I have a little notebook in my car and sometimes, when I’m especially worried about an issue I write a prayer to God everyday, just something short, two or three sentences. Earlier this Fall, I needed something for one of my children. So for five or seven days in a row I wrote out my request. I didn’t realize how my prayer had been answered, little by little, over the course of a month and a half, until yesterday when I was reading my notebook. God one hundred percent answered my prary. So now I’m writing thank you notes to Him.
I like my little notebook because it forces me to recognize and acknowledge when prayers are answered. And then give the right Man credit.
When my dad was in WWII he was shot down over the North Sea. for four days he and crew members floated in a dingy until picked up by a Dutch fisherman. Once on board he wrote a letter to my grandmother, Mooie. He said, “I’ll find a way to study architecture while I’m in prison camp so don’t you worry. Just keep the faith.”
Why in a billion years would he think he could study architecture in prison camp? That’s an absurd and delusional idea. But, as it turned out, he spent the bulk of his time in the POW camp, with a Polish Architect who taught him everything he knew.
When I first started in sales I would decided what my sales goal would be each month and then I would write that number, over and over and over. During every sales meeting my boss would look at me, scribbling away, filling up the margins of all my legal pads with 25,000, 25,000, 25,000. I wrote that number hundreds of times and I made it. The next month I wrote 28,000, 28,000, 28,000. Again I made it. this went on and on. My boss was stunned because it was 2008 and the economy had just tanked in a stupendous fashion. Nobody was making budget. But I kept writing and making budget.
When I was a little girl my dad always told me we could “brain wash our brains.” And a phrase he made me repeat over and over was, “when you imagination accepts it as reality it will become true.” He also cautioned me not to take this power lightly and do the hard work to make that reality happen. So I didn’t try to conjure up a hippopotamus. Dad told me I had to guard and respect the power and to share it.
Have faith in the power of your mind. It’s amazing. Do the hard work; its necessary. Give as much as you can, it will all come back to you. And tell God thanks.