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Lord, I fumed, Caleb is making a terrible mistake. You’ve got to do something! The girl my son was dating was all wrong for him. I just knew it. I’d pleaded, argued, reasoned, even written notes, but nothing could change his mind. One afternoon, at my wit’s end, I was sitting in the kitchen fretting, when I looked down at my cup of tea—and was reminded of the penny cup.

Years ago I had read about the penny cup in a magazine. A woman, impatient for an answer to her prayer, declared that every penny she found she’d put into a mug and they would all be reminders that, yes, God was still listening to her and that, yes, he’d answer her in his good time. Soon enough the cup was full and her prayer was answered.

“That’s what I’ll do,” I said. Rummaging in the back of a cabinet I took out a mug that Caleb had bought for me when he was in the third grade.

God, please change Caleb’s mind, I prayed, and started looking for pennies. I found one in the laundry room, another in a grocery parking lot, a couple more outside on the sidewalk. Once, I found eight pennies in one spot. I deposited every one into the cup. Soon Caleb would see things my way.

But something strange happened instead. I got to know the girl. I discovered that she was good to my son and truly loved him. In fact, she brought out some good qualities in him. I was dropping one more penny into the cup when it dawned on me: Kathy, God has already answered your prayer.

He didn’t change Caleb’s mind. He changed mine. And you know what? When I looked down at the penny cup, it was full!

[extract from inspirational stores written by: Kathy Grooms]

Ingredients

• 2 3/4  cups  butter, at room temperature
• 2  cups  granulated sugar
• 4  large eggs
• 2  teaspoons  each vanilla and almond extracts
• 3  cups  all-purpose flour
• 1/2  teaspoon  each baking powder, baking soda, and salt
• 1  cup  coconut milk
• 1 1/2  cups  flaked coconut, plain or toasted
• 8  ounces  cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 3/4  cups  powdered sugar

They told her there was no other nurse in the operating room, but she knew better.

By Sharon Sigler

Surgery terrified me, but my doctor said it was necessary. “God, please be with me,” I asked as I sat in my hospital bed waiting. Finally a nurse came in. “I’ll escort you to the operating room,” she said, and helped me into a wheelchair. In the hallway another nurse caught up with us. “My name’s Joy,” she said. “And I’ll be with you, too.”

Joy didn’t leave my side, even as the anesthetic started to work on me. Just before I went under, Joy gently placed her hands on either side of my face. Her touch was so delicate. My fears left me and I felt completely at peace.

Back in my room after surgery, I told the other nurse how Joy had relaxed me with her touch. “Is she still on duty?” I asked. The nurse assured me there was no one on staff named Joy, and that she alone had accompanied me to the operating room. I knew better.

Without warning, our plane engine quit. I braced myself for impact

Many years ago, during one of our visits to see family in Silver Lake, Indiana, I decided to give my parents a tree for their yard. My wife, Marilyn, and I took our four young sons to a nursery and we picked out a sturdy blue spruce sapling.

“Someday,” I told the boys as we planted the tree, “this will be big enough to protect Grandma and Grandpa’s house from the sun and wind.” Over the years it was a pleasure to see how tall and beautiful the spruce was growing.

Eventually my parents passed away, but we still went to Silver Lake to visit the rest of the family. I took up flying, and once the boys were grown Marilyn and I made the 1,400-mile journey from our home in Idaho in my single-engine Piper PA-16.

One fall day we flew up for a visit. We circled the Silver Lake area to signal Marilyn’s sister and her husband to pick us up at the airport.

Without warning, our engine quit. We went into a steep dive. As the earth rushed toward us, I realized we were headed straight for my childhood home!

Praying desperately that no one would be hurt, I braced for the inevitable impact. But, instead of smashing into the house, something soft cushioned our breakneck fall. We skidded to a halt in the yard across the street.

Later, one of the rescue workers who helped us out of the wreckage told us, “It’s amazing you didn’t hit the house or power lines. That big blue spruce probably saved your lives.”

- James Haney