Israel's two prayers.....

It's very late here...but I had to share Israel's bedtime prayers tonight.
Tomorrow is his last soccer game of the season...he LIVES for soccer...and low and behold, his team shirt was missing. We looked everywhere, dirty clothes, toybox, under the bed, in all the drawers. Still no shirt. He was getting pretty worried and he said, "I wish God would help us find it!"
I, worried myself...suggested, "Why don't you pray about it?"
So little guy prayed. "Please God, help us find the shirt so that I can play in my last game of the year tomorrow." (Who wouldn't answer a prayer like that???)
Moments later, I found it, under a stack in MY bedroom!

So, since it was getting really late and we had already played a Memory Game of Famous Black Americans, we decided that it was just prayer and hug and kiss time. So Israel started....
"Dear God and Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and help me to play a good game tomorrow and thank you for finding my shirt and also thank you for such a good day and for my friend Jonathan (and so on and so on and so on....)(this is where it gets really good....)and help Daddy to not get any more weight and to not get any more tummy and to lose some of his tummy because I want him to not have a big tummy (and I, Mommy, personally can't wait to tell Daddy what Israel prayed! Ok...just to make it fair, I must admit to what Israel said to ME recently. He said, "Mommy, you don't have a big tummy but why is your BOTTOM sooo big???" yeah. So, it's fair....read on, it gets better! ) "And help Mommy with her sicknesses...." (what sicknesses? I do have some allergies....!!!???? Read on...you're coming to the very very best!) AND WITHOUT SKIPPING A BEAT ISRAEL PRAYS, "And Jesus, please be my Savior and help me with my words and guide me in my life...."

Wow...what a little boy we have. What a precious little boy. An amazing, miraculous, precious little boy.

Even better than that, What an Amazing, Miraculous, Precious God we have! Israel's God...who brought him out of Africa, from starvation, abuse, tuberculosis, lead poisoning, rickets, beatings, horrific abuse, to a family that gave him away (again)...and then blessed US with this sweet gift of a little loving son. What a humbling, even scary, realization this is. I told that precious little boy, just after our prayers, that he is going to be a WONDERFUL man. I'm so happy to be a tool for God to work in this little boy's life. I hope that doesn't sound prideful...I don't mean it to be that way. Its just an incredibly wonderful to SEE God's Hand at work right here in front of me every day. Maybe it will help me to remember this when he asks me the same question for the seemingly 97th time that day!!

You know, we don't have to have an orphan child from a 3rd World Country in our home to see God's Hand at work. I think we just need to be willing to be used. I'm NOT always willing. Being open to adopting Israel was not hard for me...it has been a desire all of my life to adopt. But I wonder, shamefully, how many times in my life I was NOT willing to be used, to go out of my way, to be God's tool in someone's life. How many times did I say "No"...to Him?

What if the person who told US about the Lord said, "No" to Him??

Blessings....thank you for sharing in our joy!
Beth