When God answers Prayers in Unexpected Ways

My husband and I aren’t handy, though we wish we were.  We’re working on it. We’d love to be able to fix and upgrade the house ourselves.  When I’ve been able to help with projects and learn from those more experienced I feel so accomplished.  It feels great to help. (We were able to do some stuff ourselves before we moved and it was great! My husband painted the house and even grouted the installed tile in our rennovated bathroom!)

It’s hard to find people to do the projects we need.  We’d try leads from others but they fell through.  We researched people ourselves and made calls, even hired some people.  Unfortunately they were either unreliable, thought the project was too small, didn’t provide the service, or not affordable. 

We hoped to save enough money to hire someone to do it all, knowing it would take years.  It was a bit discouraging but we took it day by day, loving our house with its flaws because it was a home. 

Then today I was mowing the lawn with a push mower for the first time because our riding mower wasn’t working.  I couldn’t get the turning right without scraping the ground, and my husband was working, so I asked my neighbor.  He showed me how to do it.  Then asked me what  I was going to do with the flag pole lying in our front yard (which was rotted).  I said I didn’t know.  He offered to take it out.  Great!  He worked on it for about an hour or more.  One tool didn’t work, tried another, hammering away to get up the metal plate from the concrete.  This was one rusty piece of 40 year old metal.  Eventually he got it. 

That led to helping me with the lawn mower.  He figured out that the gas wasn’t going to the engine and fixed it.  The inside of the engine cover was full of dried grass and he thought it’d be good to clean it out so it didn’t catch on fire from the heat of the engine, sounded good to me.  We went over and he blew out the debris with his air compressor. 

I commented about how I wish I was more handy and appreciated all he had done for me today.  He said just ask.  So I brought something else up that was small and we checked it out.  Then we went about more of our own yard work when I heard my name.  He called me over to the bridge on my property that was in need of repair.  We can fix this easy you know.  He proceeded to say how to fix it.  I got excited about a project my husband, neighbor, and I could do and get something fixed.  I could help make our home even better.  I could learn.  Something else could get checked off our to do list.

After all this I realized, hey, here my husband and I wonder how we’re going to do all this work and that we’d like to learn from someone and have a part in but didn’t know how it would work and God sent my neighbor who was more than willing to lend a hand and expertise.  He enjoyed getting things done, fixing things, and hard work.   God had answered a prayer today and who knows where it could lead us.  Keep an open heart.  You never know who God can bring you to help you when you need it, like me it can come in at an unlikely time and situation. 

I see a dinner for my neighbor in my future.

May you be open to the surprising ways God answers prayers.

Favorite