Jorge the Light

I'll never get tired of that feeling that washes over you when God shows up!

I pray over my daughter every day.  Alex has had the hardest 2 years of any teenager I know.  She has been plucked out of her comfortable life and plopped right into God's plan for our family which has been anything but comfortable.  God is writing a beautiful testimony for her life that I'll let her share when she sees fit. But I'll share little snippets of it now and then.  :)

She is in a public high school in a pretty big city.  1600 kids walk the halls daily.  Since her first day of school I have emulated my cousin who has prayed this verse over her children:

Matthew 5:16, "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."  

Daily, I have prayed for her to shine so bright that others find Christ through her actions.  Every day.  But daily, she comes home defeated as if she's just fought the biggest, ugliest battle in history!  She comes home tired and depressed.  This morning, I was impressed to pray something different over her.  I asked God instead of making her a light to shine all alone...may He lead her to other lights in her school.  I asked Him to show her other believers to remind her that she's not alone, so they can shine even brighter together!

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, " Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor; If either of them falls down, one can help the other up."

I prayed this prayer as I dropped her off, and drove home.  I really didn't think anything of it as my day went by and I was engaged with a thousand other things!  I  noticed Alex was more chipper and energetic when I picked her up  after school.  Again...didn't think much of it.  But after dinner this evening, she walks downstairs with her Bible in her hand.  She had ask her dad to start discipling her and teaching her how to study her Bible. She then tells me that she met a new friend in class today, named Jorge.  He is a Mexican kid who speaks broken English that she struggles to understand.  But he asked her in class about the church she went to.  He asked her to tell him about her church, and then he told her about his church.  He then started quizzing her on Bible trivia.  They talked about God until the teacher got upset with them for disrupting class.

As she was sharing this story with me, God showed up.  Well, He had been there all along, but He finally showed up in my mind. I started crying, and Alex, who is quite used to her mom's emotional tears, rolled her eyes jokingly and asked why I was crying.  I told her about my prayer for her this morning.  My prayer for God to lead her to other lights in her school.  Jorge the light.  I'll take it!

Sometimes we pray things that we think are right to pray.  There was nothing wrong with my prayer for God to make her a light.  I believe He is doing that in His own way.  But God impressed on me to ask Him for something MORE right for her...right now.   I wonder if Jorge's mom was praying for him this morning, too.  Praying that he might find another light today.

Psalm 37:23 "The Lord directs the steps of the godly.  He cares about every little detail of their lives."    Every. little. detail.