Thank God My Daughter Did Not Graduate

Thank God My Daughter Did Not Graduate

by Ruth Carter Stapleton

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Don’t worry over anything, but tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer. So this is giving thanks for everything. This is praising God in everything. We need to learn how to pray in order to have the power in our prayer life. And then he goes on, here is the last piece of advice. If you believe in goodness, and if you value the approval of God, then fix your minds on whatsoever is true, and whatsoever is honorable, and whatsoever is just and pure and lovely and praiseworthy.

You know, if you’ve ever had bad thoughts or negative thoughts, and it’s like that saying, well, you try not to think bad thoughts, and the more you try not to think bad thoughts, the more bad thoughts you think.

The more you try not to worry, the more you worry. So somewhere there’s got to be a principle involved. And has anybody ever told you to try not to think of the word monkey for one minute? Don’t think monkey, you know, and all you think is monkey.

And so you see, the principle, when he says, “Don’t be anxious and don’t worry over anything, but make your request known in prayerful thanks.” So you don’t try to stop worrying. You don’t try to stop being anxious. You put something better into your life. And you recondition your whole system. That’s why it’s so wonderful to know these Bible scriptures of praise and thanksgiving. And so the minute you begin to think negative thoughts, or thoughts of criticism, instead of trying to stop thinking and making your mind a blank, which is impossible, you just start saying these scriptures over and over and over.

It’s very hard to control the mind. In fact, it’s impossible to control the mind. But you let God control from within. And the way you do that is by practicing the principles that He sets down. Hannah Hurnard, we were talking about her at breakfast this morning, and this brought it to my mind, but she said she used to have such a problem with the thoughts of her mind. And she tried constantly to think good thoughts. And then she said, God revealed to her, “Hannah, you can’t control your thoughts, but begin to control your words. You can control your words. And when you learn to control your words, I’ll control your thoughts.” And so she said she started out that very day, “I will not speak any word of negativeness, criticism, condemnation, I’ll only speak words that are constructive.” And she said she made it about five minutes.

So then at the end of five minutes, when she made that critical comment, she started all over again. “I will never make another negative word.” And she said the time span got longer and longer and longer. And she said after a period, it wasn’t just weeks or months, but years. She really and truly got to the place that she would not speak one word that was not constructive.

And she said she realized that the reason she could control so completely was because God worked constantly with her. And as she was working to control her lips and her tongue, God was controlling her mind. And her thoughts were pure. But you know, she said one step further that doesn’t really relate, but she said when she came into this tremendous experience, things that didn’t even relate to words or thoughts, desires that she had had. She said she’d wanted to travel. She’d wanted to make friends and know people from different countries. And all of these secret desires of her heart that she had, you know, just let settle down deep within her, she began to see that every desire of her heart was becoming fulfilled in her life.

This is the glory of God. You see, this is why He wants us to have a good, beautiful, loving, joyful life. He says, “I am abundance. So don’t think about your problem. Think about Me,” He says. So real prayer is being able to tune into the mind of God. Real prayer is being able to drop everything, the ways of manipulation. You know, when we begin to make a prayer request, oftentimes before we ever make that prayer request, we’ve got the answer all figured out of how God should work.

So what we’re doing, we’re not praying, but we’re trying to make God fit into the mold of our little old tenancy, nothing, finite mind. And God can’t even begin to work. There is no freedom there. So it’s as we let go, as we let go of all of the mindsets, and we begin to flow into that perfect will of God. You know, the scripture says, “Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that shall be done.” Now that’s the name of Jesus Christ. And the name of Jesus Christ means the nature of Jesus Christ. It’s not just the power in the word J-E-S-U-S-C-H-R-I-S-T. But when we say Jesus Christ, what does it mean?

If I say the name John F. Kennedy, it’s not the name John F. Kennedy, but it’s everything that he stands for that you can remember ever reading about and ever hearing about him. So it’s not actually the word, but it’s what it stands for. So when we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray in the nature of Jesus. And what is the nature?

It’s coming into an attitude of openness. This was the nature of Jesus. It’s coming into an attitude of love. When we say, “I will pray for my enemies,” it means I will sit there and I will think on my enemies and I will no longer see them as enemies, but as I think on them, I will open myself and I will let God’s love flow. So many of us say, “I can’t pray.”

What you really are saying is, “I’m too shy to make a verbal sentence in public.” Well, that has really nothing much to do with prayer. Prayer is being able to tune into the nature of Christ. It’s getting still on the inside. It’s really dropping off. This morning, if you were out there in the breakfast line, when we had the few minutes of rhythms with Alice, and you know, the last thing we did, we put our head down and let everything empty out.

Well, sometimes this is that first step in prayer. It’s really to empty everything. Just let everything go and just tune into that nature of Christ. And we get the feeling. You know, we don’t even have to… If a person has a need, we don’t even have to know what that need is. In our prayer groups, we say, “Well, now, what disease have they got? Now, how far along… How many times have they been to the doctor?” You know, this is curiosity. It has nothing to do. It doesn’t even relate to prayer.

And so our prayer groups, sometimes they get so ingrown because they really become gossip sessions. And they lose their power. And then they die. Because it’s not that flow of love. We come together in prayer groups to build up and to undergird and to let the love of Christ flow from me to you. And the reason we are to come together is so that we, as we come together, this is a cell of the body of Christ. And as we come together, if we are really praying, then everybody in that group will be healed. Not should be healed, but will be healed. This morning, as we sit here right now in this hour, if you can just sit here and let go of every single thought, if you can let go of any problems, any negativeness, if you can just open yourself to the spirit of love that is right here in this room, things would begin to happen right here.

And healings could take place right here. Not dependent on anything that I might say from the pulpit, but the fact that God is, and you are. And when you open yourself to what you are and what He is, then that flow begins to take place.

Now, oftentimes, when we begin to pray, what our intention is, is to change the circumstances that are. And so we tell God what the circumstances seem to be and what we think they should be. And yet He says, pray with praise and thanksgiving.

Now, how do we pray to change a situation and yet pray with praise and thanksgiving? There was a chaplain that was at Fort Bragg. And this chaplain came into the little Bible class at Fort Bragg that I have. Oftentimes, when I was out of town, he would take over and sometimes we were there at the same time. And we were talking about this scripture of praise and thanksgiving. This was some years ago. And in the Bible class, I was making the statement, we should thank God for everything. You know, this is what I was mentioning last night. It’s been so big in my life. We should praise God for everything.

And you see, that was what I learned with that first experience when I told you last night when my son had been hit by the car. I had to thank God for the accident. I had to thank God for the good that was coming out of it. And I had to thank God for the people involved. And that was when God intervened. Well, anyway, I was sharing this in the Bible class. And this chaplain said, “Now, Ruth, we don’t really thank God for the thing that’s happened. We thank God in the midst of it.”

Well, there was a little argument there. Now, it’s very hard to see the difference in thanking God for and thanking God in. And this oftentimes may cause some dissension. But just think with me just for a minute. If I thank God in a situation… Well, it’s so clear, this example of this woman who says, “My son has gone to Vietnam and my heart is broken.” And she said, “I can’t thank God that he’s gone. I can’t thank God for this thing. But while he’s there, I can praise God anyway.”

And so, what she was saying was, “Lord, my son’s gone to Vietnam and I don’t like it. But, Lord, I just praise You.” Well, these two things don’t even relate. And so, anyway, I said to her, “Now, just try to start thanking God that he’s gone.” “Oh,” she said, “I couldn’t.” She said, “That’s to reject him and to deny him.” But anyway, she said, “Well, I’ll try.” And I said, “Even if you don’t mean it in your heart.” So, she began to say, “Well, Lord, I thank You that he’s gone.

Father, I know that while he’s over there, You’re over there too. Lord, I know that You are a big enough God that You can work in his life over there as well as You can here.” And then she said, she began to gradually say, “Lord, maybe he had to go over there in order for You to work in some area of his life.” And then before she knew it, she said she was finally praising God. “Thank God he’s gone to Vietnam.”

Now, when you can get to that place, you start with your mind and you get to that place in your heart. You see what happens when you finally get to that place that you can really thank God for the situation. What happens? Not only is God free to work and do this thing that He wants to do in that boy’s life, but you see, you have a complete release yourself.

Now, in a case of illness, you say, “Well, I don’t want to thank God that I have cancer.” And yet the Bible says, in all things, there’s a scripture over here in Ephesians. It says, thank God at all times for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it can’t be plainer than that. Thank God at all times for everything. Now, God doesn’t will illness. We know that. God doesn’t want any of us to be less than perfect and less than whole.

But God allows things that He doesn’t will and there’s a difference in allowing and willing. And anything that happens to us happens because God allows it. The bad things usually come from our own inner desires and negativeness and, well, we don’t know all of the causes, but we usually bring things to ourselves, the troubles that we have from our own inner feelings and inner desires. But, even if we bring these things to us, God has allowed it. Now, when we thank God, see, when we see a situation, I see that I’m ill and I thank God for it. The reason I can thank God that I have cancer is because first I say, God didn’t will it, but He allowed it. And if God allowed it, He can redeem it. And there is a purpose in it that can be used for His glory. And so, I began to thank God for it, but then, at the same time, I began to say, “Lord, show me the reason. Where did I go wrong? Where did I think wrong? Where have I neglected myself, my body? Where have I neglected the principles of God?” And if we’re true to ourselves, then the Spirit begins to reveal to us and we begin to see why we are in the situation we’re in, why we’re ill, why we have a headache or backache.

We begin to think of a resentment we have deep down inside, relationships that have been broken, a disobedience to the principle of love. Somewhere we have gotten out of the harmony and the flow of the Spirit. And so, as we begin to thank God, “Thank You, Father, that You allowed me to have this illness.” Then, everything within my system in praise and thanksgiving, you see, because this is the promise in the Bible. When we pray in earnest and thankful prayer, then, the peace of God which transcends the understanding, you see, the Bible even tells us, don’t try to figure it out. Don’t sit here right now and analyze and think of all of the rebuttal because it transcends the human understanding. And the peace of God will keep constant peace over your hearts and your minds and you will rest in Jesus. Now, when the peace of God transcends, everything within your body and everything within your being begins to start flowing and coming back into that perfect harmony and the perfect balance. And as you praise and thank God and praise and thank God for this, the healing begins and everything begins to move about. And your headache goes away. The cells and the tissues of your body come back into perfect order.

Attitudes are changed. Well, as I was saying, I was talking about this at this Bible class and this chaplain said, “You are wrong. You are absolutely wrong. You don’t thank Him for it, but you thank Him in the midst of it.” Well, to me, this was like a martyr’s life. “Lord, I can stand all of this suffering and everything and all the time I’m crippled and unhappy and out of balance. I’m praising You anyhow.” Well, I got so mad with that chaplain that day, I didn’t know what to do.

And he had been to seminary, so that made him right. I mean, even in my own mind, you know, he knows more than I do. He’s walked with the Lord longer than I have, so he must be right. And so he left Fort Bragg and he went to Vietnam shortly after. And then after he came back, he was in Vietnam for a year. And then he came back to Fort Benning, Georgia. And this was last October. He was invited to come to North Carolina and to speak. And so he called me and he said, “Ruth, I haven’t seen you since I got back from Vietnam and come to Raleigh and let’s get together after the meeting.”

Well, all this time that he had been in Vietnam, I had changed my whole philosophy about prayer. And I quit thanking God for everything and I started thanking God in the midst of it. And my life got so out of balance I had really, I had the two worst years of my life. And in October, my husband and I went to Raleigh to hear this chaplain and he got up there and started speaking and he said, “Would you like to have joy in your life? Would you like to have joy overflowing?” Well, he said, “You must thank God for everything.”

And I sat there and I couldn’t believe my ears. And you know, all of the anger began to well up and I started blaming him for everything that had happened to me for the past two years. And this chaplain told about the series of events how God had taught him step by step. And he has it on a book and it’s just a wonderful book. And it just came out about three weeks ago. And I saw somebody yesterday and said they had bought it. But the name of the book is From Prison to Praise. And it’s published by Logos Publishing Company. And I don’t know how you get it. He sent me a copy. But anyway, it is just great. And he tells in this book, he’s been in prison way back. And he gives all of the steps. And every now and then you’ll see the little word, “Ruth.”

And I was kind of humiliated when I read the book because he said a lot of things about me that I wouldn’t have wanted published. But anyway, we learned that we were each other’s growing edge for quite a while. But anyway, he told that night about this couple. And this was the final thing that the Lord showed him about thanking God for everything. And in case you don’t read the book, I’ll just share this little story because it’s just so beautiful. But anyway, as God taught him privately this lesson of thanking God for everything, finally he came to the place that the Spirit just released him and he could start using it in his ministry. And so the people began to come to him for counseling, you know. And this couple came. And it was a situation. The woman was an orphan. And she had no family at all except this husband. And he had gotten his orders to go to Vietnam. And when he had gone into the army, this was so traumatic for her, she almost had a… Well, she attempted suicide and she had a breakdown. But anyway, she had gotten over this pretty much. And now, at the point of him going to Vietnam and leaving her, she was threatening suicide again.

So anyway, the chaplain said, “Well, let me see each one of you individually.” And so Sue was the girl’s name. So anyway, he started talking to Sue and he said, “Sue, I really can help you.” He said, “If you’ll do what I say, I have found the answer for you.” And she just brightened up and she was so happy, you know. And he said, “All right now, I want us to get down in prayer. I want us to kneel together. And I want you to thank God that your husband’s going to Vietnam.” Well, she just went and slapped to pieces, you know. And she left crying and in hysterics. And so her husband came the next day and he said, “Chaplain,” he said, “it didn’t help Sue very much.” And he says, “Well,” he says, “we’ll work with you.” And he said, “Now, if you can just do what I say,” he said, “let’s get down in prayer.” And he said, “I want you to thank God that when you go to Vietnam, Sue might commit suicide.” And he said, “Chaplain, no wonder Sue left so upset.”

Well, anyway, they talked longer and finally, both of them came together and they opened the scriptures and the chaplain went through all of the scriptures. And finally, in desperation, Sue and her husband got down on their knees at the altar. And they said, “Lord, we don’t understand this, but we can believe by the word that what You say is truth.” And so, just by faith, Sue said, “Father, I thank You that my husband’s going to Vietnam. And I thank You for the emotional state that I’m in, all of the imbalance that’s within me. And I thank You, God, that maybe I might even lose control of myself and take my life. But I trust You and I praise You for the whole situation.” And then her husband said, “Father, I can’t understand any more than Sue can. But I thank You for my orders. And I thank You that I’ll be gone a year and when I get back, maybe I might not have a wife. But I thank You for trust, I trust You to take care of her, whether she’s here or whether she’s on the other side. And so, I just thank You that there’s situations in Your hands.”

And the chaplain says that peace and that passeth understanding just came down in both hearts and lives and they really were joyous. And it just didn’t seem to matter. And so, the chaplain wanted to talk to the husband a little bit longer. So Sue walked on over into his office. They were in the church and she walked over to his office and there was a young soldier waiting there to see the chaplain. And he was all distraught and nervous and upset and Sue sat down with him and he said, “Is the chaplain almost through?” And she said, “Yes it is.” He said, “Oh well I just have got to see him. My wife is leaving and my three children and so forth.” And she said, “Listen, you’ve come to the wrong chaplain if you will help.”

But anyway, he opened his billfold and he just was so nervous he had to talk and he said, “Oh I just can’t bear it if my wife leaves and my children.” And he said, “This is my oldest child and this is my second,” and he was calling off the names. And as he was pulling the pictures out, Sue looked at this little snapshot and she said, “Who is this woman?” And that young soldier said, “That’s my mother.” She said, “That’s my mother.” He said, “Oh no, it couldn’t be your mother.” He said, “I’m an only child.” She said, “That is my mother. I have that same identical picture.” She said, “I was put in an orphanage when I was born. But,” she said, “when I was released, I had all of my papers, the official papers and at the very bottom there’s a little snapshot that was clipped to it. And it’s the same picture that you’ve got.” He said, “Now wait a minute. I’m going to make a phone call.” And so he made a long distance phone call to his mother and he said, “Mother, I’ve got to ask you a question. Do I have a sister?”

And the mother broke over the telephone just crying hysterically. And she said, “Oh son,” she said, “I never, this is the skeleton in my closet. I would never, ever have had you know this. But,” she said, “yes.” She said, “Before I ever met your father, I had a child and I put the child in an orphanage.” He says, “Well mother,” he says, “get out the fatted calf because I’m bringing your daughter home.”

Well the husband, this is one of those miracle, miracle, beautiful stories, but the husband left and he went back to his office. And he had graduated from law school but did not get a commission. And as he walked back into his office, one of his classmates who had gotten a commission was there. And he began to make fun of him because he was a private and his classmate was an officer. And he said, “Well what are you doing?” He said, “Well I’m fixing to go to Vietnam.” He says, “The heck you say?” He said, “With that mind that you’ve got, I need you to work for me.” He said, “Oh but no, I’ve got to go to Vietnam. You don’t understand.”

He says, “Well I can pull rank.” And the poor private, he tried to explain to him, you know, that he had this thing all worked out with God. And he had to go. But anyway, the lieutenant got his orders changed. And he stayed there. Sue was united with her mother. And they stayed there together. But you see, that night, as I listened to that chaplain talk and relate story after story after story, my husband and I started back home about 11 o’clock. And we began to relate all of the things that had happened in our life, in our whole marriage. And things that had happened in the past couple of years that had been very hard, family things that had been hard to take, hard to talk about. Have you got any things in your life that you can’t even think about? Much less talk about? Much less thank God for it. Well, these are the kind of things I was talking about. And so as we drove back 60 miles to Fayetteville, I said to him, “Do you think that we can reach down in every tender spot within that we can pull it out and thank God for it?” He said, “I don’t think we can, but let’s try.” And so in between conversation and tears, all the way back to Fayetteville, all of the hurts and the wounds that we had, one by one, we began to thank God for them.

Oh, this was real therapy. I didn’t mean it with my mind, my heart, but I did with my mind. And a healing began to take place there within me. Now, at this time, we were having an awful lot of trouble with our teenage son. When I was in Boston, I was telling you of the trouble I was having with this son. And the year before when I was in Boston, I was telling you of the trouble I was having with this son.

And anyway, he had just reached this place of rebellion. And we just didn’t know how to cope with it. And you know, I had put down all of these rules and regulations. I had tried discipline. I had tried prayer. I had tried thanking God in spite of it. And anyway, my husband and I said, “All right, when we get home, let’s don’t have any more correction. I mean, we’ve spent all of this time trying to correct him and discipline him. And so let’s start thanking God for everything he does wrong.”

So we got home that night about 11 or 12 o’clock. And we walked in the kitchen. And there was the gallon of milk sitting out on the table. And I said, “Oh, Bobby, come in. I thank God that Scotty left that milk sitting out on that table.”

And my husband went through the living room and he said, “Ruth, come in a minute.” And I went in and he says, “Ruth, I just praise the Lord that all of his clothes are scattered from one end to the other.”

Can you see the principle that was beginning to take place? You know who was changing from that moment we made this commitment? My attitude was changing. And my husband’s attitude. This poor boy, every time he walked into the house, I mean, there was nothing but, “Why did you do so and so? And don’t you know we told you this?” And, you know, and even when we got to the place we might control it with our lips a little bit, there was that feeling. You know, rejection. It had to be rejection because I was so irritated. All we could think of was just one more year and he’ll be off in college.

Poor us. You know, if we can just live through it. Well, the next morning was Sunday. And we got up and we started real early, thanking God, thanking God, thanking God, thanking God, because it was one thing after another.

Sometimes we eat out on Sunday and sometimes I cook a Sunday dinner. And if we wanted to eat out, he’d rather have a mayonnaise sandwich at home. And if I cooked a great big turkey or a roast, he had to go to McDonald’s and get a hamburger. It’s this kind of thing I’m talking about. And you know, it’s just a little thing, but when you have a million little things, you see, this can cause a breakdown.

And that night, and this is a real true story, that night we sat down to eat supper on Sunday night. And Scotty came in there to the table and he said, “Mother, when you and Daddy get through eating, I would like to have a conference with you.” Well, that finished supper right then before we started. So we walked out in the library and sat down, the three of us. And he said, “I know I have been hard. It’s been hard for you to live with me. But,” he said, “it’s been harder for me to live with me.” He said, “It’s just really been awful, the feelings that I’ve had inside.” And he said, you know, this was true. He’s such an outstanding student and with extracurricular activities at school. And everywhere my husband and I went, everybody always said, “Oh, aren’t you proud, Scotty?” You know, always winning superlatives and everything. “Oh, he just must be the joy of your life.” Well, he confessed that night. He said, “You know,” he said, “I never show any reaction to anybody at school. And I never show any reaction to any teacher. But,” he said, “I store it up. And when I come home,” he said, “I take out all of my resentment toward the world on my family.”

And he said, “I’ve done things that you don’t even know about just to irritate you. Because it gave me some satisfaction with somebody I was mad with.” He said, “Many times I have sat down at the end of the street. When you said, ‘Be home by 8 o’clock’ or ‘Be home by 11 o’clock,’” and he said, “I have just sat there and waited till 15 minutes past the time in order to disobey.” He said, “I got some sadistic pleasure out of it.” And he said, “But I don’t want to be that way anymore. And I don’t want to treat Michael like I’ve been treating him. And I want to bring harmony in this house.” And he said, “I want to make this confession to you. And I want to commit my life right now to doing everything I can to bring harmony.”

Now, God, and only God, could change an attitude. Now, I don’t think God worked in some supernatural way to pour down harmony into the top of his head. But I think God began to change my attitude and my husband’s attitude. And God began to work through us reaching out. You see, this was love reaching out to this boy that opened something within him that had been blocked for a couple of years.

And since that time, that was October, almost a year ago. This boy has been the greatest joy. It’s really been just a miracle. And he goes off to college. He’s the one I was talking about the other night. And you know, he was at the beach this past week when I was home. And my husband had every one of his pictures turned to the wall. He said, “I cannot bear to look at those pictures and think, God is not here now and he’s going to be gone just in a few weeks to school.” When just a year ago, you know, we were saying, “Oh, Lord, you know, if you can speed up the time.”

And you see the healing’s taking place within us. Now, we started putting this principle of thanking God for everything in every single situation. Now, I have to talk about children and husbands because that’s where my life is. And that’s where I see things worked out. Now, if you don’t have a husband or a wife or children, it doesn’t matter. It’s the same principle. No matter what condition you’re in, it’s the same principle. If it’s a neighbor, if it’s your boss, if it’s someone who works under you. Any human being that you come in contact with or any situation, no matter how bad. My daughter, who was supposed to graduate from junior college, she went to St. Mary’s and she called me the first of May. And she said, “Mother, I guess it’s time I break this bad news to you.” But she said, “I know how much you and Daddy have sacrificed and how much you’ve spent sending me to college.” And she said, “Graduation’s coming up in three weeks and I’ve got to tell you now, I’m not going to graduate.” She said, “I don’t have enough quality points.” And I said, “Honey, I just thank God you’re not going to graduate.”

She said, “Mother, are you kidding?” I said, “No, honey. I don’t know what I mean, but I praise the Lord, you’re not going to graduate.” She said, “Mother, honest to goodness.” She said, “Are you really not upset?” I said, “I’m not upset.” And she began to cry over that phone. And this is what she told me. She said, “You know, Mother,” she said, “I thought this was going to be the greatest disappointment. Do you realize how much pressure you and Daddy put on me to go here to this particular school?” And she said, “You know, I never did want to go to college, but y’all never even listened to me.” You see what I had to learn right then? Here was this image I had, you know. Everybody should go to college. Maybe everybody shouldn’t, but all my children should. Regardless of what they think or desire or want. And she said to me, she said, “Mother, I have never wanted to do anything but study fashion merchandising.” And she said, “What I have been studying for these two years no more relates to what I want to do in life than a man in the moon.” She said, “I want to study fashion merchandising because I want to learn to coordinate clothes because I’ll be wearing clothes all of my life.”

And she said, “I never want to work.” She said, “I want to get married and I want to raise a family and I want to have a home. And it’s the only line of training that I can think that I can apply in my life.” And she said, “I feel like I’ve really wasted two years.” I said, “Now, honey, you’ve got to thank God that you were able to be there two years once you graduate or not.” And she said, “Well, now, I don’t have to go on to college because I can’t get in one.” I said, “That’s right.” She said, “Now, I can do what I want.” I said, “You can do what you want.” So, anyway, we really rejoiced at it. But, you know, we got a letter in the mail. It was about two weeks after that. And Virginia Intermont, which has been a junior college in Virginia, I don’t know if you… It’s a small school. But we got a letter saying they were increasing their… They were moving into a four-year school rather than a junior college. And they were putting in this new… These new courses and departments. And one of them was fashion merchandising.

And the letter was to Lynn asking if she was interested. I looked at that letter and she was at school then. It was right before she was coming home. And so, we filled it out and sent it in. And they accepted every D that she had. I mean, it’s the only college, I’m sure, in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, anywhere… That would accept the D’s. And every single course that she took was accepted and needed. She didn’t lose one single credit. And she moves right into her major. And it’s not a hard school. And she’s only going to be 40 miles from her boyfriend who is going to school in the mountains. I mean, how good can God be?

Well, just over and over. Now, these are beautiful experiences. But I’ve had some deep ones that were bad. I’ve had some hurting experiences. But you see, if you can trust God in anything at all, you can trust Him in everything.

And when you begin to see how God delivers… And this is not manipulation, you see. This is not saying, “God, now this is the way I want it.” But what you’re doing, you’re moving in the flow. You’re accepting who you are. You’re accepting the place that you’re in. If you’re in a job that you absolutely can’t stand, “I thank God that I’m in this job that I can’t stand.” And as your attitude begins to come into harmony with the Spirit of God, either your attitude toward your job is going to change or there’s going to be a door open. But you can’t remain the same. So whatever the situation, you open the way for healing. Now, this is real prayer to me. This is the highest form of prayer that I’ve been able to discover or be led into or move into. To thank God for. So right now today, whatever the situation you’re in, children, problems with children, problems with husbands, problems with yourself. Get your eyes off the problem and get your eyes on the Father. And just begin to thank Him and praise Him. Let the joy flow. Amen.