Answered prayers.

"Mature in faith, build character.

2 Tim 2:22-Flee from youthful passions and

pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace."

Late last year I started reading a book, thanks to the suggestion of amazing roommates, called A Praying Life. It dramatically changed the way I looked at prayer in regards to perseverance, hope, and honesty in prayer. After a good paradigm shift of what I believed prayer to be, it gives practical ways to pray for those in your life, neighborhood, yourself, etc. One way it suggests is separate 3x5 index cards for people/themes. I made a pile of cards in December and started praying through them on a somewhat regular basis.

The verse at the beginning was exactly what I wrote on one of the cards that was for the dude friends in my life, and that verse for one boy in particular. This boy was one that I have seen grow dramatically in the last few years. I got to see him go through high school and now into college as a follower of Christ. Being away in Oakland didn't allow me to have as much time with him as I would have liked. To be honest I didn't even know what to write as a prayer request for him when I did the cards.

As life got hectic in transitioning, I slowly stopped the routine of praying through these cards.

Fast forward several months of me being back in LA to last weekend. I took this boy to church with me. We were driving home after a great sermon on Jesus calling ordinary, average men to be his disciples and my friend started speaking so passionately about his heart for the lukewarm in the church. He was quoting scripture humbly (a big improvement from years before) and speaking with compassion. I think at one point he asked me for advice and I had no clue to respond because I was so impressed and shocked about how different this conversation was compared to, perhaps, a year ago.

Later that night I was thinking about how I had written him down on my card and went to look up what I had written: "Mature in faith, build character. 2 Tim 2:22 Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace."

Needless to say I felt a mixture of assurance and conviction and grace. Assurance that my prayers were being answered and worked out, conviction because I've stopped praying so diligently for him and others, and grace that despite my lack of consistency, God is always constant and chooses to use my selfish prayers and turn them into His glory.