Tuesday, September 20, 2011

A Faith Builder


This past summer out family camped alongside a couple other families in our area

It was hot, buggy, and a blast!

One story that came out of the weekend I will never forget. It built my faith.

At one point when we were at the beach, one of the older kids lost a ring, a special keepsake that belonged to his grandfather. I could tell right away that this was really hard for him. It seemed hopeless to dig around in the sand to look for this small treasure.  But he did look and a few of us helped. We prayed too and the kid's mom and dad tried to encourage him to not be so upset, but to let it go.

The next day I went to the beach to read my book and watch the girls swim. I went back to the spot where the ring was lost. A man was in the exact spot laying on a large towel. I was moved to just walk towards that spot and ever so discreetly pray and walk through the sand hoping to find the ring. I knew that it meant a lot to this kid. I really wanted to find it.

I told the Lord that I didn't want to leave the beach that day without the ring. I prayed in faith, confident that it would be found one way or another before we left.

Then, I let it go myself. I enjoyed my book and conversation with the other adults while we watched our kids.

A couple hours went by.

It was nearing the end of our time at the beach.

Ben walked towards the water to give the kids the "10 minute warning" that we would leave to go home.

He came back and sat down and casually said, "Look what I found."

The ring!

He didn't even know whose it was. He had no idea any of us had been looking for it or what our prayer was.

In a moment of utter amazement I told him who it belonged to and what my prayer had been.

It was one of those genuine "Thank You, God" moments. God, you answered a simple, but important prayer.

We returned the ring to its rightful owner. I was grateful he got it back. He had his keepsake once again.

And maybe his faith was built up too.

I know mine was.

1 comment:

Grace-n-Mike said...

That is an awesome story - gave me goosebumps :)