I have an “answered prayer” story to share with you. It’s very much a story that could have – and almost did – turn out very sad, but instead ended very happily, and I believe the Lord orchestrated this into my life to teach me many things, one of which was the importance of persistent prayer. I suppose I’m sharing it to reinforce the concept that nothing is too big or small to pray about, and to keep praying about. God is a generous Father who loves to give good gifts to His children. He cares about all aspects of your life - your feelings, your hopes, your dreams. He created you, after all. It’s the story of how my husband and I came to be engaged.

Matt and I had been very good friends throughout my college years. We endured endless questions from others who wanted some definition of our relationship, and we maintained the line that we were indeed just friends. That was the truth – the sad, sad truth, in my opinion. Matt insisted he thought I was a wonderful person in many ways, but that he simply didn’t have romantic interest in me. And that was the truth, too. He’ll tell you to this day. So, what could I do but pray? It’s not that he didn’t notice me, it’s not that he didn’t like me, it’s not that he just needed to spend more time with me so I could woo him with my feminine charm. No, it was a heart issue, and there’s only one Person in charge of heart issues, so I went to Him regularly to plead that He would change Matt’s heart on the matter.

After 3 ½ years of close friendship, I began to sense that the relationship was going nowhere and since I’d graduated from college 9 months hence, I realized – very much through the prompting of the Holy Spirit – that I needed to get on with my life by breaking off my friendship with Matt, which I did. It was immensely painful, but through it all I felt joy and peace because I had a very strong sense of assurance that I’d been obedient to what the Lord was calling me to do in that situation. Believe me, the easier thing would have been to stay “just friends” forever – at least then I would have had something, right?

As I’ve mentioned, throughout the 3 ½ years before this quasi-breakup I prayed regularly for God to change Matt’s heart. The Lord brought me to a place of realization that even if He didn’t change Matt’s heart, it was going to be okay, and after I surrendered to this, he went ahead and did it anyway. The coolest part of the story – to me, at least – is that Matt had been praying the same thing all along – that God would change his heart - using this same language, and you have to understand that Matt and I don’t normally speak like this. We usually think in terms of our minds and thoughts, and not so much our hearts and feelings, so the fact that not only were we praying the same thing without knowing it, we were using the same rarely-used terminology.

So, there you go. God answered my prayer, finally. Most of our friends had given up after almost 4 years but the Lord knew what He was doing. Would He have brought me and Matt together had I not prayed? I guess there’s no way to know. I do know that through prayer, God involves us in His doings, and that’s no small thing. This story of answered prayer in my life is one that I look to time and again to remind me of the importance and privilege of prayer. I have a tangible reminder of it everyday – my sweet husband.

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