Today, I had a fun outing planned for the girls. We are in a large city at the moment since "the king" (of our little castle) had to travel for some meetings. Right down the road from our hotel, there is a museum just for children...ya know, the kind with lots of hands-on activities and really cool exhibits for kids to explore. I had shown the kids pictures of the museum on the internet, talked about it all morning, told them how much fun it was going to be, and gotten them really excited. Being the well-intentioned-but-often-scatterbrained mom that I am, I did not notice one very important fact.
The museum is closed on Mondays.
There were plenty of cars in the parking lot. We unloaded and went straight inside, however we were greeted by a kind young lady telling us they were only open for a photo shoot. Great.
I know all of our faces must have screamed "disappointment" by the way she kept spouting off, "I'm so sorry." I was thinking, "You're sorry?! What about me? My poor kids." I hate letting them down.
Stick with me cause it's about to get really good....
As we walked out, I noticed the humongous state museum across the parking lot. Hmmmm. What if we went there? At this point, it was my only hope. After apologizing to the girls, I started telling them MAYBE we could go to the big museum if it didn't cost too much. I said, "Why don't we just go over and check it out?" They very reluctantly agreed.
As we were walking up, I noticed a ton of steps that I certainly could not drag the stroller up, so I asked a young couple coming down them about the museum and the prices. They were very sweet to tell us all we needed to know, except they weren't quite sure about the price of admission. I thanked them and then the girls and I proceeded to find some kind of ramp so that I could push the stroller up to the building.
On our way up the ramp, I kept talking about our day and began telling the girls, "You know, God just might have another adventure in store for us today. In the Bible, we are told that a Christian's steps are ordered by the Lord...so we'll just have to see what He brings." As we finished that conversation we were just getting ready to enter the building when the young man I had spoken to on the steps reached us. He was out of breath from running, but proceeded to hand us four tickets to get into the museum FOR FREE. He said, "I don't know if you'll need all four tickets since you have the baby, but take it too, just in case." We were amazed at such generosity!!! We thanked him profusely as he ran back out the door and yelled "God bless you" after him.
My oldest looked at me with her eyes as big as saucers and said, "Mommy, you were just saying to wait and see what God would do and then that man gave us tickets to get in free!" My heart nearly burst open with joy!
ISN'T GOD GOOD?!
I just love that He cares about all the little details of our lives. Don't you?!?! The fact that He provided my girls with such a great object lesson thrills me to no end! I expect Him, my Father, to take care of me and I long for my children to grow up expecting nothing less. It's true...as His children, we can and should take Him at His word!
Well, needless to say, we ended up having the most wonderful time in the "big" museum, which really was massive and way more than we could see in one trip. What made it even more exciting was the fact that in nearly every room, we saw things that we had studied in homeschool either this year or last year. Wow, it just brought all that learning "home", especially for my oldest daughter. What a tremendous blessing!!!
Now, can I just brag on God one more time?
As we were going out the door, I asked one of the workers about a good place to eat but she said she didn't live in the area. Another woman overheard me, stopped me going out the door, and told me just to follow her...she would take me to a wonderful place that the kids and I could eat at, right up the road. She literally sat in her car and waited on us to walk all the way to our car that was still in the other parking lot (at the first museum), then she patiently led us to the restaurant, weaving in and out of five o'clock traffic. Amazing.
When I talk about being a daughter of God, I mean it. See, what my Father knows about me is this: I get apprehensive in unfamiliar places and getting out today with my kids was a pretty big deal. I didn't tell anyone that. I didn't say to my kids, "This makes mommy so nervous." I prayed. I trusted. I pulled myself up by the bootstraps and got us out the door because I'm sick of fear. Fear, as a daughter, as a child of the Almighty, should have NO PLACE in my life...
and I've let it have a "place" for
way
too
