Saturday, July 12, 2014

Dolphin Delight

What I am about to share with you will likely make you roll your eyes and wonder if I've (Mandy) gone mad. I know this, because it evoked the same responses from my own children.



It was Thursday of our family beach vacation. The water was beautiful, the sun was shining, Chuck was beyond sunburned, and the waves were perfect for riding. But in the midst of all that "perfectness" I longed for one thing: Dolphins. If you know me well, you know that nothing elicits joy from me like seeing dolphins in their own environment. (The kind of knock your family out of the way joy.) I prayed out loud, in the ocean, while riding a wave with my family for God to let me see dolphins before we left for home on Friday. And I meant it. Right as I finished being intentional in my prayer I began to hear "Mom, that's so selfish." "Mom you can't pray that way." And I cannot even tell you the number of eye rolls I got from our lovely teenagers. (Partly because everyone was wearing sunglasses, but you get the idea!)  "Why can't I ask to see dolphins?"  "Why wouldn't God think that's ok?" All my questions were met with the typical 'mom you sound lame' kind of answers that parents of teens experience at one time or another. I found it funny that my teens were so offended that I had specifically asked to see dolphins, and they really did too.

We finished our wave riding and Chuck and I settled into our beach chairs while the doubting teens headed inside for lunch. I was doing what I loved most at the beach- watching the water and listening to the waves. And that's when I saw it- one dolphin fin, then another, then more. An entire pod of dolphins swam the length of the beach and out of sight.

Right now some of you are asking yourselves if I am seriously writing about seeing dolphins at the beach. YES I AM! I know it sounds trivial. But it had been one of those months. You know the months where everything seems to go wrong? I was frustrated by what seemed like a string of bad luck, and I lost sight of the big things God had answered in big ways.
And as crazy as it sounds, all it took were dolphins to remind me of two things:
1. My prayer need to be intentional. .
2. I need to be specific in thanking God for the way He answers my prayer.

During the car ride home, I couldn't stop thinking about the dolphins. It wasn't because it was the first time I had seen them-- we've seen them every year we've gone to the beach and even had a couple of chances to swim in the open ocean with dolphins so close to us that we could touch them.


 I was even lucky enough to catch this shot of a dolphin on the first day of our very first beach trip:


It was more than just the dolphins. God knew that seeing the dolphins would bring me pure joy, and it was God's way of reminding me that I needed to quit worrying, start praying intentionally, and take true delight in all things at all times. I had found that in my end of the school year fatigue I had become very broad during prayer; and, even though I realized that God was providing for my needs, I wasn't being specific in thanking Him for it or even showing gratitude.

The dolphins reminded me that God is just like any parent- nothing brings Him more happiness than to see His own children happy AND thankful.

So, I challenge you to delight in the small things and in the big things. I challenge you to remember that sometimes God specifically answers your prayer in big and evident ways, and other times He answers them in ways that go unseen. But most of all, I challenge you to be thankful in everything.

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

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