By Marlene Tavares
The other day while cleaning the house, I was listening to some country music like I usually do. One of the songs I came across was a song by Garth Brooks called “Unanswered Prayers.” It is basically a song about a man who attends a football game with his wife and he is reunited with an old crush from highschool. He says in the song that after seeing her, he remembered a time when he liked that girl so much that he would pray to God to have her and that if God answered his prayer, then he wouldn’t ask for anything again. He then goes on to say in the song that after seeing her again years later, he is so thankful that God did not answer that prayer because that girl is not the “same angel” he remembered her to be and because now he has his wife. One of the lyrics to the song says, “some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”
After listening to the song, I started thinking about instances in my own life when I had prayed for something I really wanted but never received. I even used to say the same thing Garth said in his song in a desperate attempt to have my prayer answered, “please God if you let me have it I won’t ask for anything again” (as if God was going to fall for that!). Later on there would come a day when I, too, would look back on how much I prayed for something that I never received and now understood exactly why I never received what I wanted, but I knew now it was for the best.
This just goes to show that like Garth says in his song, an unanswered prayer really can be a gift from God. Sometimes it can save us in the long run from grief, bad situations, and things or people that we would later realize really aren’t the best for us after all. Have you ever received the gift of an unanswered prayer? Doesn’t it make you feel relieved and thankful that Someone up there is watching your back?
Sometimes in life, unanswered prayers become blessings.
“Unanswered Prayers” by Garth Brooks
https://youtu.be/9GuA5PZx3K4
Rising with the Son 