I Want a Sister

I’m told that I really wanted a little sister when I was small. Sometimes I would talk about it casually with my parents, and other times I would come to my parents crying, saying how much I wanted one. Every single night I prayed to God and asked Him to grant my request. My parents asked me why I wanted a sister so badly, but I didn’t know why; I just knew I wanted one. My parents probably thought that this was kind of strange, and many times I was asked, “Why a little sister and not a little brother?” I still had no idea. All I knew was I wanted a sister.

This went on for some time, but after a while, the idea faded, and I forgot all about it until one day while I was getting ready for school.

Answered Prayer

I woke up that day feeling fine, and I was beginning the usual second-grader routine. I put on my clothes, brushed my teeth, and had my dad help me with my hair. We then walked downstairs to breakfast, when out of nowhere, my leg hurt as it had never hurt before. I was now late for school, and in between crying sessions, the phone rang. Out of the blue, a friend called us and asked if we wanted a baby girl. My dad asked me what I thought and then called my mom, who was out of town at a conference. We all said yes, and the adoption began.

That was a crazy time, but within three weeks or so, we had an addition to our family, a sister that I had wanted from when I was very young. It also later occurred to us that my leg had hurt for a reason and that if it weren’t for my hurt leg, we wouldn’t have been home for the phone call. God used me to answer my own prayer.

God Let Me Forget

As I look back now, I’m glad that God decided to let me forget. He let me forget so that He could pick out the little sister just for me. I had completely forgotten about the whole ordeal, but God remembered. When I prayed for her as a child, God could have told me yes right away! But He chose not to. God could have left me to live my second-grader life undisturbed. But He chose not to. What God chose to say instead was “just wait.” And I’m glad He did so.

There are instances where prayer was answered right away in the Bible, but there were also times where God chose to wait. The story that immediately comes to mind is the Israelites’ stay in Egypt. The Israelites had prayed to God for some time, but He didn’t answer in the way they had wanted, so they just gave up hope. God wasn’t saying no to their request; He was telling them to wait. He wanted the right man for the job. And He found him.

Maybe in your life, you have prayed for something, and maybe God answered it right away, and that’s great. Or maybe after waiting for a long time, you gave up hope or even stopped trusting in God. I’m encouraging you not to give up hope because God might be just waiting to give you something even better than what you asked for.

If you liked this, you might also like Adopting Lilyan 

Zackary Brenes writes from the Pacific Northwest.

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