Waiting in Expectation

We have been in a terrible drought this summer.  It has only rained twice since the kids got out of school.   I wanted the kids to understand our need for rain and how much we truly rely on God.  So we went for an early morning walk.  I took the kids out by the barn to show them how the ground is cracking and the withered grass is disappearing quickly.
   Then we walked over to our nice green garden and looked at all of the vegetables growing and the lush grass growing around the garden's perimeter and compared the two.  The kids did not understand why we did not water all of our land the way we watered our garden.  So we had a short lesson on water supply and the importance of water conservation.
  Their conclusion; we need to pray for rain and we need to do it right now.  Kinley suggested going to get Mimi to pray with us.  I love the fact that Kinley knows she has a mighty prayer warrior next door who is willing to pray with us at any moment.  Of course, she was and she dropped what she was doing simply saying "where two or more are gathered..."
   We circled up holding hands in Mimi's living room and pleaded with God for rain.  Well, I pleaded for rain.  Here was Caden's prayer.
Dear God,
  Thank you for our food.  Thank you for the rain.  Thank you for our family.  Thank you watering our grass.  Thank you for Jesus.
Amen
    I was struck by the fact that he thanked God for the rain as if it had already happened.  That simple child like faith.   So many times I get caught up in the wordings of my own prayers.  As if I string the words together in a secret churchy, holy-sounding formula, I will be heard. Or often I beat around the bush with God in my prayers, afraid to be too bold in asking what I truly want .  Or sometimes my prayers may sound more like a grocery list of all the things I am needing that day.  Caden's prayer reminded me that I need to share more of my thanksgivings and less of what I think I need. That is one of the reasons why I love to hear my children pray, they are always teaching me.
   For the rest of the day, my children waited in expectation.  Waiting for God to answer that prayer.  Sure that God was answering that prayer. After lunch, I asked them if they wanted to go swimming.  Their reply "Mom, it is about to rain.  Are you sure we should go swimming?  We would rather wait and play in the rain."
  I did not have the heart to tell them that the skies were sunny blue and that the weather man said there was less than a 20% chance of rain.  So we played a game inside instead.  All day they kept going outside, looking to the sky, waiting for an answer.  Reminded me of another day, of watching my kids wait for rain.

    Finally, at bedtime, Kinley says to me " Mom, I can't believe it did not rain all day today. Let's pray about it again tonight. " And again she shared a sweet prayer to God about providing the rain we needed so badly.  I reassured her that we could try again tomorrow and that sometimes we have to wait on God for His timing. 

  Just after midnight, I nearly jumped out of bed as we had three very excited children run into our room calling:

"It's raining!  God answered our prayer!"

   And He answered it in a big way. The wind was howling, it was thundering and lightening something awful and we could hear the down pour of rain hitting our tin roof.  It was the loudest storm, we have had all year.  God was showing us his faithfulness one more time.  We were blessed with over an inch of rain that night.  Needless to say, it took us awhile to get the kids to go back to sleep that night because of they were excited.

   And honestly they should be.  They just learned an important lesson.. I am heard.  We all are.  We are heard and loved by a God, bigger and greater than anything in this world.  And He is just waiting to bless us.  Just as the kids were looking to the sky that day, looking for an answer, waiting in expectation.  He is waiting to hear from us. Waiting to bless us. He is waiting in expectation.