God's Will Be Done (It Just So "Happened")

How can time slip away from me so swiftly? Somewhere between the good-morning kisses and the good-night hugs there is a time stealing portal that whisks my day away. And so each day tumbles into the next one and the one hundred and five blog entries that swirl through my brain never seem to make it into blogland.

But I had to make this story a priority. Because God is SO COOL, and the events of February 18th totally prove it.

I think I was nervous before I even woke up that morning. My dreams were filled with tummy frolicking butterflies. You'd think I was getting ready to go under anesthesia, or give a big speech. But my nerves were for something that actually had nothing to do with me.

My oldest daughter was competing in the regional spelling bee. She had won her middle school spelling bee, and had the awesome opportunity to compete at the next level. Kahlan was pretty cool about it. I was a wreck.

We had two specific prayers. The first was that Kahlan would be eliminated from the competition on a word that she truly didn't know. She has a photographic memory, so we hoped that if she misspelled a word, it was a word that she had never seen before. That way she would never have any, "I meant to say 'S' and I can't believe I accidentally said 'C'" regrets. Our second prayer was that she would make it into the top eight. This would enable her to at least be an alternate, and I knew that would completely thrill her. And I love it when my baby is thrilled.

And thus started a long string of, "It Just So Happened's" more accurately titled, "God Has Everything Under Control's."

It started with my nerves. I couldn't eat breakfast, because my stomach was doing somersaults.

Then Steve decided not to drive separately after all, and we all piled into the van together.

Steve took an unexpected detour through McDonald's so that we could get some protein in Kahlan before her big day.

I was quizzing Kahlan on her words, so she sat on the opposite side of the van that she normally does.

I couldn't hear her very well, so I asked her to move to the seat right behind Steve, even though she didn't want to.

As Steve started ordering, I stopped quizzing Kahlan on her words.

Though I almost never order fruit and yogurt parfaits, I ordered one because my nerves were still spinning my stomach and anything else felt like too much.

All of these things seem meaningless, don't they? Or at least they don't seem like what they really were - God's hand all over my daughter's day.

Because, you see, it came about that Kahlan was in the seventh round of the spelling bee a couple hours later. Twenty one students had been eliminated already, nine remained.

Each time she came up to the microphone, I prayed. "Dear Jesus, You have her in your hand. Give her calm nerves and a fresh mind. If it be Your will, Lord, let her spell this word correctly."

And each round had gone smoothly .....formula ....guitar ...ingredient ...colonial ...auctioneer...hypothesize...

parfait

I saw her open her mouth, then pause, then a flicker of recognition before she spelled the word correctly.

I knew what had happened. She confirmed it for me later, but I knew. She almost spelled the word P-A-R-F-E-I-T. Then her photographic memory flashed the image of the McDonald's order screen from that morning. She says she zoomed in on that word in red and read it right from that picture in front of her. "Correct!" the judge proclaimed.

You can't tell me it wasn't God. Had Steve driven separately like we were supposed to, Kahlan would have sat in the passenger seat and would have been unable to see the McDonald's screen if we would have even gone. Had he not gone to McDonald's, she never would have seen the word. Had she sat in her normal seat in the van, she wouldn't have seen the word. Had I not told her to move up two rows, she wouldn't have seen the word. Had I not stopped quizzing her as he ordered, she wouldn't have seen the word. Had I not been nervous, I never would have even ordered the parfait in the first place. God made sure that word was right in front of her eyes that morning.

Had she spelled it incorrectly, she would have gotten ninth place. Just one spot short of the top eight we had prayed for.

Round eight came quickly. Her word was viscous.

Once again I prayed the same prayer. This time she spelled the word incorrectly.

She had never heard of the word before, had never seen it.

And God, who is so amazing, so faithful, so wonderful, answered our other prayer. She sat down next to me and whispered, "I have never heard of that word." She was disappointed, but still she smiled. She knew what we had prayed before the spelling bee. There would be no "If I hadn't made that mistake" regrets for my little girl.

She went out in sixth place. Second alternate to the four champions, she earned her name in the newspaper and the opportunity to watch the state competition.

Before the Spelling Bee, I told her this: "If God wants you to win, you will win. If it is not His will that you win, you won't." When we talked about how many things God orchestrated so that she would see the word "parfait," all we could do was marvel.

The truth is, if He'd wanted her to compete at the state level, He would have given her "viscous" too.

How amazing it was to see God answer our prayers so clearly that day.

"Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive, and your joy will be complete." (John 16:24)