Today has been an unprecedented day for me. It’s been such an outstanding day that I can’t even make myself go to sleep. So as my mind keeps replaying this day in my head, I want to take the time to write things down here so I never forget how special this day was for me.

The day started off with what some people may consider an inconvenience. My little girl, America, woke up crying around 6AM this morning, so I went to her room, got her out of bed, and put her in bed with me and Jessica. I didn’t want to stimulate her because I wanted her to get her sleep, so I didn’t say anything to her. I just put her head on my shoulder and carried her to our bed as she put her arms around my neck and quietened down. By the time we got to the bed, I was sure she had gone back to sleep. When we got in bed beside Jessica, I looked over at America as I patted her on the back to soothe her. She appeared to be sound asleep until I saw her open her eyes, look at me, and then smile her cute little smile at me. I smiled and then stifled a little laugh as I realized she was feeling a little mischieveous being in bed with her mom and dad. Now some people may think of something like this as being an inconvience, and get no joy from it at all, but it wasn’t the case for me. You see, it always makes me happy to see my children react to me with happiness like that. I’ve said it before, maybe on the family blog, but I really feel a strong love from/for my children that I haven’t really felt since my mother died. Don’t get me wrong, I’d die for Jessica, but trying to define love for your kids, or love from your kids, is like trying to define love itself… it’s indescribable. I never want to take my kids for granted.
After a big push to get to church on time, we arrived late. After we were seated, a friend pulled me aside to share some good news with me about his wife being pregnant with their third child. I was ecstatic!  I wasn’t around the two of them when they had either of their first two children, but God willing I will be around for this one! I’m excited, to say the least, so I can only imagine how excited they are… truly great news!

I went back to my seat and enjoyed the worship service, which was being lead by the Bedford Acres Youth. Jessica leaned over to me and pointed out that Coach D. Robinson would be giving the sermon. I didn’t know who he was, but WOW… he was excellent! I enjoyed his sermon, and I got a lot from it about being a witness, and how important it is to be a good witness to our children. After his sermon, an invitation was given. As I was standing there singing, I saw Jessica leave our row of seats and I assumed she was going to the bathroom because she hasn’t been feeling good lately. However, instead of turning toward the back of the church, she turned toward the front and began walking up front where she knelt and prayed. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to interfere with her prayer, so I stayed in my seat. As I sat there, I prayed that God would help her with whatever she has on her heart. Little did I know that I was really praying for something that I pray for ALL the time. She later revealed to me what she had prayed about and I was sort of shocked by what she said. I won’t say what it was on here, but there’s nothing she could have said to me to make me any happier. I can only pray that God answers our prayers.

And speaking of answered prayers, it was announced at the end of the church service that our interim pastor, and one of my favorite people of ALL TIME, David Casey, had been unanimously voted to be our next senior pastor! Dave is an amazing friend, and an incredible preacher. This was some of the best news I’d heard in a LONG time. I was so happy that I just thanked God over and over for giving us this awesome guy as our pastor. I can’t wait to see how God uses him as the official senior pastor of Bedford Acres Christian Church.

And that’s pretty much how this unlikely day, filled with nothing but good news, started out and ended. I spent the rest of the day with Jessica and her family, and some friends. Days like this don’t happen very often for me. I get so discouraged throughout a given week that I don’t expect much in the way of good news. But it seems that all those weeks/days/months without good news were really having their good news stored up for this day. I have heard it said that “every failure is a prayer failure”, and I really believe that. God answers prayers all the time, it’s just that we just don’t always see them answered because they might not have turned out the way we wanted, or we take so many things for granted that we can’t see the answer right in front of us. But this day was filled with obvious blessings and I’m especially thankful. God is good, all the time! Believe that!