Typically I am a person who holds his relationship with God relatively private. In these days of judgement and false prophets, I prefer to simply deal with my relationship with God in my own manner (Seeing everyone says they know how, but rarely have proof) . Recently, something happened in my life that took awhile to process. From this deliberation I concluded a few things that I would like to share….
The Setup
I’ve been fortunate to be in a great parenting position as a father. Their mothers works as a teacher and I work from home, to take care of my 18 mos. daughter (Neffi) and in the process of launching my own Media Platform. In the mean time, I occasionally broker travel for Groups, Individuals & Businesses and during summers take people on tours around the world. My partner and I agreed that with the way the world is today, we cannot trust the our daughters to daycare. So at that time of the birth of Sheppy, my second daughter, we took a look at things, weighed the pros and Cons of working and realized what we saw was not what we’d want for our children. I have 3 daughters Buddah (18), Sheppy (6) and Neffi (18 mos.) and they are my world. So, I made the choice to HFH (Hustle from home).
With the way the world is, the economy has been going up and down like rides at 6 flags. Needless to say, the travel portion of my business, recently has taken a major hit. Things were getting tight and I promised the year before to Sheppy, that I would get her into a better school than the one she was in. This neighborhood was right across the street, but academically, it was the Tale of Two Schools! There wasn’t Juxtaposition, rather, there’s a difference between Chaps by Ralph Lauren and Polo! I promised my daughter I would get her Polo, but the delivery of that promise seemed in question. So I found myself beating my brain out for ways to generate cash and provide the things that my family wants and needs.
The Prayer
One late evening/early morning, I was up. (Plays Paid in Full) :
Lord, I’ve hit a wall
I’m stressed and I feel lost
I can not figure out what to do
Listen Lord, I give up
I need your help
and cannot see my way without you
So I am asking for your help God
whatever is your will, I will accept fully
I parked my car, went into the house and fell asleep. Although I thought this was regular prayer, it wasn’t.
The Answer
Later on that afternoon, I was hanging with Neffi and a friend of mine in the living room. There had been torrential down pours and strong winds most of the day. It was unusual to me, but with Global Warming, uncanny weather had become apart of the norm. As I looked out the window I noticed that a strong continuous gust had taken two large & tall trees that were standing side by side and blew them completely apart as if someone was peeking through them. Next thing I knew, I heard the windows rattling consistently and as I tried to look through them, it was hard to distinguish anything on the other side. Suddenly, I saw the roof over my front porch lift up. As the roof lifted, I could see the my ceiling separate from the walls and sky had become visible. As soon as I was able to recognize all that was going on, the roof slammed down onto the porch and my ceiling began to crack.
I yelled to my friend to Run towards the back of the apartment, because the front appeared to be crumbling and there was no exit. She grabbed Neffi and before I knew it, we were both in the back bedroom. “Holy Shit!!!!” I yelled.
Needless to say, my apartment was considered condemned by the city and I had to pack up my family and things and move. Fortunately for me, I happen to get an apartment in the neighborhood in which I promised my daughter she could go to school. None of my things were damaged by the storm and I’m fortunate that my father lived around the corner. So after 2 weeks of staying with him, we are now in a better apartment in a better school zone, that my daughter will be attending next fall.
So after having asked God for help, 12 hours later, all my prayers were answered by aid of a storm that happen to only destroy my building and no other.
This is my testimony to power of God and how he answers prayers. The moral of the story is, be specific when you ask God for help. If you leave you a prayer open for interpretation, God might choose a path that is sudden and unexpected. Its important that you go to God with a humble and faithful heart. I am not saying that all prayers will get such an immediate response, but my story is proof that God does hear you prayers. There’s wisdom to the old adage “Be careful of what you ask for, you just might get it!”.
I wrote this little blog as a sign of appreciation to God for having looked out for me and my family. It is only through The Most High that all things are possible. So as a person who has seen dark days, please, please, please don’t give in to despair. Operate from a place of faith. Sometimes, in order to get out of darkness you must move towards the light. You will not be forsaken!
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