Answers to prayers...

Prayer is a powerful thing.

I have offered some hefty, heartfelt prayers. Things that were heavy on my mind and could only be soothed by power from above.

Some are not so hefty, but are still important to me nonetheless. The comforting thing is that He hears them all.

The night before we left for our cruise Patrick realized our new camera was missing. It was a Christmas gift and we were excited to give it a proper debut in Mexico. But, on the eve of our departure, it was missing.

We spent a couple of hours looking for it. In every room, under couch cushions, in the car, it was no where to be found. We have an older camera that works just fine- but it just wouldn't be the same.

We looked and re-looked late into the night. At 1:30am we decided to throw in the towel. It was no where to be found.

The next morning we got up early to finish packing up and head out the door. We said our morning prayer and once again asked our Heavenly Father to help us find the missing camera.

My mind was in a million directions, trying to remember this and that when the thought came to me to wash our sheets before we left to have them nice and clean when we got back (yes, I am my mother's daughter:). We barely had time to get a load washed and dried, but the thought would not go away. I gathered up the sheets and headed to the basement.

"Maybe the camera is in the laundry room", I thought. That is the reason I had the feeling. I searched everywhere, but still no camera. While I was searching I gathered up a few things that did not belong in the laundry and headed to our craft room to put them away. "Maybe the camera is in the craft room." came the thought to my mind. I searched there too, but no luck. As I was leaving the craft room I noticed a pillow in the corner that did not belong there. I should put that away in the guest room. We almost never go into the guest room, so the thought of finding the camera there seemed completely ridiculous. I threw the pillow at the head of the bed and started to walk away. It looked sloppy so I went back to fluff all of the pillows and place them just right.

As I moved one of the decorative pillows I looked down at the night stand and there it was. The camera. It was slightly tucked behind the pillow out of my previous sight. I stood there frozen. I couldn't believe it. "Thank you, thank you, thank you... " I said out loud as I ran up the stairs shouting for joy.

Was it a life and death situation? Heavens no. Was it a dyer need? Not really. Was is a relief to know that our brand new camera wasn't lost... Yes! Was it even sweeter to know that our loving Heavenly Father really does hear and answer our prayers even when we manage to hide things from our self? Absolutely!

Sometimes, when I feel my prayers aren't being answered I need to remember that some answers take time and some prayers require some work on my part. The important thing is to not lose patience and not to lose faith.

So the next time I feel prompted to so something as strange as wash the sheets when I really don't have the time... I will do my best to follow through. Who knows what blessing might be waiting to be found!