Rainbows and Princesses

On Wednesday, I was blessed with a lovely little illness...

The stomach bug.

Obviously, I was being facetious when I called it “lovely,” because WHO on this planet thinks the stomach bug is lovely?! No one, that’s who. I can deal with other types of illnesses, like colds and what not, but at the first sign of nausea - I AM OUT. I would rather break an arm than have a stomach virus. And no, I am not being facetious this time.

On top of my tummy, I had a super bad cold (which I still have… *sniff*) and a super sore throat (which is finally gone, woohoo!). Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling too “Maddy.” I stayed out of school for two days, and as much as I love laying around watching What Not To Wear all day, I absolutely hate missing school itself… or should I say, “making up the work.” I actually got up Wednesday morning, got ready (and wore REAL clothes, not even a t-shirt), drove all the way to school, sat in my car with Jared for a few minutes, THEN decided to go back home and go to bed.

There’s nothing beautiful about a stomach bug. This is about as beautiful as it got:

But it was definitely an answered prayer. I woke up Wednesday morning, gained consciousness, and thought about what I had to do every day for the rest of the week…

Wednesday: school, practice song with Jared, church

Thursday: school, voice lessons

Friday: school, work

Saturday: work, meet Kait for ice cream

Sunday: church, Sundate with Jared (we have made it our resolution together to go on a “Sundate” once a month… P.S. a Sundate is a date on Sunday.)

This is pretty much how my days go, to give you the low down (with added time for little bitty things, like getting papers signed, homework, blah blah blah). It’s not the busiest schedule ever, but it’s still busy! …..if that makes sense. I enjoy doing all of the things on my planner (which I will blog about very soon), and that’s why I make them priorities in my life! But since it’s easy for me to LOVE things, I tend to pile things up until I’m doing SOMETHING every day, and I don’t have a break to just kick back and relax.

So, after I thought through the week, I said to God, “Geez Louise, the year has just begun and I already feel like I need a break. Pleeeeeeeease make it snow or something!”

Well, God sure did answer that! He gave me a break, but not with snow - with my “lovely” malady. I ended up staying home Wednesday and Thursday. Then, after going to school Friday, I remembered that we are also out of school Monday! I asked for one day of a break, but I got three. Not in the way I asked, of course. Over the past few years, I’ve learned a little something. When you pray for something, God won’t answer it in a way you expect. In fact, it’s not even in a way you can IMAGINE. He is a clever dude. He is witty. He would definitely pass the creativity test to get into the Gifted program.

When I was in middle school, it had been raining for a few days, and I was tired of it. I said, “God, it’s been raining for like, ever. Can you please just show me a rainbow next time I look up in the sky?” It stopped raining the next day, and I looked up in the sky. NO RAINBOW. Ugh. I was so frustrated. I just wanted to see a stinkin’ rainbow! I was talking to my best friend, Abby, later, and she said, “Oh! My little brother drew this for you today at school!”

AND IF IT WASN’T A RAINBOW.

That’s right, a rainbow. Just like I prayed. After that, I prayed again (this was jokingly, because God has a sense of humor).

“God, make me a princess! That would be awesome.”

A few days passed, and I still wasn’t a princess (surprising, I know). We were having a Sunday School party for our girls group, and when I got there, there were little bookmarks spread across the table. I picked one up, and when I read it I was blown away, yet again!

It had a sparkly pink crown on it, and it read:

“I know I’m a princess, my Father is the King of Kings!

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

-1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)

Like I said, God could dominate the creativity test.

These two stories lead back to what I said before though… God won’t answer prayers in ways you expect. Obviously, He will answer them so that things work out for your own good. So the answer may be “yes,” “no,” or there may not be one for a while… you just have to trust Him. But it makes me think back to a quote I read a year or two ago.

“It’s not selfish to ask God to bless you. It’s selfish to ask God HOW to bless you.”

I think it’s awesome how God works, as crazy as it plays out. I’m still working on letting Him do His thing without me trying to pretend like I know everything, but I still slip up often (proven by the fact that I asked him to make it snow so I could get out of school). He has bigger and better answers than you can imagine, and that’s beautiful.

Other beautiful things… I got to meet up with Kait today!

If you don’t know this, we have a motto. It’s not exactly “Hakuna Matata,” it’s actually “Hakaitlyn Mataddy.” (You gotta personalize it.) But it has to have the same meaning, of course! It means… NO WORRIES (for the rest of your dayyyyys! It’s our problem freeeeee, philosophyyyyy- yeah yeah yeah)! Perfect time for one of my favorite verses:

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

-Matthew 6:34 (NIV)