Our October 31 snowstorm.

By Susan Shanklin

Whenever it’s newsletter time, and I need to write the back page [for our print newsletter], it’s usually true confessions. Laying my attitudes, successes, and failures out for the world to see. I’m pretty much an open book to the world, like it or not.

Just the other day, actually, it was October 31 when it started to snow. Okay, how much can you get, seeing how it was rather warm out? Let it snow, and it will be gone by noon, I say.

It started snowing these huge, beautiful, wet snowflakes. Well, it kept snowing ALL day!

I was sending out pictures to friends and family. I even took a video of the falling snow.

We accumulated about three inches of heavy, heart-attack snow. I wrote to my daughter, Heidi, who lives six miles from us, “I wasn’t expecting this!”

I was concerned for my granddaughter, Athena, a fourth grader whose school is a couple of blocks down the road from us. She comes to our house after school each day and waits for her mom to pick her up.

OH, my goodness, she has to walk all the way to our house. Ha. I told Heidi, maybe I should pick her up, but her mom said, “No. Let her walk. How enjoyable to be a fourth grader and walk in the snow to Grandma’s house.”

So, I watched Athena march up the hill and down to Grandma’s house just fine, hatless, of course, kicking snow as she went.

Anyway, I was not ready for this “snowstorm.” It got me to thinking about how I have not been ready for a lot of things in my life.

I don’t want to go all the way back to before my Christian days to think about how many times have I not been ready for a crisis in my life.

Or then again, how many times I have not been planning for the answers to my prayers.

How many times do we pray and are not expecting the answers?

I think I’m getting lazy. Just throw out those prayers. Just keep throwing out those prayers. Just keep throwing out those prayers. Over and over again. Not preparing for the answers.

Faith is not walking by sight, but are we, me, expecting to see the answers.

We pray for our prodigals to return, but are we planning the meal for the return? Are we looking out the window or door? What are we expecting???

I pray for healing in parts of my body, but what are my plans for when it comes? I need to see myself jumping for joy or at least shouting praises to the King of Kings. Jumping may be too extreme. Ha.

Seriously, I have some expecting to do. I need to see the answers to my prayers. My God is so great and mighty, and it says in His word to ask and you shall receive.

I’m tired of worried prayers. I’m tired of half-empty glasses.

I need to wake up each day expecting the goodness of God to flow right through me, my family, and the world.

I do have a choice. I have a choice in how I’m using my time. Pray and expect or pray and doubt.

I’m going to quit being so spiritually lazy and put on my Holy Ghost God-given expectant glasses and see His answers.

I’m going to have that child-like faith I once had. I’m going to beat back the devil from my door! My door is not open to you, Satan. Get thee behind me!

Yep, let’s expect to see the goodness of God!

Susan’s Latest Articles