Thursday, January 19, 2012

Prayers of strangers

I thought I would share a story with y'all today.

The weekend before Thanksgiving Kenzie, Conner and Dad
had a soccer tournament,
which meant
within 48 hours we could have 12 games.

I say "we" because, though Dad is coaching
and Kenzie and Conner are playing -
our four littles and I attended each game
and had to make sure that Kenzie and Conner were
at their warm-ups at the appropriate time,
even if Dad was coaching the other team.
(Brady was ref'ing another tournament closer to home)

Tournament weekends are weekends
which I spend days organizing the meal and entertainment plans for the littles.
Cause bored "littles" ain't fun for anyone.

Anywhoooo,  it was Saturday mid-morning -
we were getting ready for game 4.
Trying to find a parking space at this particular field
is near impossible -
 I was super excited when I say a car pull out and I could get my
big ole' SUV in.
And thank you Lord,
it was near a sidewalk so the littles would be safe out of the parking lot,
(I hate parking lots with four littles - 
scares me to death!)
as I unloaded the needed food and toys for this game.

Well,
hunger and bordem kicked in while we were still in the car.
It was not one of our finest moments.
2 out of 4 were having...
well...
hissy fits.

There was a sweet, older couple who had set up their soccer chairs on the sidewalk
to watch their grandsons game on the nearest field.
They watched me with the kiddos,
and I could tell they wanted to help but had no clue of how to help.

As I got everyone out of the car,
the two hissy fits became more intense,
the stroller that I brought to carry food and toys was now being used as
a time out chair -
screaming and thrashing going on.
(I said this was not one of our finest hours.)

We finally got it all together - 2 kids running ahead giddy,
2 kids screaming and thrashing,
and sweaty, irritated mom carrying bags of "stuff".

We arrived at our field,
to find out the game was delayed so we had time to relax and
have a snack before the game -
as we sat and regrouped,
the clouds covered us, and the wind picked up,
now we were cold and whinny.
Of course, I had left our jackets in the car -
remember, I was sweating before. :)

My dear friend, Rebecca, offered to stay with the kiddo's while I
went back to the car.
Thank you! Thank you Rebecca!

As I came up to my car, I noticed the older couple had put their chairs away and were now
sitting in their vehicle next to ours.

The gentleman saw me coming and jumped out of his vehicle,
and began asking questions and making sweet comments-
"How many kids do you have?"
"How long have they been home?"
"Bless you."
He was very sweet and we had a nice conversation -
as I explained that every day is not like what he had just witnessed.

As our conversation was coming to an end,
he asked,
"What is your name?
My wife and I want to add you to our daily prayer list
and pray for y'all."

I'm telling y'all the tears began flowing!
What a sweet couple!
They took their gift that God had given them of prayer
and took it further to pray for a complete stranger
and her family.

There are still days like this one,
and I find peace from the Lord that there are people like
this sweet couple praying for us!



4 comments:

Musings from Kim K. said...

Now, I have tears reading this post. What a lovely couple to include you in their daily prayers.

River Jordan said...

Thank you for sharing your story. We all have hissy fit days. :) But isn't it great when strangers step up and care and say they'll offer a prayer for us!
I found your post because I recently wrote a book titled, Praying for Strangers and good old google sent me to your blog. The book is about a resolution I had to pray for strangers but has sparked many people to begin doing this.
Blessings today on your large, beautiful family!

River Jordan

Amy said...

Can totally relate:). How awesome too!!! I love when people follow through on God's prompting to do something like that- love it!

Sharon said...

Wonderful! I was at a conference last spring and a woman told me she was going to fast and pray for my prodigal! Overwhelmed by the prayers of strangers...

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