Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  Jas 1:17 NKJV

Wow – yesterday my son saw these two promises manifested in his life once again.  I’ve mentioned it before, and this is another wonderful example of, how our Father cares about everything – even the little things that so many consider “not worthy” of prayer or a “waste of God’s time”.  He’s answered prayed and un-officially-prayed requests of mine as seemingly insignificant as the desire for a professionally done haircut (vs an in-the-bathroom job!).

My 13 year old son has been pouring himself and his heart into the tech ministry at our church.  He has spent countless hours learning, participating, and growing in this area that he so loves and enjoys.  Through it he seeks to display aspects of his heavenly Father, even when he doesn’t realize this is what he is doing.  He has spent multiple hours at church, and even more at home, hours no one but I have seen.

Because we homeschool (as directed for us to do by the Lord) he has has the opportunity to spend lots of time under the wing of some really great guys at church, learning and growing in all kinds of ways (too many to list here beyond tech stuff).  For me this is exciting to watch, and honestly, who wouldn’t want their child to be learning what he loves in the environment of the church!

Obviously, the more time he spends there the more I need to make sure we can get a hold of each other.  For awhile now, he has been asking for an upgraded phone from my hand-me-down phone he has been using.  For probably over a year he has been looking up and looking into what phone he would like to have, and reminding me consistently about his request.  For awhile I determined he didn’t need an upgraded phone, but the more he got into photography I decided it would be great to be able to give him one with a better camera.  At Christmas, his grandfather gifted him with a nice DSLR camera he had wanted, and he carries it with him everywhere!  So again, I figured he had the camera thing covered.  Then the glass on the back of the phone broke.  We peeled off broken pieces and covered the rest with tape.  I was not in a position to be able to buy him a new phone.  Then the front broke.  We covered it with tape.  I broke some more.  More tape.  It stopped ringing at times (frustrated me to no end when trying to call him).  The phone needed to be replaced.  I decided for his birthday I definitely needed to get him a new phone!  Instead, he broke his arm and all b-day gifts went into x-rays, bone re-settings, casts, doc appointments, more casts, more doc appointments….  No phone.

Over the past two weeks he has been pouring himself into the tech ministry at church.  He spent countless hours programming lights and making tech plans and preparations for the upcoming VBS and middle school missions week at church.  Because of the faith his mentor has in him, he was put in charge of the recap video for the middle schoolers.  So not only did he participate in the middle school missions during camp, he also took on the responsibility to film parts of the week!  After a long, tiring week, he spent the entire next day not only putting together the recap video he was responsible for, but also pulling together a second surprise video for the tech team!

He was pouring himself into serving others through his gifts and talents, to support the Kingdom of God.

Yesterday, he was blessed with the manifestation of our Father’s promises.  One of the church leaders somehow saw the condition of his phone during the past week, and blessed him with an upgraded, non-broken, phone!  One in perfect condition which he could use right away, same carrier and all (yes, of course we have to get a new SIM card).  While he was seeking the kingdom, his Father was providing a good and perfect gift that he needed.

Have you ever experienced this yourself?

You probably have, and can think of when this has happened if you’ve kept your eyes opened to see the hand of God move in your life.  I know I have, many, many times myself.  When I am in need of or believing for something, big or insignificant, as I follow His directives and obey what He is telling me to do, even when it is completely unrelated to my need, He comes through and meets that need in a miraculous way!  He knows what we need, before we even need it, or know we need it!  The Lord even did that for me to cover the expenses of my son’s broken arm, and the request for a manly b-day gift.  Two days before it occurred we suddenly sold a number of things on eBay.  I thought this was great, I could now give him a great fun b-day!  Those were my plans, not the Lord’s plans.  The money raised covered exactly what I needed to pay for his multiple doctor appointments over the next few days, plus the ability to take him to a nice lunch each day after his appointments (remember, he is a growing boy!).  Because he was turning the 13, I had been praying that I could offer him an exciting, manly b-day gift, to usher him into his growing manhood.  Later, I learned that the broken arm, to my son, was the best manly ushering in he could get.

WHAAAAT??? you ask…

Yes, it was.  Of course as a mom I was heartbroken at first, because the big plan for him was to ride in a serious downhill mountain biking race that weekend, on his b-day.  It was going to be tough and dangerous.  Honestly, I was a little afraid of what could happen, as he was going to be the youngest to ever compete on that course.  But he wanted to do it, after lots of consideration, he wanted to see if he had what it would take.  A few weeks later, I was telling my son how much I respected him for how he had been handling his arm, from the moment it was broken until then, as well as the disappointment of not being able to race, not being able to even bike, and the challenges of doing tech with a broken arm!  While we were discussing this, he said he had always wondered if he had what it takes to get through something like this…. the pain… the challenges… the limitations…  I knew this hit to the core of the maturing young man in his heart – something I’ve learned while reading the Wild at Heart series material by John Eckhart.  But I digress, back to the original purpose of this post, this story is for another post….. but is an example of our Father’s timely provision of finances as well as a gift to my son that he is cherishing in his heart.

Anywho…  Some may shrug this off as no big deal and insignificant.  Who cares, someone gave him a phone.  But it’s not.  It is a big deal.  It is a big deal to him and to me.  Even this seemingly little gift.  It was an answer to his prayers and need, and to mine!  As I support him in maturing, growing, and being able to do his thing, I need to know I can get a hold of him when I need to, and that he has a camera he can use at any moment.  In his world it is a BIG gift.  One that could have easily been blown off as an expectation to be received from me.  But one that can’t be ignored when given to him from someone else.  A gift from that someone else that they may have no idea is that big a deal of a gift.  And we know that they will be blessed in multiplication in return for their selfless gift.

But that’s not all….

I experienced another answer to prayers last night.  Around here we loooove movies.  We wind down many days watching movies – good, clean movies, usually on PureFlix.com.  We were watching the last two of a series on PureFlix last night to wind down the last day of a long week for the both of us.  When it came time to watch the third movie in the series, around 10:30 pm, my son got up and said to me that instead of watching the next movie, he really wanted to go read his Bible.  I sat there stunned a bit, and was hesitating while processing this, and all I could muster was “Oh yeah?!? That’s great.”  He said yes, that is what he wanted to do, and that he realized he really needed to be reading more of his Bible more often.  WOW!  That is a huge answer to my prayers!  That his heart would be drawn to do this, without my pushing him to do so, which I know would make him not want to do it at all.  Instead, as he experienced more of the Kingdom and Love of God, his heart has been drawn more deeply into seeking it further.  Ultimately, this is what the promises of our Father in Heaven lead us to – the desire to seek a deeper, and more fulfilling relationship with Him.  Once we experience His love, His provision, His miracles, His gifts that we can’t make happen on our own, that is when we are led to want to see these things more, not only in our lives but also in the lives of others.

My son and I have been witnessing, and receiving love, blessings, and miracles like these for awhile now.  As I prayed years ago that the Lord would open my spiritual eyes to see, and my spiritual ears to hear, I began to notice and see not just the huge happenings, but also the small.  Not just the ones so big they hit you in the face, but the tiny ones that can so easily be overlooked.  And, not just the current ones, but ones that go back many, many years, before I was truly walking with and following Jesus.  All those years, He was by my side, guiding and directing, providing, loving, and more. (For a great teaching on “changing your lens” see Graham Cooke’s video.)

You know, the best part about this – is that our Father looks to do the same for you.  If He does this for us, He wants to do the same and even more for YOU!!!  Open your heart to Him through Jesus, and as He promises He will lead the way.  He will lead you on your path, even when it doesn’t look like it, feel like it, or smell like it.  When you can’t feel your way, He will guide you.  We don’t lean on our feelings, we lean on Jesus, the Word of God.  It IS true, it IS right, it IS never-failing, it IS eternal, it IS for every situation big or small, it IS the I AM.

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