To: My dear daughter, Happy Birthday. From: God

My birthday happened to fall on the same week as the Moms In Touch conference. I already received an early present from God that day in the form of an immediate answer to prayer regarding my son (see one post ago).

I did not know He wasn't done yet. Among the gifts I received were:

1. From a dear sister in Christ: The One Year Chronological Bible NLT so I can participate in Wendy Pope's bible study next year and from my sister, a very cute bible cover to go with it.

2. From my women's group: Gift cards to amazon.com and a department store.

3. From God: MY HUSBAND GOT SAVED.

Yes, dear friends, THAT husband. The one whose salvation I have been praying for eversince I became a Christian five years ago. The one who was the reason for starting this blog in the first place. The one who's responsible for most of the tears I have cried in my lifetime. God must have seen the number of vials lining up in His throne room and decided it was time.

The sheaves are in!

I thought it was going to be like any other birthday. To my surprise DH decided to cancel his meetings, took the day off and we spent the day together. It was a perfect day - I went nowhere near our stove! We went out for breakfast, lunch and we had dinner at my Dad's. As my present, he agreed to attend the mid-week church service with me, albeit reluctantly.

I've got to give props to God because, my, I have never seen my pastor preach like that before. He was ON FIRE! Everything flowed. He talked about choices - stand with the world, or stand for Christ. At the end of the service, my pastor did an altar call. Head bowed, eyes closed, raise your hand if you accept Jesus as your Savior. I thought I detected movement but I wasn't sure. I could not even ask him after the service in case he said no. All I remember is that during the entire service I was holding on to Jesus' robe, praying, not letting go, pleading and begging, "PleaseGodpleaseGodpleaseGodpleaseGodpleaseGod. Soften his heart. PleaseGodpleaseGodpleaseGod."

Ten days later, I found out God answered. I finally had the nerve to ask DH if he raised his hand. He said yes. Wow! It was a tender moment. Having been married to me for 23 years, he asked that I please let him walk with Jesus in his own way and his own terms. Why, of course, honey.

But my usual impatient self was in high gear. Why aren't things changing? Why the silent treatment two days ago? Should I give him a bible? Enroll him in a home fellowship? What devotions can we do? Most of all, when can he take over as the spiritual leader of our home? I was eager to "help" him. Tell me what to do, Lord?

My answer came the next day during the Sunday service. I don't remember the context but my pastor mentioned a quote from Ruth Graham: "It is my job to love Billy. It is God's job to make him good."

Ah. Amen.

Best birthday ever. Thank you, Jesus!