Today I want to witness to you the power of prayer. My parents and my grandparents were always praying. They covered our family and everyone we knew with prayers. Today I looked back at my life to see the fruit of those prayers. I bet my grandparents never got to see some of the fruit of their prayers while they were here on earth. The reason I thought this look back was important is because sometimes the answers to our prayers don't look like we want them to, and sometimes we don't even realize our prayers were answered. It is good to take a few minutes every now and then and look back to see the answers to our prayers. Our prayers are so much more powerful than we know. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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We have all seen God working in our lives. However, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives. This is why it is so important we start talking about it more. The more we share our experiences, the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us. If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or click here. It won’t take up much of your time, and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today. Prayerfully consider sharing. Everyone has a story, and the world needs to hear them. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow, and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I. Have a blessed day!
Answered Prayers
Today, I want to witness to you the power of prayer. I am very grateful because my parents are devout Catholics. They both grew up in very Catholic homes, and their parents passed down to them the importance of our faith. They both went to Catholic schools growing up. Sometimes I wish that I lived back when they lived, and it seems like being Catholic was easier. Although, I am not sure it was easier. Sometimes I think that is just what we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better. My mom and dad started dating when they were in High School. My parents, while in High School, used to meet at 5 or 6 in the morning so they could go to daily mass together. Nowadays, kids don’t even want to go to mass on Sunday morning. They don’t want to be up early on a school day, and they certainly don’t want to be in mass before school.
Maybe the same was true back then. Maybe my parents were different from all those around them. Maybe it wasn’t “cool” to go to daily mass back then, and yet they wanted to. Maybe they didn’t want to be at mass necessarily, maybe they just wanted to see each other, and that was the only way they could. I honestly don’t know, although I should ask them. The fact that they were waking up early to go to mass together before school is an answered prayer. Actually, it is probably many answered prayers. It is probably the answer to the prayer, please let me child know you. It is probably the answer to the prayer, please let my child meet a spouse who is Catholic. An answer to, please let my child meet someone who knows the Lord like they do.
I know my grandparents prayed a lot for my parents. and I can see the effects of those prayers, even after my grandparents have gone to meet Jesus. I am sure they are still praying for our family. I am sure they are up in heaven praying blessings and prayers of protection over us as we speak. Isn’t that awesome to think about? When our loved ones die, they don’t stop praying for us. Actually, their prayers probably increase because they don’t have the worldly distractions that we have here on earth. They can devote all their time to praising God and praying for their loved ones left here on Earth.
The reason I say I can see the results of their prayers is because my parents found each other. These days it is more and more rare to find a couple where they are both Catholic. And even if you are lucky enough to find a Catholic spouse, it is rare you are both as excited about the faith as my parents. My mom is the oldest of 10 children ranging from 80 years old down to about 60 or so. All of my mom’s siblings are alive to this day. It is not as if they have all had easy lives. It is not that they have never been sick, they have, and yet they are all still alive and well. That is the answer to so many prayers that probably seemed unanswered at the time. My mom and several of her siblings have had skin cancer, and yet through it all, God has protected them. That is so many answered prayers!
My parents had 11 children. When they got married, they wanted to have 12 children, a whole dozen. The reason for this is that my dad only had one brother, and they didn’t get to play together too much when they were growing up. My dad’s house was always so quiet, and there wasn’t much going on. However, when he went to my mom’s house, it was the opposite. It was never quiet, and there was always something going on. So, they decided to replicate that in their house and have a dozen kids. The fact that I have 10 brothers and sisters is another answer to prayers. Actually, probably several answered prayers as my parents said if they were unable to conceive, they would say a novena, and at the end of it, she would be pregnant.
My mom and dad are both in their early 80’s and are doing great! They are more active than most of their kids are, as they go out square and round dancing three nights a week. They are very involved in the church and run the prayer group there. My mom does the daughters of Isabella at the state level. My dad is the chaplain for the Knights of Columbus and another organization in town. They are healthy enough to remain busy, and I know that is the answer to many prayers.
Another way I can see so many answered prayers is the fact that myself and my siblings are all alive and well. It is not uncommon for large families to lose some of their siblings along the way. It is not uncommon in any size family, actually. However, all my siblings are doing great. I will say we have some close calls. My sister had a mysterious illness when she was younger, and we almost lost her. My brother was pulled through a big machine that makes chicken wire. We definitely could have lost him then. There have been a few suicide attempts in our family. There have been really bad car accidents. My sister had open heart surgery in the 8th grade. One of my brothers jumped out of a plane with the army and hit his head on the side of the plane on his way down. There have been plenty of opportunities when things could have ended very differently, and they didn’t, and I am so thankful for all those answered prayers of protection and healing.
I say all of this to let you know that your prayers are being answered. It is important that you continue to pray, even when you don’t see the results you want. I don’t know if my grandparents knew how important their prayers were. I don’t know if they got to see the fruit of their prayers while they were still here on earth. I don’t know if you will always see the fruit of your prayers either. Sometimes, we don’t recognize the fruit of our prayers. For instance, when Tony lost his job in the military, it didn’t look like an answered prayer. It looked like God had abandoned him. Yet for at least five years before he lost his job, he had been searching for a government job that was not in the military, and nothing was working out. It was a catch-22 because you got military preference once you were out of the military, but he didn’t want to get out of the military until he had another job. Well, God took care of all of that when he had Tony leave the military and then found him a higher-paying civilian job at a military base that he loved so much. It was definitely years of answered prayers, and yet it really didn’t look like it.
Our prayers matter. Keep praying for your kids to come back to the church, even if you don’t see any results. Keep praying they meet someone who loves Jesus. Or if they are already married to someone who doesn’t pray for that person’s conversion. Our prayers are so powerful. God has told us in our prayer group that we, the world, don’t understand how powerful our prayers are. Don’t give up. Keep praying, even when you don’t see results. I bet if you sat down and looked back over your life, you would also see so many answered prayers. God is good, and He does answer our prayers. All we need to do is look for the answers, and we will find them!