Unanswered Prayers and Thanks, Garth!

Yesterday, I had an appointment with someone that is extremely busy and cleared the afternoon for me. While we were talking, his wife mentioned how a lady had compared him to Garth Brooks. A rather comical story, really, but it got me thinking. Garth Brooks sings a song called Unanswered Prayers where he and his wife run into "an old flame" of his at a high school football game. Someone he thought he'd be spending the rest of his life with, but it never worked out. And now he thanks God for unanswered prayers.

Does it only count as an answered prayer if God gives you what you want? Hmmm, anyway....my whole point here is not Garth Brooks and his superficial song, but for a long time, I've been praying the Lord would do something and he used my friend, "Garth," to answer that prayer yesterday. Thanks, "Garth." I pray many blessings upon you and your family, for y'all are such a blessing to ours. I wasn't sure how God would do it, but He did it and it just so happens that it was what I wanted. But even if things had not gone my way, that would have still been God's answer to my prayer. Right? OK.....

Now on to the excerpt that I promised would be posted yesterday. The first part of the excerpt is from Doris Aldrich from her Out of the Mixing Bowl column of Moody Magazine. The second part is a thought from her son, Joe Aldrich.

January, 1943
A bit of spice, the basic flour, the shortening and the milk, the leavening and the salt, the sugar and the eggs - combine to form that final [birthday cake] which we later serve with pride. The ingredients are not all tasty but all are needed, and the sifting and stirring as well as the heat of the oven are all necessary.
Every so often throughout the year, there comes a day with special zest...a bit of spice. And then perhaps a whole week of the weariness of the daily round - just some flour perhaps - and not very interesting, but nourishing and a part of the whole. And the sweetness of some days - how we wish it could last, and yet you know what happens when too much sugar goes into a recipe...it falls flat.
And what of the times when the heart is so heavy it feels like a weight? Leaven is bitter to the taste, and yet no cake will achieve perfection without it. And the One who knows the recipe-of-the-year for us never uses too much leavening lest the cake be bitter. He balances and combines it all with understanding skill. He does this for those who let Him....
[A year] is more than just 365 days. Somehow there's a recipe and it all works together.

A Thought From Joe:
Mother wrote this poem when she was just a young girl of sixteen. I think it fits well here with her thoughts about the new year that lay ahead.

The New Day

by Doris Coffin

A lovely glorious new day

Which God has given me.

I hold thee in my cupped hands,

Carefully and eagerly.

So new, so clean, so free

from stain,

As yet no spot of sin.

I dare not trust myself with thee

So give thee back to Him.