Barbara Brabec’s
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Personal Musings about Life

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July 2024

God Is In the Details

Never hesitate to ask God to help you with the “little stuff of life.”

I’m sure many of you can remember a time when God answered what you considered a big prayer. But how about those times when God helped you with your little needs or requests of life? Things you might have needed or wanted but didn’t pray about, things that just “worked out” okay.

While I love to tell how God has answered my big-need prayers, most of my requests for help have been for the little stuff in my day-to-day life. And God has never disappointed me. Over and over, He has proved beyond a doubt that He delights in helping His children with the little stuff of life. And I believe He regrets that so few people ever ask for this kind of help because they think He is too busy for such things.

Here’s a story I journaled years ago when Radio Shack was still in business. I’d gone there to get a new battery for my watch and couldn’t get the back off. I expected help from the clerk but he said he wasn’t allowed to touch the watch. When a woman came in, I told the clerk to help her, and I’d keep fiddling with the watch. I was having a stressful day and I didn’t have time to go somewhere else but I needed the watch, so I silently prayed, “Lord, I know you could open the back of this watch just by thinking it, but since I don’t expect you to do that, could you just help me get the back off somehow? Now? Today, please? While I’m here in the store?”

A few minutes later, I heaved a sigh of resignation and was putting the watch back on my arm when the woman customer said to me, “Maybe I can get the back off for you.”

She dug around in the clerk’s tool tray and found a tiny screwdriver, picked at the watch, and immediately popped the back off. I was so relieved I hugged her and gave her a big thank you, adding that she had just saved me about two hour’s time to go somewhere else for help. She smiled and said, “Then it was worth two minutes of my time. And I can always use a hug.”

Divine Connections

So many times in my Christian walk, I’ve seen how God often answers our prayers by putting another person in our path who can do something for us that we can’t do for ourselves. In my journals, I’ve documented countless examples of how many of my prayers have been answered through someone else who has entered my life “coincidentally.”  But with God, there are no coincidences. I call these happenings “Divine Connections.”

Did you ever stop to think how many times God has helped you by putting someone in your path, or how many times you may have been the person God put in someone else’s path, only you didn’t see the big picture at the time? I’ve offered several examples in my article, “Count Your Divine Connections: How Your Life Impacts Those Around You.”

My next stop after Radio Shack that day was the Jewel store, where clerks tend to ask older customers if they need help getting their cart to the car. As usual, I said no, but God sent it anyway. I was struggling to lift a case of Coke out of the shopping cart when a young man appeared out of nowhere and offered to help me get my groceries into the car. He wasn’t a store employee; just a customer on the way to his car who stopped to help a gray-haired woman with her groceries. A coincidence? Maybe. But I like to think that God directed that fellow my way to remind me that He is always with me, wherever I am, whatever I may be doing.

Thanks, Lord. I appreciate so much how you’ve always helped me with the major problems in life and answered my littlest prayers, too. But I especially love it when you anticipate my needs before I know them. So many times you’ve sent an “angel in disguise” to give me a helping hand, a few words of encouragement, or an arm across the street when brisk winds threaten to throw me off balance.

“God works first through the ordinary experiences of daily life to form the character of Christ in us. Through these experiences we come to know on the deepest levels that Jesus is with us always, that he never leaves us nor forsakes us, and that we can cast all our cares upon him.” – Richard J. Foster, in the article,“Becoming Like Christ,” in Christianity Today, February 1996

MUSINGS posts are published on the first of each month and announced in the monthly email edition of The Brabec Bulletin. (To subscribe, see the sign-up form in the sidebar of this page.)

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Last Twelve Brabec Bulletins

~ Published in 2024 ~

July 8, 2024: The Benefits and Power of Journaling. How journaling changed my relationship with my kid sister, based on an idea you might want to try. Plus inspiring articles to help you journal with purpose. 

June 5, 2024: Good-to-Know Medical Information. Barbara shares her research and experience with The Short Life of Medical Records, Breast Cancer Signs, Symptoms, and Exams, and Perspective on Knee Joint Replacements, with something to laugh about at the end.

May 6, 2024: COVID Hasn’t Ended—Help Yourself by Staying Informed. This issue features a timely COVID-19 Quick Reference Guide, New COVID-19 Variants and Strains, and Barbara’s Study of Five Bad Colds

April 4, 2024: Understanding Copyrights and Public Domain Works. Why thousands of copyrighted works fall into the public domain every year and how this may affect your creative output.

March 5, 2024: The Time-Honored Tradition of Saving and Sharing Recipes. Adapted from one of Barbara's unfinished books titled Stories in My Recipe Box: Kitchen Tales, Cooking Tips, and Old Family Recipes.

February 6, 2024: Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Good sleep is more important than you may realize. Here’s how to get all you need, with special tips and resources for insomniacs.

January 19, 2024:  What are Your Plans for the New Year? Are you where you want to be in life? Or do you feel you need to get your act together this year?

~ Published in 2023 ~

December 7, 2023: Are You a Workaholic Heading for Burnout? What Barbara missed the summer she let the demon on her shoulder convince her that her work was so important she couldn't take time to enjoy life.

November 10, 2023: My Last Garage Sale Experience. Amusing stories and surprises, what sold and what didn't, disposition of unsold goods, and reasons to be thankful.

October 11, 2023: Developing New Life Perspectives. Lessons learned from a garage sale, a friend’s perspective on downsizing, an unusual “purge and reorganize” experience, and more.

September 7, 2023: Three Short Stories: A Personal Update, Great Western Movie Stars and TV series of the 50s and 60s, and “A Tribute to the Dog.”

August 7, 2023: Are You a Procrastinator? If so, it doesn’t mean you’re lazy. It’s just “the Zeigarnik Effect” kicking in. Understand it and you can beat procrastination.

Copyright © 2024 by Barbara Brabec. All Rights Reserved.