Leighton wrote the following post for a series called The Sharpening Stone for our church's website exactly one year ago today. I thought it would be a good reminder to re-post it here. This instance made such an impact on my kids that they still talk about it today.
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Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto
God. -- Philippians 4:6
The other day we were taking the kids out
to go geocaching. Our children love going. It gives a chance to get some
fresh air, exercise, and time together. As we were getting ready to go
Erika, my wife, reminded me to make sure I grabbed a pen. That way we
can sign the logs in the caches we find. I assured her that i would grab
one before we left and went on gathering the necessities to get five
kids ready for caching. I made sure we had our GPS, the wagon and
stroller were in the van. Erika had the water and a few snacks ready.
All was good to go, so we went. We drove out to a local bike and walk
path where a couple cachers had hid quite a few caches along the
walkway. We got everybody unloaded from the van then into the stroller
in the wagon and headed down the path. I got the first cache set on the
GPS and we were off. We got the first location and began our search for
the cache. It is always easier for the adults to find them so we kind of
guide the kids in the right direction, but this time while I was
looking in all the wrong places our daughter looked just in the right
spot and found our first cache of the year.
She
handed the tiny plastic container over to me and I reached for my
Fisher space pen, that is my unofficial geocaching pen, and it wasn't
there. Of course, I forgot it, you probably saw that coming. I looked at
Erika with a plea in hopes she knew I'd forget and brought a pen of her
own. Nope. So I lean on our oldest child and nothing from him. So our
first cache of the year goes unsigned by us.
At
this point I just figure I messed up and now we simply won't be able to
sign any logs today. That's not what Erika nor our oldest thought. As we
then continue down the path toward the next set of coordinates they
each independent of each other ask God to give us a writing utensil. Erika
asks for a pen and our son asks for a pencil. Independently! Erika
didn't say out loud maybe we should ask God to give us anything. He
simply asked on his own. Erika did say after she finished her prayer
that she had asked. This lead to an immediate almost surprised response
form our son, "I just asked Him for a pencil!" They shared a laugh and
as they began, and I mean right away, like he looked away from his
mother and exclaimed, "Look!" He ran a few feet ahead and picked up
about half of a broken pencil. God had given him his pencil. I, of
course, had my knife on me and was able to sharpen it. The rest of our
logs that day got signed, but more important then that, my son's faith in
God grew a bit more.
I was humbled by the fact that I would
just settle to suffer the consequences of my forgetfulness and not make
such a simple request to the Creator of the universe. As if the idea of
providing to such a simple need of one of His children was in some way
below Him. Yet my 9 year old son was not afraid to make his request
known and then even expect it to happen.
What is so small in your life
that you're afraid to ask for God's help. "Be careful for nothing," the
verse says. Don't worry about it. Simply make the request.
Love!!!!!!!
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