Answered Prayers . . . the ultimate faith builders

About two months ago, one of my twins (Liam) decided that he was serious about getting an i-pod touch. So, he asked the guy who is normally his source of all his stuff. Me.

What a great opportunity to teach him that I am not his source, but rather that God is his source – and mine too! I told him that the best thing he could do was pray and ask God to do something big in his life. For a seven-year-old kid, a $200 i-pod is a mountain. Under our current work/rewards system, his max earnings for a week are $1.50.

So, for the last six weeks, every night when he went to bed, I would ask the same question. “What special prayers are we praying tonight?” Every night it was the same answer. “That I can get an i-pod touch for my birthday.” More specifically, he prayed that God would bless me to be able to get it for him. Even better, I think :)

Well, Sunday is his birthday and early this week I didn’t see any i-pods on the horizon. But Liam's faith was growing. One example: He asked me how much extra money I would need God to bless me with to buy him the i-pod? I told him $25,000. Well, a few hours later I was going to Guitar Center to pick up a cable for church and I took him with me. He was convinced that someone at Guitar Center was going to walk up to me and slip me $25K. I love that faith!! But he was a little disappointed when we left Guitar Center with a patch cable and no briefcase full of cash.

But all along I was praying with him. And early this week, all of a sudden, I thought God spoke to me. It was like I was compelled by the Holy Spirt to post on twitter and ask if anyone had an ipod or Nintendo ds (the other kids want Nintendo, but weren't praying much :) that I could buy cheap for my kids for their birthday.

It was no more than 5 hours before I got a voicemail from a friend. I'm not sure he would be cool with me identifying him, so I won't at this point. But the message said he has a i-pod just like Liam wants and he doesn’t use it anymore and I can have it!! I realized at that point that God was on the road to blessing Liam (and me) and building our faith through answered prayers.

So, Wednesday evening I asked Liam to come into my bedroom with Sara and I. (He thought he was in trouble) I told him that God had answered his faithful prayers and handed him his i-pod. Not for his birthday, just a gift from his dad who loves him and his Father in Heaven who loves him even more.

At first, he could not get his head around the fact that God did this just to bless him. It took a while to convince him that I did not buy it for him. But finally he got it. Of course, all his brothers cried and said it was not fair. But after a while, they all felt inspired to pray too. Even, Seth, Ethan's friend who was over that day told his mom at the pick up time that he was going home and was going to be praying :)

This is so cool for me and my son, but more than that, it's a huge faith builder. Sara and I have some big-time miracles and breakthroughs we have been praying for for a while. My faith has been boosted and renewed. God is cool.