Wednesday, August 01, 2007

God Cares

When I am pregnant (and for months afterward), my skin goes haywire ~ all those raging hormones seem to manifest themselves as red bumps on my face. I finally had nice beautiful skin, and then I started having babies.

But, what happened the other day - really taught me a lesson after it hurt my feelings.

I ran into a friend in the morning at the store - where she found out that we were expecting. I did not have a good feeling about the way the conversation went, but I asked God to forgive me. However, I was obviously stressed about this encounter - as it affected my attitude the rest of the morning which Emily can attest to!

I finally managed to work through that attitude and come out positive again after lunch. Emily was bedded down for her nap and Rachel was playing happily nearby. I was sitting on the floor near the toys working on setting up my prayer journal.

Let me just add here that I am very lax about my prayer life - and I know this needs to change and I want it to change. So, I am trying again to become more disciplined in this area. I have asked many friends how they organize or even keep track of all their prayer requests and I decided to give a prayer journal another try.

So, sitting here - listing out things that are on my heart I want to be in prayer over - one of the things that came up was my skin. Let's be realistic - I am very self conscious about it. Could it be worse? Absolutely. Could it be better? Yes.

Just as I finished listing my requests, a car pulled in the driveway. It was the friend I had run into that morning. She knocked on the door and handed me a bag with some skin care products in it. I felt sick. I cried.

Then, it hit me that I had just listed this as a prayer request. Could it be that God cares enough to answer this prayer within five minutes? Yes, it was a huge blow to my pride - and initially to my heart. I still can't put too much thought into it without getting hurt again. But, what passed through my mind was a line from Facing the Giants, "I will still praise You, Lord."

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dearest Monica -- My heart ached for you after reading this post. Yes, God does indeed care! It is very human of you to feel hurt by what happened, but also very mature of you to look for the lesson and God's hand in it. I love you! -- Mom

Anonymous said...

God loves you. Just from what I have read from your post. I know that he loves you. I believe with all my hear that pray's can be answered quickly and some times slowly. God knows our needs some times he waits for us to ask. Because he love you, he knew what you needed right away. I keep a prayer journal, which I also write in favorite scriptures in that I find give me comfort as a struggle to grow. God is watching out for you, and I know he loves you.

Wendi said...

Oh Monica! It is hard to be gracious when all you want to do is hide under a rock. I think many of us have been there. Your conversation spirals out of control before you even realize what is happening! God is good and I believe all of our prayers are answered. One of my favorite songs is "Unanswered Prayers" by Garth Brooks. The song is so true we think our prayers have not been answered and then all of a sudden we realize it has been answered. Just not the way we had hoped.

3boysmama said...

Did you friend mention your skin during your initial conversation? Just wondering if she brought that by "out of the blue" for the friend.

I can imagine what you felt and I know it must hurt. But i'm sure you know that "this too will pass". Pregnancy does such strange things to our body, doesn't it??

God thinks you're beautiful no matter what!

RT said...

Hey Monica,
Thanks for humbling yourself to compose this post. I'm sure it wasn't easy to share something hurtful, whatever kind of lesson you ended up learning from it. Thanks for being sincere.

Anonymous said...

My heart hurts for you. I wish I had some wise words to say, but I appreciate you sharing this with us.

Amberly said...

Congrats on the pregnancy! Great post. I too have skin problems, only mine clears up when I'm pregnant. Very neat about the skin products showing up just after you'd taken that care to God. Maybe I'll do the same. And let me know how those products work for you!

Jthemilker said...

I love your blog because you are so real. Your posts are so easy to relate to. Bless your heart.

Sometimes prayers are answered in the oddest of circumstances.

I keep a prayer journal, not so much of a list of requests, but more so of prayers that I write to the Lord, instead of speak. I also have found that it's easier to make the habit if you find a common activity to associate it with. For example, I used to pray on my drive to work every day. More recently, I pray while I'm working out in the morning. It's like I have an appointment with God every day. Of course I try to make other times when it's just quiet, undivided time with God, but to establish the "habit" I associate it with something. I have been blessed by that.

It's a Mom Thing said...

Bless your heart, Monica. I pray you will be able to work through your hurting heart and wounded pride. I know we all have times like this in our lives. When this happens to me, it makes me think about how I must come across to others sometimes. I also try to understand why I'm really feeling this way.

You are wonderful! Keep your chin up!

Monica Wilkinson said...

Thank you for all your sweet and kind comments. They helped to heal the hurt in my heart and to see that God is still in control!

Miriam - I thought of the same thing yesterday, "How do I come across to others?" Thank you for reminding me of that!

Shawna said...

Oh, Monica, I feel for you, and I can relate. My face is broken out right now due to stress, and that just adds to the problems. God bless your hurt heart.