.
On the Sunday before Christmas we were reminded how powerful prayer is and how we tend to use it as a last resort, when there's nothing else to do but pray: And in reality prayer is our greatest power. We then learned how God provided the land for our new church building for exactly the amount of money our congregations has pledged, as well as answered a prayer of who our new family pastor will be, and it happens to be one of our favorite couples at church who has prayed and counseled with us in the past.
After service Ryan and I decided we would ask that person to pray with us on behalf of Nonnie, who had been sick with pneumonia and complications from it and was in the hospital, not doing well at all.
The next morning my dad announced that she was doing better and she could recover at home for Christmas! I know my whole family was calling out to God on her behalf and I know he heard us!
It makes me think of this whole year. Last Christmas was very difficult for me. I had a precious little boy whom my whole family had come to love as part of the family and I was given fair warning that he was to be reunited with his own family in the coming months after Christmas.
I remember feeling so lonely and worthless, dead inside as a woman, and crying out to God to let that be the last Christmas I felt that way. Let that be the last Christmas still pleading for a child of our own. I asked for the some thing several months later on Mother's Day. "Please let this be the last time this day is so painful to me. And a month later, just before Father's Day, God answered our prayers that we had been praying for nearly 2 years with the most exciting joyful news we could imagine. We are going to have a baby!
Several months later I found myself feeling lonely in a different way. Alone in an apartment, in a town I was unfamiliar with, no friends or family near by or "on-call" so to speak like what I have always known and my heart grew heavy. I prayed that if there was any way for us to get back home before the baby was born that God would make it happen.
And he did!
Not only that but the time we spent away in Houston was very valuable to our spiritual growth and in our general maturity. We have changed for the better and got to return with fresh new perspectives just in time for Christmas.
This year has not been easy but it has been a beneficial journey filled with answered prayers that reminds me to live life prayerfully and not to be afraid to ask for big things.
This Christmas was even more enjoyable than an ordinary Christmas in light of the sorrow I experienced last year and how different this year felt from that.
Ryan and I will have our Goals Meeting for 2013 sometime this weekend and I'm so blessed to go into that with such a fresh and grateful perspective, knowing how God really does answer our prayers.
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