God has a sense of humor and a perfect plan.......

Since Jen and I have gotten married, one of the things that I am daily learning is how to be patient during all circumstances, even the difficult ones. Just a few days before Jen and I left for our trip to San Antonio, I prayed a couple prayers for Jen and I and our marriage. With one prayer, i prayed that God would work His power in us so that we could be more patient with each other and with our circumstances. In addition, I prayed for Him to renew in me a fresh desire to connect with Him, through the Word, through prayer and just in my life. Never would I have thought that God would use a 5 hour airline delay, a rude couple at the airport and two books that I didn't even anticipate getting to read on our trip to San Antonio. Nevertheless, God is supremely in control and I'm not, so, I learned this past 5 day stretch that God's humor is much better than mine, and He always has the perfect plan.


This past Saturday if you haven't heard, turned into a nightmare of a travel day. Jen and I were slated to fly out of Norfolk to Dallas Fort Worth at 6am, then connect to San Antonio and land around 10:30am San Antonio time(1 hour behind us in Virginia.) We arrived at the airport with high hopes and we promptly made our way through check in, customs and security, and still had close to an hour to spare before departure. We boarded our plan as planned, and just as we are getting ready to back out of the terminal, our Captain comes over the radio to tell us there is ice on the wings, and they have to get a de icer truck over to take care of it. Nothing to worry about says the captain, we'll be gone in 15 minutes. As we saw the de icer truck pull up with a gentlemen inside one of those boxes that phone companies use when they are working on phone lines, we all of sudden heard and felt a loud THUD, and then two minutes later, here's the captain, "Uhhhh, apparently we've had some technical issues with the de icer, we gotta get a mechanic to check it out." Long story short, due to operator error, a part of our tail wing was damaged and photos had to be taken and emailed to American Airlines in Tulsa, Oklahoma to determine if the plane was worthy to fly. By the time we took off from Norfolk around 11am, we had gotten a free breakfast, been taken off the plane, and had witnessed a rather odd couple who seemed to be gunning for the rudest airline passengers known to man.


I say all that to tell you this...don't be surpised when God uses random situations to teach you about patience and understanding. I had brought two books with me to read, just some regular stuff, not anticipating I was gonna be able to finish them by delays end, but as luck would have it, I finished them, and knowing that we had a solid layover in St Louis coming back from Texas, as well as some extra time since we were on vaction, I ended up getting two books that were on my wish list for Christmas. One is called the Power of a Praying Husband, and the other is a new book by Gary Chapman called The Five Love Languages of Apology. By the end of the trip, I am halfway done with the Five Love Languages of Apology and I had made some good progress in the Power of a Praying Husband. Want to know the best part ?? With the extra time that we had, Jen and I were able to have several conversations about our marriage that really helped us grow in some areas that we have been needing to for awhile. Are we a perfect couple now who gets everything right and is patient and understanding all the time ?? No way is what I say, but if there's one thing I learned it's this, never doubt that God can use the most random, funniest or weirdest situations to help fulfill your prayers. If you're ever doubting that God's power can't help you with a particular struggle or area of your life, I want to say to you that I am living proof that God can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants and it's always what's best for us.


For now, I'm gonna keep reading and keep searching for the power of God to do His thing in my life, in my marriage and in the lives of those I come in contact with. It's a fun ride and I'm enjoying seeing Him more and more each day.