Delighting in answered Prayer

If you ever wonder if God really listens to your prayers ... then this post is for you. It's an encouragement that He  DOES listen and He DOES answer.

If you are anything like me, relationships are important! When I got married, I moved to a beautiful coastal city called Port Elizabeth. The only downside - it's far away from my family. 5 years ago God called my precious mom to the US where she serves in an amazing church who have embraced, celebrated and made room for her incredible musical gifts. My sister and I miss her so much. One of the things that I love about God is that He loves relationships too :) Each year that my mom has been away, God has made amazing ways for my sis and I to go and visit her. This year ... well, lets just say in our eyes, we didn't know how on earth it could possibly happen. Here's the thing with God ... He loves it when we ask Him for what seems to be "impossible" to us. So guess what ... Niqui (my beautiful sister) and I asked Him again. And guess what ... HE MADE A WAY ... AGAIN!!! This time we managed to completely surprise her! A memory I will always treasure! (Just look at all of us with our watery eyes!!! This was taken just after we surprised her.)

One of the things that always reveals to me how deeply God loves us individually is His attention to detail in the ways that He answers our prayers. When Niqui and I began to dream about a visit to mom we both said that we would love to be able to go over in the fall and surprise her on her day off. My mom and sis share the same birthday. On my sisters birthday her husband said to her that he would love to buy her a ticket to visit my mom in October - which just happens to be the beginning of Fall in Virginia. So we started looking for tickets. On the evening of their birthdays I felt prompted to check out a certain travel website and lo and behold they were having an unbelievable special to travel direct with the airline we wanted to fly on the dates we wanted to go! There and then our wonderful hubbies bought our tickets. Now in my heart I was asking God if mom would be ok with us just showing up. She had NO CLUE what we were planning. When I chatted to her the day after her birthday, she said to me that on her birthday as she was looking outside  she mentioned to the Lord how she would love to show her girls how beautiful Fall is in Virginia. Do you know that that was the very night God led us to buy our tickets! God gave all 3 of us the desires of our heart. We spent 2 glorious weeks taking in the beauty of Fall together in some amazing places!

I will have to post some more pics of some of our beautiful adventures together in the days to come. For today I wanted to encourage you to ask God for the desires of your heart. He says to us that as we delight ourselves in Him, He WILL give us the desires of His heart. This holiday I glimpsed His delight in seeing His girls delighting in His blessings and love.
All my love,
Janine