Like a Ton of Bricks

So in the past few days I have heard the same phrase 3 times (or at least some version of the same phrase). "God answers prayer in three ways: yes, no, or not yet." All the while I nodded my head in agreement as we all do when we agree with something we've heard before and we know in our head is true. We let the phrase go in one ear and out the other without giving second thought to what is said. It's the normal response given to any statement when we fail to really hear with our hearts. It's almost like when you ask a group of kids in your Sunday School class a question and their first response is "God". We are so good at giving the expected response without letting words touch us down deep and without really grasping things. Have you ever taken a second glance at what is said and wondered, "Maybe God is trying to teach me"? Today I was driving home from the grocery store and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Now, I have never really had a ton of bricks hit me, and I'm sure that would hurt a lot, but you get the point. Duh! God was trying to tell me that he hears me and his answer for me right now is not yet. Some of you may take that as discouraging, but "not yet" gives me hope that someday, the answer is going to be yes and God is going to give me what I have been longing and praying for for a while. The great thing about God is that his timing is not my timing. Not yet could mean tomorrow or it could mean 10 years from now, but as long as there is a "not yet", I still have hope, and I'm holding onto it. I know that I have been on a blogging hiatus, but that tends to happen when things are so crazy at work. I've been working a lot and so the reality is 1) no one wants to hear about working and 2)I haven't had time to be with my thoughts, so you haven't gotten to know what is going on in this mind of mine. So, I have done a little more than work in the past few weeks. Last Saturday was just crazy busy. I went to Turbo Kick class at 8:30, birthday parties at 11:00 and 4:00, a few hours of work in between, and then I made three desserts for Sunday's lunch. The only thing really interesting about last weekend is that I decided that I should be nice and help these two smaller kids make it up through this jungle gym thing at one of the parties. I basically had to push them up through multiple layers without any help from them, just so they could go down the slide at the top. While I was doing it, I felt good for helping them, but by 4 or 5 times through I was getting exhausted. Afterward, I realized I was too old to be attempting this and in the process I managed to make my back sore and wear myself out. I guess I should realize that I am closer to 30 than I am to 20 and I am just too old to be attempting such a feat. I should leave such things for either the teenagers or the kid's parents. Some day, I will be the parent, and it'll be worth the soreness and exhaustion, but for now, I think my jungle gym days are over.