9/12/13

peaches and personal revelation

I first learned that God listened to my prayers through a hamster.  His name was Peaches.  My family named him this because he had orange fur, and his little bum looked just like a peach.  It was unanimous.

Peaches died a tragic death by marshmallow peep.  He found his way into my brother's Easter basket and thought he'd try eating one which expanded in his body and asphyxiated him until dead.  Like I said, tragic.  I've never really understood Peeps.  White, fluffy sugar covered in more sugar, just colorful this time, shaped like bunnies and baby birds.  Anyway, I digress. 

Before his passing, Peaches and I were thick as thieves.  The only trouble was, hamsters are small.  At the tender age of 7, I wasn't very skilled at keeping track of the day of the week, let alone small items such as hamsters.  I used to place him in random spots, like my sock drawer, and forget about him.  A few hours later I would realize -- the hamster was lost. 

This was typically followed by complete chaos, caused by my entire family's efforts to find our lost Peaches.  When I had exhausted every place I could think of, and resorted to shameless tears, I had a thought.  If anybody knew where my hamster was, it was God.  I mean, he knew lots of things, right?

I said a prayer, Please help us find Peaches.  Every time, without fail, Peaches turned up in a matter of minutes.  And that's how I knew.  God knew me.  He wanted to help.  He was generally easy to get a hold of.  He listened, he answered, he cared.
Last night, I felt a bit nostalgic.  The cat made a mad dash out the front door as we opened it for some visitors. She ran and ran, father than we had ever seen her run, through a neighbor's yard and into the dark of the night.  We knew we wouldn't be able to sleep until she was home safe, especially with a thunderstorm rolling in.  We had to find her, and quick.  And might I add how happy I was at this point that she was a cat and not a hamster.

After about an hour of walking around with flashlights, jingling bells, shaking bags of food, calling out, "Kitty kiiittyyy!" and a bunch of other things that I'm sure were sincerely concerning to our neighbors, we were at a loss.  Drew stood on the back porch, slumped his shoulders, said, "What do we do?"

"I don't know..."

Wait, yes I do.  "How about we say a prayer."

He nodded.  We walked to our room, knelt down by our bed, and I said a simple prayer.  Please help us to find our cute little kitty.  We like her.  

After that, we decided to go sit out on the porch, wait for her to come to us.  I went to grab my book, and heard Drew say, "Hey, there she is!"  He was holding her when he walked inside and locked the front door, said, "Well that was fast."

17 comments:

  1. i love this. growing up my parents always taught us to pray to saint anthony when we lost things. i had this ring that i was constantly misplacing and i would continuously be on the hunt for. every time i would just about give up i'd talk to st. anthony. and i swear my ring would always turn up. sometimes the wait was longer than others but it always was found. :)

    so glad you found your kitty.

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    1. Thank you :) and thanks for sharing your own experience. I'm curious, are you apart of a specific church/religion? What are the beliefs with praying to a St? Do you pray through them to God or just to them or how does that work?

      Sorry, I get curious about religion, it's so interesting.

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    2. there is an extended version of the prayer but growing up we would say ""St. Anthony, St. Anthony please come down, something is lost and can't be found." i grew up Catholic. i still attend church, but not on a regular basis, unfortunately. and i have a million excuses as to why, but they're just that- excuses. however, i am also very curious of religion, it fascinates the heck out of me :)

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  2. How many times have I done this? Who knows. Same hearts, we have.

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    1. I couldn't agree more :) Do you kitties run away a lot?

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    2. I did it more with Eskimo at night time. I've had to learn to accept the kitties going out all of the time because I live with 8 people who don't care even though they know how I feel.

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  3. i looooove this!!! isn't it interesting that the simple prayers for seemingly silly thing are ALWAYS the major testimony builders? i lost my camera once, and prayed that i would be able to find it - prayer answered, testimony strengthened. i had a photo shoot with a friend and the rain would not let up, prayed that it would go away, at least for a little while - prayer answered, testimony strengthened. the little things matter to god, we matter to him.

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    1. Exactly! I love those stories, so simple. It really is the small things. Even recently, my answer was, "Wait." and it was so frustrating in the moment because I wanted to get things done right then! But it all worked out better than I ever though it would and if I hadn't listened, and waited, I wouldn't have worked out. Love prayer.

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  4. i am a firm believer that God always answers prayers.
    always.
    ^_^

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  5. i love this. mom and dad always taught us to pray for seemingly little things too. usually mine don't get answered so quickly but so glad your kitty is safe.

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    1. Oh, definitely. Not all of mine are answered so quickly and easily either! haha I hope I didn't make it sound like that. But the little, simpler things always seem to be the things that affect me the most.

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  6. I love this toooo!!!! It is so true. Sometimes God answers the smallest of prayers. The things I would never say out loud, the things only he knew I needed and understood. It's amazing. I know He loves me.

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    1. Thanks Sarah :) for sharing that. It's so true. Tender mercies!

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  7. This is gorgeous. My religious self has always been fuzzy with what I believe but my spirituality has never wavered once. I know that good vibes put out into the atmosphere produce results. Nothing will beat the power of thought.

    ALSO I had a hamster when I was 10 and I loved that little fluff. His name was cream puff and I had him for one day. I came home the next day and he was dead. I had given him rat food instead of hamster food and he died of sever constipation. I wish hamsters weren't so fragile with food. Boo.

    Em
    Tightrope to the Sun

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