Back when our boys were young, we lived in a small town in Oklahoma. This little town had one gas station, one small store, one church, and a whole lot of warm and loving people. It was the summertime and the church had scheduled their annual Vacation Bible School. On Monday, the first day of VBS, the pastor announced that on Friday, the last day, we will have a great celebration! It will include food, fun games, and races!
Each grade will be assigned to bring a different animal or reptile to enter in to the race. My son, Josh, was in the 2nd grade, so our challenge was to go to the river and find a turtle. Not just any turtle, but a racing turtle. And boy was it a challenge! No turtles to be found! I don’t know if all the turtles were hiding, or extinct. But there just were absolutely NO turtles and that is exactly what we needed. Josh was heartbroken...all week long, we searched mornings, afternoons, and evenings, no luck! So, what does an eight-year-old do? On Thursday evening, Josh said, “Mom, let’s pray for a turtle. God will send me a turtle, I just know it!
In case you’re wondering if we prayed that night for a turtle, of course we did! When a young boy asks you to pray, you pray, right?! The next morning, we were getting ready for the big day, Race Day! Still no turtle....BUT, as we started out to the car, Josh sees something, it looked familiar, but wait, what is that? It was moving kind of funny by the car’s tire. Josh ran up ahead....IT’S A TURTLE! GOD SENT ME A TURTLE! As we got closer, we see that it only had three legs. Josh yelled out, “What.... a three-legged turtle?” Well, ok...I’m gonna take him anyway for the turtle race.
As it came time for the 2nd graders to race, they all approached their turtle’s starting gate. While taking their prize turtles out of their decorated shoe boxes, they look over at Josh’s turtle and started pointing and laughing at the poor little three-legged creature. Ten little turtles at the starting gate....GO! I would not have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes...that little turtle worked his three little legs and off he went! And yes....HE WON! Josh says his turtle won, because he knew he had to work harder with a missing leg! How sweet for a mom to witness that!
Sometimes when we pray for something, God gives us what we NEED, not necessarily what we WANT. HE knows us from the beginning to the end. Thank you, Lord! Thank you for helping my little boy’s faith in You.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and HE will give you the desires of your heart!” Psalm 37:4