I LIFT MY HANDS IN PRAISE TO THE LORD

This morning I got up, went to the kitchen in the dark, and started to get the coffee pot ready for my morning cup o' joe. I turned on the faucet and...nothing. I turned it off again, thinking I must be dreaming. I turned the faucet back on again. Nothing. I ran to the bathroom and turned on the faucet there. Nothing. I ran through the house to the other bathroom and tried that one. Nothing.
Instantly my mind went racing. It had been 3 degrees overnight. A pipe had probably froze and busted. I thought "We've been in our for one month now and already we've pulled up sub-flooring, rebuilt the sub-floors, replaced the floors, replaced, taped and mudded and sanded sheetrock under every window and repainted every wall in the house. (Not to mention completely knocked down and rebuilt a wall separating the laundy room from the living room.) The hot water heater went out and had to be replaced. Jason's truck had been in the shop twice already. Now this?!?!"
All this in the middle of winter, and if you are around Kansas you know how our winter has been, cold, wet frozen solid and wind chills that bite your bones. I just could not handle this right now.
At this point I told my daughter that I needed her to go do something fun in her bedroom or just be quiet for awhile because I needed to pray for awhile. I needed to get on my knees and get with God. She said "please can we play mommy?" It broke my heart but I told her "mommy needs to talk to God for awhile honey. You can come with me and pray with me if you'd like, but I have to do this now."
So she sat on the floor and I began to pray. And pray, and pray and pray. I thanked God for things I DID have. I thanked him for things we take for granted. I thanked him for a roof over my head and food in the kitchen. I thanked him that my husband was on his way home from the firestation alive. I thanked him that my daughter, or anyone else in our family didn't have a terminal illness. I thanked him for my vehicle in the garage. AND I thanked him for the fact that my only problem was a busted water pipe. It could be alot worse. A family in our area has 4 children and the mother is 9 months pregnant and their house burned to the ground last week. I thanked God I had a home, and that I had clothes to put on. I thank him for the job I would be going to on Monday. We are not worthy of any of these things. God's grace allows us to have these things. We live detestful lives and he still provides these things for us. He still grants us His Mercy! To God be the Glory! Praise Him for what He HAS done for you!
Who are we to think we deserve a home, a car, health, freinds, and all the other necessities in life we should be refering to as BLESSINGS?

In the midst of my prayer I began to weep. The tears started welling up. My lip started quivering and that's when I told God that there was no financial way we could repair this. I told God that I trusted Him that He would provide for us...however, I know what's in the bank right now. I know that we've exhausted our resources in the other emergencies. Winter time is hard for us because Jason's fire dept. pay is nothing. (Firefighters get paid approximately a little over minimum wage to put their lives on the line, run into burning buildings, extricate mutilated bodies out of smashed vehicles, etc. That's why they do it... for the love of what they do.) Jason's 2nd job is lawn and landscaping which brings in the bread and butter. And obviously he's not mowing in 2 feet snow right now. things are tight to say the least. So as my prayers continued and my sobbing became obvious to my daughter, she came over to me and put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed me and said "mommy, can you hear God now?"

God spoke to my heart and I had a peace. What was I alone going to do about broken pipes other than deal with it? thankfully I have family around for showering right? Anyhow, Jason got home this morning with a kerosene heater and started heating up underneath the house to "unfreeze" anything frozen so we could start in on whatever it was going to take to get this figured out. After about an hour all of a sudden, the water just started running out of the faucet! After all the phone calls to plumbers, the water company, the turning off and on of the water to the house, the water flat out just "came back on."

God heard me this morning. Why he answered my prayers I don't know, I don't deserve it. BUT HOW THANKFUL I AM!! It's a complete miracle! Things don't just happen like that unless it's a GOD thing.
thank you Lord.