I wrote this little excerpt last summer, and it perfectly feeds into the words I’ve had stirring in my heart lately. 

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Last night, I lived an answered prayer––or maybe I should say I was aware I was living an answered prayer. Nothing spectacular or exceptionally noteworthy happened. It was a gentle, peaceful evening chock full of contentment, quiet prayer, and prepping for a party I was hosting the next evening.

It was a Friday night, and we were coming off an afternoon summer storm that broke up the squelching heat of our Texas summer. Buckets of roses, daisies, mums, eucalyptus, and hydrangeas sat on the counter, begging to be arranged (did I mention this was a flower-arranging party?!). Their sweet aroma subtly filled the kitchen, taking second fiddle only to the smell of the graham cracker crust I folded, pressed, and precisely sculpted into my favorite Anthropologie pie dish.

Caamp, Noah Kahan, and Gregory Alan Isakov softly sang over the speaker, the clattering and clanging of measuring cups, glass bowls, and the Kitchen Aid mixer joining this artful arrangement. My husband relaxed on the couch—which, in our one-bedroom apartment was a whopping three feet from the kitchen island—and exhaled after a long work week. 

Looking at this scene, absorbing the sounds, smells, and granular feeling of butter, sugar, and gluten-free graham crackers coating my fingers, I was overcome with gratitude, joy, and peace. Again, nothing out of the ordinary was happening. It was a cozy Friday night unwinding without an agenda or final destination. But it was perfect; it was home.

I remembered that sometimes we are smacked in the face, woken up in the best way, with the awareness we are living an answered prayer. Although it can be an abrupt awakening, it’s really just a soft, small knowing—a quiet exchange with the Holy Spirit. And on this Friday evening, I was suddenly aware I had prayed for a husband and nights like these for years and years.

Now, all those years later, I was living that dream, pulling a tangy and just-sweet-enough cheesecake out of the oven. As I reflected on this reality, it made me consider the other ways I was living answered prayers, too. 

I was married to the love of my life. 

We had a beautiful home. 

We had many sweet friends surrounding us. 

My mental health was stronger than ever. 

My physical health was improving so much, too. 

I was writing and creating in ways I’d been aching for my whole life. 

I worked with incredible people every single day.

Answered prayer after answered prayer. This is not to say that life was perfect and we weren’t experiencing any heartache or stress. My job was tense and uncertain. His mom was going through chemo. We were figuring out marriage and what combining our lives really looked like and meant for us. Life wasn’t perfect, but it was good. And I realized on that peachy, mundane Friday night that I was living my dream life. Things didn’t have to be perfect or 100% okay around me to acknowledge the abundant blessings God had poured out on me.

I never want to forget the goosebumps from that realization, the heart full of gratitude I held as I looked around our little apartment, cheesecake baking in the oven, flowers billowing out of their respective buckets.

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As you read this, wherever you are, whatever season you’re in, I invite you to take inventory of your life and trace God’s fingerprints through the circumstances and dances of your days. 

What situations or relationships are you living in right now that you once prayed for?

What healing and wholeness have you experienced that once felt so far away?

Get tiny and granular—what delights and joys are you noticing that make this season unique from every other?

When we pursue health and success, it’s easy to get caught up in the goals or where we want to be someday. So much so that sometimes we don’t realize we’ve reached the goal. That a healthy and whole life isn’t about reaching a picture-perfect ending—it’s about the process. It’s about counting our blessings and recognizing what God is doing in, through, and around us at every turn.

Whether we know it or not, I have a hunch many of us are living dream lives and answered prayers as we speak. I hope we continue to step back and take in the view, never growing numb to the beauty and blessings as we journey toward Heaven.