Prayer and a Little Chocolate

This past weekend we held our first banquet! It was exciting for many reasons – it was our first, we had a lady in our church organizing the entire event, we had a couple that are new Christians cooking the meal, and every table was being decorated according to a different theme by the host and hostess of each table. That took such a huge load off me…I thought:)

As the week progressed I found out that we were having an overnight guest – the speaker staying at our home – after having 6 of our grandkids stay with us for a few days during spring break. Now – really that was not an issue, but it did add a little work. We also decided to keep 3 of our grandchildren with us through Sunday as we were planning to be at their house for our grandson’s special Grandparent’s day at school on Monday…so on Sunday in addition to having the house ready for lunch for 7 guests, and taking all the table decorations to church to set my table after the morning service, I did also have to make sure the kids were ready in time to pick up a very special lady I bring to church every Sunday morning.

Well, whew! I had everyone and everything ready by 9:40! I was doing great…until I realized that my husband had taken the car keys to church with him – I was stranded at home. In the meantime – I began getting phone calls from all the people that were calling to let us know they weren’t going to be able to make it to church…not a good thing for a pastor’s wife to hear on Sunday morning – especially on the very special morning of our first banquet. Then I tried to call my hubby to get the keys, but he wasn’t answering his phone. I proceeded to call everyone whose cell number I had in the church and none of them answered their phones! By now it was 9:56 and I still was stranded at home! Here I had worked so hard to be organized, on time …all together, you know ready and handling everything just fine – now I was late and frazzled because I couldn’t get in touch with anyone. As a last ditch effort I texted everyone at once to let them know I was stranded at home, and that Pastor had the car keys! At last – success! My husband called to let me know he was on his way with the keys…yeah!

My husband was able to make it back to the church on time, but I was late picking up my dear Mrs. Farmer (she is 94), and by the time I got in to Sunday school it was 10:15…only to discover that I had left the bulletins at home…ugh! I picked myself up, walked back to the car out in the rain, and rushed home to get the bulletins. As I was home I was praying, “Lord, please help me I am totally stressing and I really could use a little help, and please can I have just a bite of chocolate? – I think it would help right about now.” I checked my candy dish - it was Nanna’s and I use it to store seasonal candy (just like she did), and of course after having 6 grandchildren with me – all of my mint chocolate (green) candy kisses were gone (no surprise there:). As I was rushing out the door, the Lord reminded me that I had a few Valentine candy’s left (if my husband hadn’t eaten them) and so I hurriedly checked and voila…chocolate!

I thanked the Lord as I enjoyed my little pleasure and realized that if He cared enough to give me chocolate for my stressful moment – surely He had the rest of the day fully under control!

We had a wonderfully successful banquet with an amazing attendance of 117, a great spirit – truly a blessed evening. So, when you find yourself stressing and looking for that little bite of comfort that you need, remember to pray – God answers even the little ones – after all He helped me through with prayer and a little chocolate.

“My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste: So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.” Psalm 24:13, 14

Have a wonderful day!