Coincidence or God? Don’t Miss God In The Little Things

God is always working on our behalf.

I’ve never been able to wake up with an alarm clock. In college, people from down the hall would come bang on my door startling me awake yelling, “Brandi, turn off your alarm clock.” They heard it 5 doors down. I never heard it and I was less than 5 feet away. I began oversleeping for class and ended up getting kicked out of school. When I was admitted back in, I had nowhere to turn but to God. I couldn’t screw up again. My last 2 years in school, it was God that woke me up. Yes, God allows us to wake up every morning, but this was different. I believe God gently shook me awake each morning whispering, “Brandi, wake up.” There’s no other explanation.

Ever since middle school I’ve prayed that my children would be cultured and well-traveled. I had no idea what that meant or what it looked like. As most of you know, my daughter was 2 years old when my family moved to Guam, a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific ocean. She’s 4 now and her classroom consists of Filipinos, Chamorros, Hispanic, and Asian kids. I just got my passport a few months ago (I’m 30). She had her at 3 years old. Coincidence? Not at all. God remembers and God delivers.

A year before my toddler daughter and I joined my husband on Guam, we prayed that we’d meet a playgroup of  moms and toddlers. A few weeks after arriving on island, we happen to be at the playground at the same day and time as a playgroup of mainland moms! They had planned to go to the park, but right before they headed out it begin to rain and they decided to go to the mall instead. (Read the whole story here.)

One of the mom’s I met at the library casually told me about her church while the kiddos were emerged in arts & crafts. We visited Father’s Day 2012 and never left. We became members a week ago.

When we got to Guam, we begin to debate whether we wanted to spend $6000 and visit our families or $2000-3000 and vacation somewhere new…and closer. We decided that, as much as we missed our families, we would regret it if we moved back home never having traveled on this side of the world. And, we knew we couldn’t afford to do both! Not too long after that, I won 2 round trip tickets to Hong Kong. (Read the whole story here.)

We were in the pool wading around and for the first time ever my daughter allowed us to put on her arm floats without screaming bloody murder. Within a few minutes, she was floating around all by herself! I couldn’t believe it! We had been praying about which activity to place her. Swimming? Soccer? Dance? We thought, “Maybe now she’s ready for swim lessons.” Less than a few minutes later, a woman gets in the pool and starts teaching these two kids how to swim. Arden’s on her 4th session of 8 week swimming lessons. She’s doing the breast stroke, floating, and jumping into the pool all by herself.

Because we have one car and our job is a 30 minutes commute, we were having a rough time. But, the perk of living outside of the city is the price of rent, right? So, we prayed about it. Lord, let us find somewhere close to our jobs that we can afford. We saw an apartment that we LOVED and we were so excited. But, when we got home and really calculated everything, it just wasn’t the best move. (This was a true test of our maturity because a year ago we would have taken the apartment and suffered later.) We spoke with some of our church friends and one of them said her mom was renting a space. Long story short, we found an apartment 10 mins. from work, 3 mins. from church, and cheaper than what we were paying 30 mins. away!

Back in the summer, I resigned from my job. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to work on Guam again. (Read the whole story here.) I started babysitting and my husband was content with that  for a while, but after a few months he wanted me to resume working. I prayed. And, I prayed some more. One day I got a call from a pharmacist saying that another pharmacist had given him my name. He asked if I was interested in working at his pharmacy. Mind you, I hadn’t applied anywhere. He said it would be on-call. My husband was hoping for something full-time, but I could tell God was in it. So, I just kept praying. I trained for a week. Then, I trained some more. I wrote down my availability just so they knew I was available for more hours. I’ve been working 30+ hours a week ever since…

When we moved to Guam, we didn’t know when we’d return back to South Carolina. The tickets cost an arm and a leg….for real. So, we shared our prayer request with our life group. And, when our church fasted at the beginning of 2014, we prayed for God to allow us to return home soon (without selling our arm or leg).  Just 2 days ago, we found an unbeatable deal. I said, “Arden, guess where we’re going in December!” With a big grin on her face, she said, “SOUTH CAROLINA!” Yep, we’ll be home for Christmas.

I could probably rattle off 10 more stories just like the ones you’ve already read. Why? Because I see God in everything. Don’t miss God in the little things. He’s working everything out on your behalf. So, take all of your cares and worries to Him. Every single one!! He’ll work it out for you in His way, in His time. Just be patient and rest in knowing that He’s on your side!

With Love,