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Topic: FAITH (strong, confident belief in God) (02/26/15)
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TITLE: I have a Gift for you | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynn Kowal
03/04/15 -
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I looked at the minister, and the butterflies that had been crowding my stomach were now crowding my throat. I wrestled with them as I slowly stood to my feet…
I had been on my knees earlier that morning, pouring out my loneliness to the Lord, asking Him for a godly husband.
He had answered by telling me to stand up in the church and announce that He was going to send me one.
Twelve months earlier, I had returned home to Canada after three years of touring in the United States with a Christian Theater Company, and ten weeks of ministry school in Florida. I had come back to Canada to visit a few times during those three years, but the reception I had received from my family and church community had been chilly.
While I was on tour in the States, I had been approached by a young man at one church who was convinced that the Lord had told him we were supposed to marry.
It happened again the second time at the Ministry school in Florida when another young man told me that God had spoken to him about our future together.
Each time as I excitedly began to plan for the wedding, I saw discrepancies between what each man said and what he did, and so I ended up despairing that a truthful match could ever be mine.
Towards the end of the ministry school in December, I was enjoying the warmth of the Florida sun when a visiting teacher walked into the class and announced that she came from Canada where the winter was so cold - the snow crunched under your feet. At that moment, I felt the unmistakable nudge of the Lord, “Go back to Canada in January”.
I obeyed, but I must confess, there were a few heel marks along the way ….
As the car neared the border, I prayed four earnest petitions, the chief being, “Lord, may I please have a husband who loves You more than he loves me, but yet who is willing to die for me, just as it says in the Bible?”
“And Lord”, I added, “ …. just so I know that this man is from You, can he please utter a secret code soon after we meet - a secret code known only to You and me, and that has nothing to do with marriage? If I don’t hear that secret code from him soon after we meet, I will take it as a sign that you want me to remain single.”
"How about ‘I have a gift for you’", I muttered as an afterthought – saying the first thing that popped into my head.
The Lord heard those four petitions of mine, and in the following twelve months, He answered three of them. I was able to train as a secretary on computer, I secured a job in the University, and I was welcomed by a family in a small church.
“The Lord is going to send me a husband” I now announced, with trembling heart, to the church.
A few months after this, I spotted a young man helping to clean up after a church conference that our church had sponsored, and forgetting the declaration I had made a few months earlier, I approached him with the church admonition to be neighborly.
“What church do you go to?”, I asked, striking up a conversation.
He looked me right in the eye, “Yours.”
Taken aback, I wondered how I could have missed someone new coming into our small congregation, but I plowed ahead anyway and asked him if, some Sunday, he would like to join us young people for lunch after church.
“Sure”, he agreed, but then I completely forgot all about it until I happened to see him a few weeks later.
In a panic, I went to each person in the Youth Group and asked if they could join me for lunch – but they all declined.
As I nervously approached him, I asked, “You don’t want to go out to lunch with me alone, do you?”
“Sure”, he beamed, and after a lovely three-hour lunch, he said, “I have a gift for you.”
That was 35 years ago. My husband and I now pastor a street-front ministry in Kenora, Ontario, Canada.
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God bless~
I would have loved to know what the gift was...
It is always best to wait on the Lord.
Good lessons in this life story.
Some of your transitions were just a bit choppy. The more you write and read other challenges will help smooth some of those out.
You have a great sense of humor and I enjoyed your message. I could easily picture this unfolding. It was fresh, yet spot on topic.
Jan's Writing Basics has some great tips for all levels of writers. If you seen them on the forums or haven't participated yet, I'd urge you to. She does a great job of responding to everyone who participates.
Wing His Words
God bless~