I don't know if I've mentioned it or not, but I think a lot. (I also talk a lot but we are not talking about talking today, we are talking about thinking.) There is always something rolling around in my head. (I often refer to it as a carnival in my head...sometimes you win the giant stuffed animal and sometimes you're stuck with the ten cent goldfish.) Often, my thoughts are about two steps ahead of my mouth. (Those of you who know me are nodding your head in agreement. This explains why my conversational paths often appear unrelated when, in truth, if you lived inside my head, you would clearly see how I got from point a to point b. You would also likely be slightly disturbed and uncomfortable because inside my head is a strange little place.)

Anyhow, before I digress any further, I thought I might pull some of my thoughts out and let them see the light of day.

Yesterday God and I had a conversation about Him. (We had one today too but that's not the conversation we are discussing at this moment.) Two very small, mostly insignificant prayer requests were sent up yesterday and they were both answered almost immediately. They really didn't mean much to anyone other than the two people who requested them.

They weren't for world peace or health cures or even for lost souls.

Just two little bitty requests that were only important to the two who asked.

As I was driving home later that day, I thanked my Father for loving us so much that He answered even these teeny tiny requests. And I got the feeling that He wondered why I was surprised. After all, does He not know the number of hairs on my head? Of course He does. All of this then led to a discussion about "reserve bids" and prayer expectations.

Why is it that we feel that an event or request in our lives must meet a certain standard before we bring it to the Father? That it must be a certain size or a certain level of importance to be worthy of discussing with Him? Kind of like the "reserve bids" that ebay sellers sometimes put on items. Once the thing hits a certain price (or level of pain or discomfort or cluelessness or confusion) then it must be important enough to bother God about.

Which leads me to wonder how many hours (or days, months, years) of heartache and confusion I might avoid if I would just bring everything to Him. As I said here, I am a life in progress, covered by grace. And while I'll always be a life in progress here on this earth, I'm hoping this is one thing I can conquer for good.

In the meantime, I'll be dancing over the little things as well as the big.

Friday morning I was getting ready to dash out the door to work when I felt God speaking to me. I had been reading Chuck Swindoll's Elijah: A Man of Heroism and Humility in preparation for meeting Elijah in the scriptures and I was pondering something I had read. Suddenly, I felt God nudge my heart and say, "Connect the dots, Karen. Look and see."