Monday, January 7, 2013

Grateful Fast Sunday XXXXVI

The kids at our hotel with the vast African plain behind them.

Before I start, I have to clear something up.  One of my last posts was about us being in Nairobi for six months.  I realized a few days ago that when I put that post up we had only been in Nairobi five months.  I think I was confused because AQP was six months so that meant we had been here for six months.  Our true six months comes the middle of this month.  I feel like time is moving quickly but it must not being moving as quickly as I thought.

With the record set straight, I can move onto what I am grateful for. . .

1.  The beauty of the earth.  We had the opportunity before Christmas to visit the Maasi Mara.  It was incredible.  It was what I always thought of when I thought of Africa.  I am in the middle of writing another post about it that I hope to get up this week so I won’t describe it in detail here.  I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to experience that.

2.  Answers to prayers.  Throughout my life I have had many different types of answers from prayers.  At times, I have received quick unmistakable answers.  Other times, I have felt like my prayers must not be making it to heaven because I did not see any sort of answer.  With time I have realized that I received just as powerful of an answer to the second situation as I did in the first.  The only difference was type of answer and its timing.  In retrospect, I see that Heavenly Father has always answered my prayers – not always in the way I desired but in the way that was best.  This morning I knelt down to pray about an issue that has been plaguing me since we arrived in Nairobi.  I have prayed many times about it but this morning for some reason, I received a quick and decisive answer to that prayer.  I suppose that the answer had really been there all along – maybe my heart just needed to be ready to hear it.  Either way, I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers.

3.  Old friends.  With this move, we have lost contact with some of our old friends.  I couldn’t find their emails when it came time to send out our Thanksgiving letter and I couldn’t remember all of them.  That has tugged at my mind since the end of November.  The last few days I have come to realize that it is OK.  The lack of constant contact or yearly letters won’t take away the special place these friends hold in my heart.

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