Valentine's Day was coming, and I did not know what to do. I am not the romantic one in our relationship. My husband can outwit, outlast and outplay anyone in a romantic date challenge. Every time a birthday or holiday comes along, I kindof freak out inside because I know that whatever effort I make will be lame compared to his creative displays of affection. This Valentine's Day, I asked him to keep it simple. All I really wanted was to go to dinner and a movie (after all, V-Day is all about me, right?) :) Just kidding. But that really was all I wanted. So, I went to find our two gift cards from Christmas (we haven't been out much lately), and realized I had lost our dinner gift card. I spent all day Saturday tearing the house apart looking for it. I was SO sad when I realized that it was really gone. Our "free" Valentine's Day was going to cost money, and I was really bummed about it. I was in tears about it up until 10 minutes before we left. My loving husband, however, reminded me of what was really important and we went to the same restaurant anyway. We then went and saw the movie Valentine's Day, and it was such a great night! We had so much fun!! I felt like something good happened out of something bad.
The next day, we decided to take the boys down to Long Beach to walk around the harbor area. When we got there, they were advertising Harbor Cruises where kids went for free, so we jumped on the idea and within 30 minutes, we were all on a Harbor Cruise! After about 10 minutes of setting sail, I asked the captain if he ever saw whales or dolphins. "Very rarely," he replied, "because we are in a Harbor. Maybe about once a year for whales, and a little more often for dolphins." My heart sunk a little because I just love dolphins. Something about them is just so amazing to me, especially to see them in their natural environment. I remember saying a quick prayer in my heart about it: "Please help us to see dolphins today!" Well, within about 2 minutes of that conversation, I looked out ahead and saw about 20 dolphins in the water just ahead. I ran and told the captain and he pulled up right in the middle of them. They started to do flips right in front of us!! It was so amazing!! And it was then that my heart lept and I was reminded "God hears me!!" It reminded me of God's power. My friend Laura says that God likes to "show off" for us, and I really felt like He was showing off!! It was awesome!! I truly felt like I was seeing God's power displayed right in front of me. The dolphins played in front of us for just about 5 minutes and then went on their way. (Believe it or not, I had my nice camera with me but the lens was not working! Ugh!!)
A few days later, we had plans to go to Disneyland for another date for Valentine's Day, since that was something I have always wanted to do. I have always dreamed of going to Disneyland for Valentine's Day and eating in the Blue Bayou restaurant (in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride). Early Friday morning at 7:59am, I called the reservation line, thinking that for sure I'd get a reservation since I'd be the first one calling!! :) Little did I know people make reservations for this place MONTHS in advance!! I was so sad to hear that they had no reservations open. I called about 6 times that day hoping for a cancellation, but there were none. I prayed and even asked others to pray, because I was so bummed about it! We arrived at Disneyland and went straight to the restaurant to ask about it. The hostess said "Oh!! We JUST had a cancellation! How is 7:30pm?" I could barely contain my excitement! We were able to have an amazing, romantic dinner in the Blue Bayou restaurant. We even got to ride a few rides before we got in!
It sprinkled as we were leaving, which we loved!!
There are just some weeks where you need to see God work before you, and remind you that you are His and He loves you. This was one of those weeks for me. We also went down to the beach twice and it was breathtaking. I was reminded of Him and His glory through the dolphins, through the sunset, through getting us into the restaurant at Disneyland. I agree with my friend, that God often "shows off" for us and we just have to look for it. To the average person, these might have just been seen as coincidences, but to me, they were God's handiwork! How has he shown off to you this week?
Sounds like you have had a few great days this last week! So exciting to see how God "shows off" for us. :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome! God is so good! I'm so happy that you had such a wonderful weekend and Valentine's Day. Yeah, Martin's a keeper :-)
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