Morning Thoughts
Over 10 years ago, I worked as a manager of a shoe store(let the Al Bundy jokes commence) in Greensboro, NC. One of my regular customers was this grandmother who would bring her grandson in for a pair of shoes semi-regularly.
I was helping them with a selection when she looked at me and said, quite out of the blue, " Do you want a wife?"
I was a bit dumbfounded, but managed to reply in the affirmative. I hoped at some point to be married. She replied, "God just wanted me to ask you that. " Then she took my hand, bowed her head, and said, "Lord, please find Kirk the perfect helpmate."
That event came to mind as I was preparing for work this morning. It struck me differently now, due to the spiritual awakening that I've had over the past couple of years. I realized that it took me better than ten years to get to the point where that prayer could be answered.
I'd like to say that I held on to the faith that the prayer would be answered, but I didn't. After a failed relationship and then living alone, I'd pretty much settled on being single for the rest of my life. Oh, I made half-hearted attempts to move toward dating, but it never felt right.
Then I met Samantha. It took months before I'd do more than read her posts. Then I'd comment. Finally, the e-mails and phone calls started. I hoped and cared, but really, I never seriously considered that I'd wind up in a relationship with someone almost 600 miles away. I mean, anyone who knows me understands that I've never been much of a traveler.
Then, she came to me. It amazes me to say it now, but I knew from our first moments together that I'd marry Samantha. It was like a veil was lift from in front of my eyes. I never believed those stories, but now I do.
All this is to say that things happen in the fullness of time. Had I met Samantha earlier in life, she might not have liked me, or we would not have been able to build the strong relationship that we are building. I had to grow into the man that I am in order to be the husband that I need to be.
Hindsight is 20/20, but never forget that, in the middle of all our wanting and asking, there are things that we do not know. I see the mechanics of prayer a bit differently than some other people of faith, but I do know that the prayer spoken that day so long ago was neither in vain, nor random.
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18: 19-20
I was helping them with a selection when she looked at me and said, quite out of the blue, " Do you want a wife?"
I was a bit dumbfounded, but managed to reply in the affirmative. I hoped at some point to be married. She replied, "God just wanted me to ask you that. " Then she took my hand, bowed her head, and said, "Lord, please find Kirk the perfect helpmate."
That event came to mind as I was preparing for work this morning. It struck me differently now, due to the spiritual awakening that I've had over the past couple of years. I realized that it took me better than ten years to get to the point where that prayer could be answered.
I'd like to say that I held on to the faith that the prayer would be answered, but I didn't. After a failed relationship and then living alone, I'd pretty much settled on being single for the rest of my life. Oh, I made half-hearted attempts to move toward dating, but it never felt right.
Then I met Samantha. It took months before I'd do more than read her posts. Then I'd comment. Finally, the e-mails and phone calls started. I hoped and cared, but really, I never seriously considered that I'd wind up in a relationship with someone almost 600 miles away. I mean, anyone who knows me understands that I've never been much of a traveler.
Then, she came to me. It amazes me to say it now, but I knew from our first moments together that I'd marry Samantha. It was like a veil was lift from in front of my eyes. I never believed those stories, but now I do.
All this is to say that things happen in the fullness of time. Had I met Samantha earlier in life, she might not have liked me, or we would not have been able to build the strong relationship that we are building. I had to grow into the man that I am in order to be the husband that I need to be.
Hindsight is 20/20, but never forget that, in the middle of all our wanting and asking, there are things that we do not know. I see the mechanics of prayer a bit differently than some other people of faith, but I do know that the prayer spoken that day so long ago was neither in vain, nor random.
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18: 19-20