Today, I was thinking about answered prayers. Growing up, I often heard "be careful what you pray for, you might get it!" There are two different kinds of prayers, or maybe I mean there are two different ways to pray for the same thing. Sometimes we find ourselves praying that we find our soul mate. But what happens if we pray for the grace to become the woman our soul mate would be attracted to? Both could have the same outcome, but coming at it from different directions. Sometimes we find ourselves praying for more money. But maybe we should be praying for a change to our relationship with money? Or we might pray for a change in our situation, when what we should be praying for is peace of mind, no matter which outcome occurs.
I watched a 7th Heaven episode where a kid with a troubled background wrote a letter to "the man who works for God" and asked him to pray for all the kids who have troubled backgrounds and signed it "anonymous". When the main character couldn't let it go, he found the kid. And this kid explained that if the congregation was praying not just for himself, but for all kids in the world who's lives were troubled or touched by violence, it might be enough to change the world.
We've all had what we consider "unanswered prayers", and if you really think about it, maybe it was for the best. Some of my prayers have gone unanswered, and after giving it time, I've come to realize that the answer was "no" to allow me more time, space, wisdom, and experience to prepare for a different time when the answer is going to be "YES"!!
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