Specificity...

My sister and I were visiting Saturday and we were talking about the idea that some people are really specific in what they pray for. We had both been reading a woman's blog about her struggle with losing a daughter during childbirth, and she is just really clear about what she prays for, and what she asks other people to pray for should they want to pray for her.

It made me wonder why I am not more specific when I ask for things in my prayers...I tend to be more of the "please bless us all to be healthy and bless those who are suffering..." kind of prayer gal, I guess.

Later that night, our family began a fast for one of my dearest friend's sons. Her sweet little boy, Nate, is currently in Primary Children's Hospital in Utah, very gravely ill with pneumonia. (you can read more about it here )

That night I decided I was going to test this specificity in prayer thing.

My friend, Kim, had been telling me that one of the hardest things to deal with in Nate's current battle was that he hadn't smiled in a week. He has always been a happy and smiley baby, and it just hurt her to see him be so sick that he couldn't smile. Kim said to me, "If he would just smile, then I would know that he was going to be okay."

So, I spent the 24 hours of my fast with the specific prayer on my lips that Nate would smile for his Mom. Whenever Nate or Kim crossed my mind, I just asked Heavenly Father if He would please let Nate smile and in so doing, ease Kim's heart for a moment.

Around 5pm yesterday evening, I text messaged Kim to let her know that we had broken our fast for Nate, and that we were thinking of them and hoping all was well. Several hours later, she sent a picture of her little one that she had taken just moments before--sweet Nate, in his hospital bed, smiling.

God is Great.