Sweetest Blessings

Over the past several days I’ve had the opportunity to pray for a couple strangers I was blessed to meet. One woman I enjoyed a conversation with while grocery shopping, the other a nurses aide who was caring for me while I was in the hospital. It always amazes me how God brings people to us who are in need of a little encouragement and love, and how completely blessed I feel when I share as the Holy Spirit guides me.

A few days before my surgery, I was grocery shopping and met the sweetest woman in the peanut butter aisle. Honestly, I hadn’t intended to speak with her, but politely excused myself to reach in front of her to grab a jar of peanut butter. She smiled and commented on how crazy it is that the price of jam has gone up so much in the past couple years. Our conversation moved to other things, and ended on a shared love for God and an invitation to call whenever I wanted to talk with someone.

While I was in the hospital I had such lovely nurses and aides caring for me, but one of the ladies really stood out to me. We got to talking and I learned that her dad was hospitalized on the floor below me and her mom had only recently been released after an amputation surgery. She and her husband plan to care for them in their home from here on. I felt her heart in her conversation and was reminded of the strength and prayers I needed over the past year while caring for my own parents. I prayed for her several times while I was in the hospital, and will continue to lift her to God for the strength I know she’ll need on this journey.

Simple conversations can lead to the blessing of encouragement and sharing of the Gospel so easily if we listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Just one word of encouragement can brighten the life of the person we are speaking to for hours or even days, and just one little seed can grow to unimaginable size when God nurtures it, so we should never be afraid to share what we know about God’s love.

God calls us to pray for everyone. Sometimes I think we get so caught up in our own concerns and differences that we forget this. We don’t even need to know any details of another person’s needs or struggles, because God knows. “…for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8: 26b-27.

What a blessing it is to be able to lift someone to God without even knowing them or what God may have planned for them! To simply say, “Lord, fill this person with your strength and work your will in their life” is a prayer that God will use in ways beyond our imagination!

I was so blessed to meet these two women and talk with them for a little while, I can’t describe the joy that fills my heart when God opens a door this way. The sweetest blessings are often given when we aren’t even looking!

Heavenly Father, you alone know the needs these two beautiful women are facing. You know their burdens, their joys, and their hearts. Fill them to overflowing with the peace of Your love and work Your will in their lives and to Your glory. Use them as a blessing for others they will encounter on their journey. Thank you for blessing me with just a few moments and words with them; nurture the seeds that were shared in your own special way. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.