Careful what you wish...or mentally plan for

When packing for a recent trip, my husband and I were discussing the number of books I should take...I packed 5 knowing I had long flights ahead of me and he recommended that I take 3. So I took the following:

As you know, it's part of our "Resource pool" for the blog - which I intended to find time to make postings on irrespective of how busy I may be during the trip.





I started this book middle of this year and still haven't finished it - so I was hoping to finish it while travelling after all, I started it while travelling...




This is another book I started very excitedly - in September. I dropped it when the excitement waned. It was more techie than I'd expected and to think that I scanned through the book before buying it... Being part of the Children's church was a motivator too - I'd better finish what I started. Like James Bryce said: "The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it." - which suggests "finish reading to carry away".


Now this is the very same book I'd told you about some time ago (see one of the postings on October 6). So again, I was planning to start and finish this book I've had for more than 3 years. Now, I've had some for longer...the point here is that I bought this book to help with managing my life as a busy Christian woman. You'd think I'll read it in a heartbeat and yet, I've been too busy to read the book for "busy women"...hmmm, wonder if I'm even too busy or not as organised as I can be? It's got to be one or the other...



This is a new book...with all the change going on and "coming on" in my life, my plan is to stick to the Scout's motto and "be prepared"



So you'd say I ended up with the 5 books as I'd planned? Not quite...I may have packed 5 books but only 3 were to be read - 1 was a resource material so it doesn't count; 2 were already half-read (1/2 + 1/2 = 1) and 2 were unread...so 3 books altogether.

Ok testing our math wasn't the point of this piece...

I had a 1-hour flight ahead of me and "planned" (i.e. secretly hoped and wished) to finish one of the half-read books during the flight...does that make sense to you? Not to me either. Well, guess what happened? By the time we landed, I had only 1 full chapter and the conclusion (approx 30 pages) left. Now before you start beaming that you know a fast reader, you need to know what really happened.

Boarding was delayed by half-an-hour initially. We finally boarded and then sat in the plane for another hour and a half - remember that this was a one-hour flight. We finally landed about 15 minutes late - due to bad weather which was the reason for the delay in the first place. So altogether, a one-hour flight took 3 hours and 15 minutes including the flight time...and guess what I did in that time? With limited choices i.e. no TV, I read, read and read.

Well, my testimony, in addition to a safe and uneventful journey, is that I almost finished one-half of the "3" books to be read.

I wonder if my "wish" had any impact...I'm almost sure it didn't but it's interesting how God answers our prayers. Indeed prayer is just a breath away...it shouldn't take much more than that...

“Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life” ~ Jonathan Edwards

Martin Luther King Jr. said: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”

One day we'll talk some more about prayer...just wanted to share this interesting "answer-to-prayer" experience and advise you to be careful what you wish or mentally plan for...it might very well come true.