Of Snow Days and Brown Eyes ... or Does God Answer Prayers?

The is snow everywhere, or so it seems ... well, everywhere but here. To the east, the west, the north and the south ... snow, snow, snow. But none in our yard.

Joel, my little weather man, has wanted to see snow for his entire life. We even lived in VA for a winter and got no snow. And now there is snow falling everywhere but here. His cousins, who live more than 2 hours to our south, called at 7:15 this morning to see if we had a snow day, too. They have 5 inches and it is still falling. But there is no such luck for us. Just rain, rain, rain. No white fluffy flakes anywhere to be seen.

Last night I had a little chat with the Lord, asking Him for snow for my kids. In fact, I asked him for several snow days ... a deep storm that would envelop us for a few days. It's hard to learn that there are snowflakes falling this morning everywhere but here. It makes me cry out in my soul, "Why, Lord? I can't understand why this one little prayer isn't answered MY way!"

A few nights ago, as I tucked Nathan into bed, he once again asked me to pray for his father not to divorce me. That particular prayer from my children simply breaks my heart because I know it won't be answered the way they are praying, and I pray that it won't cause them to be bitter and turn away from God for not answering their prayer in a positive way. Still, we prayed the prayer. As we finished, Nathan said, "Mama, you know that God doesn't always answer our prayers with a yes. Sometimes He says no. And when He says no, it's okay ... sometimes their is a reason for no."

I was kind of stunned to hear such wise words from my little guy. I agreed with him, and told him that he was very smart for realizing this truth. Nathan said, "Well, I learned it from a story I read. There was this girl named Amy who was born in Ireland. Everybody else in her family had blue eyes, but Amy had brown eyes. She prayed that God would change her eyes to blue but God said no. When Amy grew up, she was a missionary in India and she needed brown eyes to help the people there. She couldn't have helped them if her eyes were blue because the people in India weren't used to people with blue eyes. So God told her no when she was a little girl for a reason." I smiled and kissed him, wondering where on earth Nathan had heard such a story.

The next day my mother (who is also Nathan's teacher) asked me to check over some of the extra work I'd been sending to school for Nathan. He's extremely advanced and needs extra work to occupy him. I had sent up some Abeka workbooks to the school for Nathan. As I checked his work, I found the story he had read about Amy in the Abeka workbook. And the thought crossed my mind ... Nathan's faith in God is growing, even at a public school. It's one of the things I used to fear about putting my kids into school ... their faith would be challenged and they would be unprepared to deal with the challenges. It's an answer to a prayer I've been praying for the past year.

So, does God answer prayers? Yes, I think so. He's answered some very big ones for me. Now, as to the snow today ... I'm not sure why God is saying no. However, I'm going to try to be like Nathan and trust God has a reason for it. And, I'm going to be very happy that I've got so many friends and loved ones who are enjoying the gift of an unexpected snow day. I hope they all enjoy the white stuff while it lasts!