Taco Bell or Filet Mignon?

“According to your faith be it unto you” Matthew 9:29

I’ve been doing some reading in the book “E.M. Bounds on Prayer” and came across a quote that reminded me of a very specific answer to prayer in my life. The quote was:

“If we limit God in the asking, He will be limited in the giving.” ~ E.M. Bounds

The incident I am referring to happened about 16 years ago when we lived in the mountains. Now, my memory is not that great these days but thankfully, I had written about it that year for our annual Christmas letter so all I had to do today was find the correct letter and retype the story onto this blog. 😉

(Some background information – At the time, our children were ages 17, 16, 13, 10, 6 & 2 and our family was going through the worst financial hardship we have ever experienced in our now almost 36 years of marriage. That’s not a complaint – God was FAITHFUL to supply our every need and many of our wants, as you will see below!)

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From Christmas 2001 – If I would have to pick a most unusual blessing this year, it wouldn’t be one of great monetary value. I call it my Taco Bell blessing…MY Taco Bell blessing. You see…well, let me start from the beginning.

It was a Friday morning in late March and the children and I were headed to Gastonia for the day. When we arrived in Kings Mountain, I called my friend, Kristi, to say “Hey” as we were driving through and she told me about a dear lady from our former church who was very sick in the hospital. As we entered town, we drove by the church to say “hey” to our former pastor. He said he would be at the hospital later and I told him we would probably see him there.

Our main purpose that day was to visit our former piano teacher. Courtney was going to start giving some beginner piano lessons soon and she wanted some teaching tips. We got to her house late that morning and had a good time “catching up” on the news in our families. Throughout our short visit, Mrs. MaryAnn mentioned several times a book on prayer that she had just finished reading. She insisted that I get this book and read it. In fact, as we were leaving, she put some money in my hand and told me she wanted me to go to the bookstore there in town and get the book. I promised I would and from there we took the long way to town, driving by our old home and checking out our other “stomping grounds” while eating the lunch we had packed. On the way to the hospital, I started to think about how nice it would be to treat the kids to Taco Bell before we headed home. (Yes, our kids love Taco Bell…well, Mom and Dad do too!) Did they “NEED” it? No. I guess this was just a case of a mother wanting to do something special for her children. Silently, there in the car, I told the Lord that if He would supply the means, I would treat them before heading back up the mountain.

After spending time visiting at the hospital, we headed to the bookstore to get the book on prayer that I had promised to buy. The change from that book (which I was told to keep) was one dollar and fifty-some cents. Not thinking anything of it at the time, we went to a few more places before heading back across town toward home. It was getting dark…the younger children were getting tired…I almost didn’t stop…but I kinda wanted to since we didn’t come down very often. I decided to go ahead and stop at the Goodwill. We hadn’t been in the store but a couple of minutes. I had Anna in the buggy, Courtney was right there with me and Stephen had the other children close by looking at books and toys. That’s when I heard somebody coming from behind saying, “Ma’am, Ma’am…I’m sorry but I have to do this…”

Now, the first thought that goes through ANY mother’s mind is “Oh No! What did the kids do now?!?!?” Reluctantly, I turned around to see a man coming toward me. Again, he apologized and said he was sorry for bothering me but he had to do this. He then explained that he was a Christian and that the Lord had told him to do something and he wanted to be obedient to the Lord. The next thing I knew, he was putting a ten-dollar bill in the buggy beside Anna! I’m standing there looking at a man I had never seen before in my life and I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know what to say…all I could manage was “thank you”. As he walked away, I just stood there. Stephen had walked up and after several minutes, I told Stephen I needed to go tell the man thank you again and asked him to go with me. As I approached him, I told him I wanted to thank him again, and once again he told me that he just had to be obedient to the Lord. I told him I understood…that I was a Christian too. He said that from the minute we walked in the door, he knew that I was and the Lord told him to do that for us.

As I write this, the feeling that I had that evening is coming back to me. Do you know how special to God I felt right then…knowing He had heard this mother’s prayer for her children – to supply, not a “need” but a special treat? I can’t explain it. I won’t even attempt it.

As we left town, guess what our last stop was??? TACO BELL!!  After ordering what we ALWAYS do – the grande meal and ice waters – we thanked God for our special treat before eating. I guess when all this really hit me was when we were heading out of town toward home. I began thinking about the day – the change from the book on prayer and the ten-dollar bill in the buggy – both of these added up to eleven dollars and fifty-some cents…just a penny or two away from the cost of a grande meal and ice waters!!!!!

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Sixteen years and many other answered prayers later, that one particular incident is still very special to me. You may wonder why I wanted to share it. I mentioned at the beginning of this post why that story came to my mind today.

I don’t want you to misunderstand what I am getting ready to say – again, “my Taco Bell story” is very special to me!!  I will always look back on it as one of those times when I felt as if the Lord had just whispered His love to me.

But…there have been a few times since then that I have wondered – “What if I had asked the Lord for…ummm…Chick fila?…Steak?…Pizza?…Golden Corral?? 🙂

Now, is that greed…to even think that? Well, I guess it could be. But, the thought I am hoping to convey today is – When praying, let’s be careful that we do not put a limit on what God actually desires to do for us. I can look back to different times of genuine need in my life and my feelings of desperation were beginning to affect my prayer life. I was willing to settle for “Taco Bell” when God desired to give me “filet mignon”.

Today, whatever your prayer needs may be, continue praying. Don’t let up. If God has not made it plain that the answer is “No”, continue asking. But be careful about specifically asking for Taco Bell when God may be getting ready to make your reservations for some fine dining. 😉

“God still lives, and miracles still live while God lives and acts, for miracles are God’s ways of acting. Prayer is dwarfed, withered, and petrified when faith in God is staggered by doubts of His ability or through the shrinking caused by fear. When faith has a telescopic, far-off vision of God, prayer works no miracles and brings no marvels of deliverance. But when God is seen by faith’s closest, fullest eye, prayer makes a history of wonders.” ~ E.M. Bounds