keys and prayers

 
There is a joke that says as longs as there are tests in schools, there will always be "Prayers in school". I guess this is also reflective of mothers and lost keys as well.
While I pray on a daily basis (and many times within a day) there are times when I struggle with it. Thankfully God has given me wonderful children to help me. Last Monday I was at the Library, we have a goal to go once a week through out the summer. We had been there about half an hour (which is actually really fast when you consider books for four and checking out), when I noticed that my keys were missing. We walked back to the car (via the waterfountain, because I had already promised the kids) look for them all the while. We got back to the car and I searched the car (I left it unlocked which is not normal). I decided time to look inside. We asked at lost and found and a librarian who then spread out and asked around for us. We retraced all of our steps - no luck. The Librarian had no luck either. So I thought, well, let's check outside and the car again (I really did not want to call Jeff at work to come get us). So I checked around the fountain (even though I already knew they were missing before we went there) and headed back to the car. I asked the kids to stay in the shade by the building while I walked to the car, which was only about 15 feet away. I felt like I should pray with the kids for help finding them. It had been about 45 minutes now. I searched the car again, the feeling would not go away, so I decided to pray by myself. I said a quick although sincere prayer. Still no luck. I walked over to the kids and finally gave in. I asked AnnaLisa to say a prayer for us to help us find the keys. AnnaLisa's prayer was more like, "Heavenly Father, bring us our keys". I was really caught off guard. I have very open and frank prayers with my Heavenly Father, but I am not accustom to asking him to bring me what I need in such manner. I suggested we go back inside and start all over again. As we headed back into the library, I called Jeff on the cell phone. I was just explaining what was going on, when I see the librarian walking over to me holding up our keys. I hung up on Jeff and spoke with her. She said "a lady just walked up to me and handed me these keys a moment ago, and are they yours?" As I answered yes they were, AnnaLisa is shouting that God gave them to the lady to give to the librarian. I smiled sweetly to think of the timeline involved, the faith built, and how my children continue to teach me.

What haunts me is that if I had not asked my children to pray with me, they would have been robbed of that opportunity to build faith as well as we may not have ever found them. Regardless of when we found them, to me it was a wonderful miracle that they were found while we were praying (which were close to an hour after I had lost them and a good 20 minutes after I enlisted the librarian for help).