He just keeps answering my prayers. Even when I wasn't really sure I wanted Him to.

During the school year, I have a regular Women's Bible study that I help facilitate on Thursday mornings. It is my favorite couple of hours of the week and it has had an enormous impact on my life. As we wrapped up the year in June, we decided that we wanted to get together as a group a couple of times over the summer. It was decided we would get together once during the day, with the kids, and once in the evening without. Jonna and I decided we would call some of our regular baby-sitters and have a couple of them come to a park and play with our kids while the ladies gabbed fellowshipped. We confirmed two girls for childcare, but had a third in mind in case we needed her.

A week prior to the park play date, I emailed all the women, reminding them of the details and asking for an RSVP from all moms who would be attending. We needed a fairly accurate head count of kiddos so that we would have sufficient supervision for them. A couple of days went by and I received a couple of RSVPs from moms, including one from a mom who only has a 4-month-old (Susan, you are adorable, but I'm pretty sure Yohan wasn't going to need anyone chasing him around the park). As of the day before the event, I had an RSVP total of 5 toddlers and two infants. It looked like two high school girls would be just fine.

The evening before we were all supposed to meet, I got a phone call from a girlfriend from church saying that she would be coming, and would be bringing a friend and together they would be bringing four more children. I also received an email from another girlfriend (Hi, Stacey!) saying she and her sister would be coming and bringing their kids, as well. Suddenly, in the space of a couple of hours, our total kid-count went from 5 to 12 (and that isn't including infants, who happily hung out with the mommies). It quickly became apparent that I was going to need another babysitter, which meant I was going to have to make some phone calls. Again.

After a short period of panicking and convincing myself there was NO WAY I could get another babysitter on such short notice, I remembered that I have a God in heaven who I can call on for things like this. I asked Him to forgive me for even trying to work this out on my own and then just said "Lord....find me a babysitter. Just tell me who to call and I'll do it." And that is exactly what He did.

The story has a fabulously happy ending. We had enough childcare, the women got to catch up and laugh and hug and all of those wonderful things that girlfriends are for. We also got to meet a new gal who is going to joining us for our study in the Fall. The morning accomplished everything I prayed it would. And more.

I have been begging God to give me a servant's heart. I want so badly to serve the women of our church and love them the way Christ would. Christ would not have panicked over childcare. He would have rejoiced at more women coming to fellowship and trusted His Father to provide for whatever He willed. He would never have felt "put out" over having to make eleventh hour calls to find a babysitter. He would have been thrilled to have more people to serve. That is the heart I want to have. Thank you, Lord, for giving me an opportunity to start practicing that very thing.