Category: Encouragement

Three Prayers Answered

So my last post was about unanswered prayer. Right on its heels comes this post, which is about three prayers that were all answered in the same day. God definitely works in mysterious ways. 🙂

Monday I began my first day of school at a local Institute to learn Microsoft Office and Quickbooks. It was the culmination of months of prayer and hard work. I had sought direction for a viable career plan, along with financial assistance to achieve that plan, through an agency for vocational rehabilitation. However I met with a lot of red tape in the beginning, instead of the progress that I was hoping and praying for. But thankfully, my counselor and I decided on a career plan and she was able to get my schooling funded! I was ecstatic, but still nervous about actually starting school. Well, I had a great first day of class, and I’m looking forward to the rest of my training. Prayer number one: answered.

The second prayer involved my Steeped Tea business, A Heart for Tea. I had been very anxious about how everything would work out, but Monday there was a mini breakthrough. I was able to complete an online “ParTEA” and submit an order through which I actually made a commission, along with earning free products! The process of getting to that point was not easy, and I know that I will need to continue to take small steps forward…but it’s a little victory, and for this answered prayer I am grateful!

Lastly, our church hand-bell choir has been practicing a more difficult song to play for Easter services. I had been attempting to focus on having fun and allowing myself to make mistakes, which was helpful. I practiced at home to try to learn my part better, but I still had difficulties at our practices. Monday afternoon I was able to find a way to get my part down, and I did fairly well at our practice! I was so proud of myself – but the credit really goes to God, who enabled me to play to the best of my ability and to play well.

I know these may seem like small things, but to me they were huge. I’m also learning that just because a prayer isn’t answered right away or “just the way I want it to be,” doesn’t mean that it won’t be answered. God has His ways and He has perfect timing. I’m just blessed to be a part of His lovingly orchestrated plan. ❤

Photo Credit: Aundre Larrow

The Joy Dare – Three Gifts That Changed Today

The challenge for today confused me at first – what did it mean? Something bad that became good? Three gifts that I had received that somehow changed? But as I prayed and as the day went along, God brought me my answers. 🙂

  1. From Clouds to Sunshine – The weather has been pretty nasty over the past several weeks, but today we got a glimpse of the sun. It was warmer than it has been, also, which was good for lifting one’s spirit! There was also a very pretty sunset.sunshine-after-clouds
  2. From Obsessed to Committed – A week ago I signed up to become an Independent Consultant for Steeped Tea, and I have gone a little crazy trying to learn everything that I can. I was getting to the point of being obsessive about it all. But today I decided that I want to take Sundays off; I’m not going to do anything business related. And I think it’s a good choice for me, as I can easily allow things to be taken out of perspective. I can still work hard and be committed, I just need to keep things in their rightful place. 🙂
  3. From Scratching the Surface to Digging Deeper – I was recently thinking about how I want to study the Bible more – to “dig a little deeper” in my understanding. Then today an opportunity presented itself: to do a Bible study using a book called “The Purpose Driven Life,” by Rick Warren. I’m going to run with it! The neat thing is that I was able to start my reading today, in place of doing more research for my business. It’s pretty cool how God works!purpose-driven-life

Praise God for Three Gifts that Changed Today! ❤

The Joy Dare – Three Surprise Gifts

I slept in late this morning (I couldn’t fall asleep last night), so I was concerned that I wouldn’t have much time to encounter my “Three Surprise Gifts” today. But as I’ve mentioned in the past, God always seems to provide! 🙂

  1. A Video that Made me Smile – I have a friend on the blogosphere named “Z,” and she is just AWESOME. I hopped on over to her site today, and was surprised by the amusement that a video she had posted gave to me. 😀 It is a video of her preparing a cup of tea. It may not sound like it would be too enthralling, but, because of Z, it was! You MUST visit her blog and check out the video. It is so entirely cute! And please, read her posts and get to know her better. She is such a special little lady! ❤
  2. Coinciding Pet Naps – I know that it might not seem like much, but my dog Daisy and cat Misty took naps at the same time today. This enabled me to be able to fill out some paperwork that I needed to complete for an upcoming doctor’s appointment. It is not all the time that this happens, so I was – yes – pleasantly SURPRISED! 😉
  3. An Awesome Handbell Rehearsal – My last surprise came this evening as our handbell choir practiced for the final time before our performance this Sunday. It was wondrous! Did I play perfectly? No. Did I nail every part that I was supposed to? No. But there were one or two repetitions of the more difficult piece we’re performing that made me happy, because I actually played a section correctly that I had been struggling with. Now I’m just praying that I remember how to recreate this for the performance!

Praise God for Three Surprise Gifts of Unexpected Grace! ❤

Photo Credit: Zwaddi