The $20. Pool and a Prayer

I have definitely got my money's worth out of this cheap little pool I picked up while the Seattle cousins were in town.

Between the pool and water balloons the kids have had loads of fun.

 As I watch them from my kitchen window I am often reminded of a prayer I offered many years ago.  It was while we were living in the Old Beck House and my kitchen window faced our driveway.  I couldn't see the kids playing in the backyard while I was working in the kitchen and that really bothered me.  In this particular prayer, I prayed for a few things...I asked that one day we'd have a home where there was a family room big enough for our teenage kids to have their friends over, that it would be a house that we could all fit in comfortably (2 adults and 5 kids in a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house was a little snug), and that I would have a window over my sink that would face the backyard so I could watch my kids play while I was fixing meals and doing dishes.  I wasn't asking the Lord to change my current situation, we were really, really happy in that house, but rather I was just looking ahead to what I felt my family would like and what would mean a lot to me.

Down the road when the Lord brought us to this house (and he literally led us to this exact house) I soon realized that he had given me everything I had asked for.  Not only did he give me the space we needed but a window above the sink and a sliding glass door in the kitchen and my bedroom so I can see my kids playing in the backyard all day long.  He also gave us 4 bathrooms--I would have been thrilled with 2.  He does that a lot, gives us what we ask for and then some.

That prayer taught me a valuable lesson.  The Lord wants to bless us, he wants to be generous with us, and sometimes we just need to humbly ask.