5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:5-7, NLT)
In the aftermath of a tumultuous political season, and much disagreement in our nation, I wanted to share an encouraging reminder of a small reason I had to be thankful and report some good news. America is still a great place with great, honest, hard-working people. I recently met some of them, and I wanted to share my experience. Let me tell you the story. It’s the story of a miracle on the road of my everyday life.
Here’s the backstory first, though. I’m a Christian and an author who takes St. Paul’s words to the Philippian Church to heart. He wrote in the New Testament book of the same name that believers should “pray about everything” and “thank (God)” for “all he has done.” So, I do. It’s just part of my lifestyle. I pray about the small and the large things in life. For example, I pray for God’s guidance and protection in my everyday affairs. Recently, I had an experience that gave me direct evidence that God was hearing those prayers. I believe by faith that he is, but this was one of those small “God winks” or “divine appointments” that confirmed my faith, and it made me smile. Here’s what’s happened.
I had hurried home from a Starbucks coffee shop where I had been writing and my daughter had been doing her homework. We like to “study” together, but separately, in the same local Starbucks. On my way home, I had to swing over to the local pet groomer to pick up my two dogs Joy and Sadie, both Cavalier-Bichon mixes, before a conference call was scheduled for my ministry network. I was in a hurry. I picked up the dogs at Pet Smart before rushing home for the conference call. The dogs were happy to see me, and vice versa. They looked cute and smelled great! We got home, I fed them their dinner, and I jumped on the conference call to pray with my ministry colleagues.
It wasn’t until the next day that I realized that I had left one of my wallets somewhere. It was missing from my purse. I concluded that it had to be at either Starbucks or Pet Smart, both of which I had visited the previous day. I should explain that this “wallet” happened to be my Envelope System from a financial planning course that I took at my church, a simple budgeting system for the Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. It contained all of my cash so I was concerned to have misplaced it, to say the least. But I didn’t panic; I had a peace in my heart. I promptly prayed, then I called Pet Smart. After I explained my problem, I was immediately connected with the store manager, who told me that indeed my wallet had been found, safely kept and that I could come in and pick it up. WOW! What a blessing.
When I arrived at the store, I met Adam, the store manager. My wallet was retrieved and returned to me, cash intact, and I had a wonderful conversation with him in which I was able to thank him profusely for his staff’s honesty and great customer service. He was such a nice guy that I wanted to publicly commend him and remind you that America is still full of honest, hard-working people who still do the right thing when no one is looking. My everyday prayers about “everything” were answered through at least two honest people, who may not even have known that they were part of an answered prayer.
I hope you are encouraged that God is listening and that he has good people out there on the road of our everyday lives.
*Content copyright Janet Decaster Perrin. Used with permission.
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