Be Specific

Have you ever been in a situation and thought to yourself, "oooh, I should have been more specific!" This question can have many answers. I'm sure we all have our stories. Sometimes with my children I'll tell them to clean their room, and I quickly realize - I needed to be more specific. For my daughter Emily who is a competitive gymnast, being specific is vital. If she is off on any of her routines, or even the slightest movements, she gets deducted. Being specific in the area of prayer is no different.

About 7 years ago we were in the process of moving. Our third child was almost 1 and we were living in a 2 bedroom house. The year before my husband and I had mapped out to the tee, and prayed specifically what we would like our house, and especially our back yard, to look like. I had commented several times that I wish we could move into a house like I had when I grew up, because it had a huge yard. Now, for those of you who know me, you know I am sentimental and a little wierd. So, when you mix the two together you get someone (me) who drives not only their children, but also their daycare kids by their old house that they lived in growing up - just so they could see. I even mapped out my old house in one of my journals...like I said, I'm a little wierd!

The week we had made the final descision that we were going to put our house on the market and look for a bigger one, my friend called me. She said that my old house was just put up for sale. So I drove over there, and again because I'm wierd, knocked on the door without an appointment. They graciously let me come in and see it. It looked completely different from when I grew up there, except for a few things, but I loved it. After I went home and told Sean, we took out the mapped house we had made. I am not kidding you, it was exactly what we had drawn out. The back yard was incredibely specific, and they even put up a wall in the family room to make it a four bedroom house, which is what we were looking for. There are so many other details about this, it is to long to write. But, now for the last seven years we have lived in the house I lived in growing up.

What are you praying for? Be specific - be patient - and like I said in the last post, trust that God's timing and His ways, even though they may be different than your's, are perfect!