Best-Laid Plans | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Best-Laid Plans | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lollie Hofer
05/06/15
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Melinda rose to her feet without hesitation. She slightly opened her eyes, and without moving her head too much, checked out how many others had stood. Almost everyone was on their feet in response to Pastor Ryan’s challenge. He had encouraged his flock to have a deeper walk with the Lord and, as a result, most had committed to an hour of prayer each day for a week.

Early the next morning Melinda sighed, “Thank God for timers on coffee pots. Lord, please don’t let the kids hear me and decide it’s time to get up already.”

Settled into her easy chair, she took a sip of hot brew in an effort to clear the fog from her brain. Anticipating the next hour with the Lord, she opened her Bible to a passage on prayer. She looked up just as her youngest child, Tommy, staggered into the family room.

“Tommy, why are you up so early? Go back to bed. It’s only 6:05.”

Tommy bent over with his arms wrapped around his stomach. “Mommy, I don’t feel so good. I feel like I’m going to…”

He drenched Melinda, her Bible and her fresh cup of coffee with his vomit. Once the mess was cleaned up and Tommy had snuggled in her arms, she asked him, “Do you want Mommy to pray for you?”

Melinda cried out to God for the health of her child. After she spent quite a bit of time praying for Tommy and before the “amen” she added, “Well, God, so much for day one.”

On Tuesday, as the alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., Melinda arose excited to spend time with her Lord. She had just opened her brand new Bible when her cell phone rang. “Why would anyone call me at this time of day?” she asked. The phone’s screen identified the caller as her friend, Marcia.

“Marcia, what’s going on? Is everything okay? I can’t understand what you’re saying,” Melinda said. “Take a deep breath, girl, and slow down. It’s okay. Stop apologizing. I was up anyway. Just tell me what’s going on.”

For several minutes Marcia poured out her heart. She and her husband had a big fight, he left angry and didn’t come home last night. Once Marcia lost some steam and Melinda could get a word in, she asked if she could pray for her friend. Once again she bombarded heaven on behalf of someone else asking for God’s grace to prevail in her friend’s marriage.

On day three, Melinda worked her bottom deeper into the comfortable indentations of her recliner and took a drink of the extra strong coffee she had made. The twins, Sandy and Sarah, were sick most of the night. She had patted the girls on the back while they threw up, cleaned up their puke when they didn’t make it to the toilet and prayed for her girls. As a result, she only got a couple hours sleep. “Well, girls, you can’t accuse your brother of never giving you anything,” she chuckled.

Once she found the prayer passage she had attempted to previously meditate on, she began to read. After about five words, her head nodded. The next thing she knew her husband shook her lamenting that he had overslept because she didn’t wake him up. Drool had pooled on the page in her Bible where she had intended to read. “Well, chalk up another sweet hour of prayer as a fail,” she said.

Thursday morning wasn’t any better. It was hard to be spiritual while her husband noisily barfed in the upstairs bathroom. “Why is it when he’s sick, he sounds like he’s almost dead?” Melinda pondered.

Each time he ran to the toilet she sent up a prayer on his behalf, asking the Lord to strengthen his body. Finally, he was able to go back to sleep. “Oh well, there’s always tomorrow,” she said. “What’s that idiom about best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray?”

Prayer time was out of the question on Friday and Saturday since Melinda had volunteered to help with the church’s mission garage sale. On more than one occasion throughout the weekend, she quietly prayed for people who came to the sale. However, by the time Sunday came around again, Melinda was discouraged. She had stood in earnest the previous week but things simply didn’t go as she had planned. When the pastor asked those who fulfilled their prayer commitment to stand, Melinda sunk lower into the pew.

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