March 11
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. (Matthew 21:22)
I found this passage interesting as I was reading my scriptures because I wondered how many people actually believe this to be true.
Do the average man and woman really believe this?
For me it's a no-brainer because I have received things when I didn't even realize I was asking for them!
I wonder if that ever happens to other people as well. You know you think of something, then it suddenly it happens or you get it?
I have had that happen to me my whole life so I find it weird when others tell me it doesn't work!
The funny thing is it does work, because all the bad things they think about or fear happen as well!
Gee, a brainwave is a brainwave good bad or indifferent! Mel wasn't too in tune to this when we first got married. He actually thought I was a witch or a gypsy (I decided to take it as a compliment, we'll just leave it at that!) because I would say something and then bam, it would happen!
The funniest example of this was shortly after we had moved into his old house.
We had been there about 8 months and I was doing my "have-to-change-the-living-room-around-to-make-it-look-new bit. I stopped for a few minutes and stared at an empty corner that I had left over.
My hubby walked in and just stared at me staring at the wall. Yeah it was totally silly!
"Honey, what are you doing?" he finally asked.
"I was just thinking how great a piano would look right here!" I said.
"What? We would never fit a piano in here, there's not enough room!" He replied. He was really looking at me funny now.
"No silly, not a grand piano. I meant an upright! It would fit perfectly right in here!
I personally didn't play the piano even though I had been trying to teach myself for years!
I had always wanted to but my mother never let me and as an adult I never got the opportunity to formally take lessons (Yet!).
But God is funny with the way he does things sometimes, because Chris my son was the one who nagged me for two years to sign him up for lessons.
I finally meet someone at church who gave lessons and he had been playing it for a few months. He just didn't have a piano to practice on.
"Well, Hon, on our budget, that "ain't" happening anytime soon!" My hubby replied as he hugged me from behind.
"It could", I told him," Why wouldn't God bless us with a piano? It doesn't have to be brand new, just something for Chris to practice on!" He smiled at me and gave me the "keep dreaming" look.
"It could happen," I mumbled to myself. When I was done with the room I went upstairs and took a shower. I decided to go to bed early, (if you can call 10:00 pm early!)
About an hour or so after I went to bed I hear the phone ring. I also had the pleasure of hearing Derek yell from the third floor down to the first floor where my hubby was that it was for him.
Who needs intercoms with those lungs?
I could barely hear my husband's conversation because it was a bit muffled, but I definitely hear his distinct boisterous laugh thunder throughout the foyer.
"Are you serious?" I could make him out saying, "When, right now?" You have got to be kidding me!" He spoke through more loud chuckles.
I could barely make out the fact that he had hung up when I hear him call the older boys down. It got eerily quiet because I fell asleep for about another hour and a half before a loud crashing sound woke me out of my deep slumber! This was followed by a loud chorus of whispered, (well it's the thought that counts!)
"Shhhhs"!
"What happened", I called out half sleep,
" Nothing, Derek fell!" The reply came back followed by more muffled giggles. This happened a lot in our house too, so I tried going back to sleep. I could hear a lot of movement going on downstairs and what sounded like a lot of grunting, this happens a lot too, it sounded like wrestling!
Since my hubby was with them I didn't worry and I finally dozed off.
The rest of the night was uneventful but I knew something was up when I had 8 smiling children staring down at me first thing in the morning. I took a mental head count. Oh, no Chris was missing!
"Okay, what have you all done with Chris?" I asked. They all laughed out loud. Not a good sign at our house either. Laughing meant something was broken, someone was bleeding or someone had farted!
"He's still sleeping in his room, quick get up we have something to show you!" Derek said for the group. I looked at my hubby, who was standing there with that sly smile of his. Now I knew something was up, the aliens had brainwashed him too!
I got up and was escorted to the top of the landing.
"Close your eyes!" Derek told me. Close my eyes to walk down the stairs? Now I knew why he fell down so much! Closed eyes and steep stairs aren't a good combination! I gave him the "yeah right" look.
He reached over, grabbed my hand and started walking me down the stairs with the rest of munchkin-land following close behind us. (Now I knew how Dorothy felt!) He guided me into the living room and then stopped.
"Okay, open your eyes!" When I did I was met by the sight of an upright piano smack in the corner I had said the night before!
"Oh, my Goodness," I shrieked," Where did you guys get this?"
"You're never going to believe this Hon, My brother Hector called me last night after you went to bed and told me his landlord had this piano he was going to throw away.
Hector said all of a sudden he thought of you and decided to call me to see if we wanted it!
"Are you serious?" I asked suppressing a gaggle of silly giggles.
"That is exactly what I said to him when he called me last night! I just couldn't believe it! I thought you had put him up to it! Get this too; this piano had been sitting in this guy's basement for 25 years! Then all of a sudden he decides to get rid of it last night! The funny thing was Hector said we had to get it right away because the guy was going to put it out on the curb and he knew it would be gone!"
"Yeah, so we all went over there to get it last night while you were sleeping! We wanted to surprise you!" Derek said excitedly.
"Yeah, we wanted to have it waiting for you in the morning. We thought you were going to find out though when clums-o over there almost got killed when he fell while we were trying to lug the piano up the stairs!" Eric chimed in pointing to Derek. "We thought you were going to get up when we made all that noise, but Dee said you were so used to us being loud that you weren't going to bother to come to check! He was right!" Eric smiled.
"Dad told us what you told him last night too! We were dying it was so funny! You think you can come up with the megabucks numbers too?" Jose added chuckling.
Chris came down the stairs half asleep. You should have seen his eyes light up when he saw the old beat up piano. It was horribly out of tune and one of the legs was broken but he sat down and played Beethoven's Ninth symphony on it right away! It sounded Heavenly!
When Chris was done and the kids rushed off to play video games and watch cartoons, Mel grabbed me and smiled!
"Honey, you think next time you can be more specific. When you said it didn't have to be new you could have specified but not too old either!" He whispered to me as he smiled.
I got a chuckle because I made believers out of a few people that day!
To this day when someone starts to doubt that something good can happen just because we want it, one of my kids will pipe in "remember the piano!"
So Matthew was right, if you ask, and you believe it, it will be so! As long as it's for your betterment and the betterment of mankind, most likely God will bless you with it.
Just make sure you're specific and really want what you ask for because chances are, you're gonna get it!
Hey Chris, play that number again!!
