#ThursdayThoughts: Guest post by Monique DeVere

Good Morning Friends,

It is with great pleasure I introduce to you Monique Devere as she shares with us something to think about....

Be Careful What You Pray For, You Just Might Get It!

Have you ever prayed an earnest pray and had it answered in the most unexpected way?

I love humour. I love God’s humour. We can never guess quite how He will answer our prayers. We just hope that He would. I had an encounter with God’s humour about four months ago.

Now, for you to grasp the enormity of what I’m about to tell you, you must first understand that neither my hubby nor I are huge pet lovers. Over the years we allowed each of our four kids to have the occasional pair of budgies, fish, a couple of hamsters, and one or two rabbits, but never any animal with the potential for longevity. That sounds mean, but I grew up on a plantation with tons of animals, and my grandparents on both sides were farmers, so the thought of living with animals as an adult just didn’t work for me, and my husband is the world’s biggest softie when it comes to animals.

I am not exaggerating when I tell you the man wouldn’t kill a fly! It amuses me how he would gently shoot out flies, or carefully capture a spider and put it outside. So he never wanted pets because he finds it hard when they pass away. So here I am, not wanting pets because I’d had enough of them growing up, and hubby who finds it too sad when they die. Yet, we knew we couldn’t deprive our kids of the joy and experience of owning their very own pet. But, like I said, we were never going to own something like…let’s say…a dog!   

This is where the humour comes in. About 3 years ago, our first son—#2 child—agreed to dogsit for an acquaintance, only to discover two weeks later when it was time to return the dog that the owner had moved house. He’d duped my son into having a dog that he and his then fiancée—now wife—hadn’t planned on keeping. Needless to say my son fell in love with Mika, a white/golden Akita Shepherd, but struggled to keep her, what with work and a wife who had become extremely ill with undiagnosed Crohn’s disease. Eventually, my son changed jobs and was away from home a lot and of course his wife couldn’t cope with a pregnancy, home and dog. So they had to make the decision to let Mika go.

Did I mention that Mika had been badly mistreated by her first owners? No? It was very sad. I felt my son’s anguish at having to re-home her, but I also knew Mika needed to move on to a better home, so as a praying woman who does her battles on her knees, I went to the Lord. I prayed for Mika and asked God to help my son to find her a wonderful home with a Godly family who would show her unconditional love and affection. The type of family with kids who would love and spoil Mika. A home where she would live indoors, instead of having to live outside in a tiny dog house whatever the weather. My prayer was long and extensive, and filled with everything I could think that an abused dog would want in order to be happy.

A couple of weeks later my son found a temporary home for Mika, but the temporary keepers worked and Mika got bored alone at home each day and bit the handles off the cupboard doors. They returned Mika to my son along with a large repair bill.

Poor Mika.

Hubby and I exchanged a long look. I could tell what he was thinking, and I said, “No way!!!” and disappeared into my home office to write. Then the Lord touched my heart and a total sense of compassion brought tears to my eyes. Would it really be so hard to adopt Mika? She’d still be a part of my son’s family and if it’s one thing hubby and I know how to do, it is love.

After that touch from God, I sauntered out of my office to seek out hubby. But like all good stories, by the time I’d changed my mind, hubby had changed his also. We were yet again on opposing sides of the same coin. We discussed it, then called a mini family meeting with the two remaining children at home. We all agreed that we could, and should, offer Mika a loving home.

And that is how we came to own a beautiful Akita Shepherd when I never thought in a million years I’d ever willingly own a dog! Not a big one anyway—maybe just a teacup fluffball I could stick bows on and carry around in a doggie handbag :-)

We have grown deeply attached to Mika. I can’t imagine not having her around. We love her and spoil her awfully. These days she’s an indoor dog and always has her people around to keep her company, so she’s never lonely.

One of the remaining emotional scars we’ve noticed is that she’s very timid about going outside when it’s drizzling. She usually stops, looks up at whoever is letting her out with a sad puppy-dog look in her eyes as if she’s asking: are you going to shut me out in the rain? We never do. I pray that as we care for her, God will heal all her emotional scars and she can be free of her past.

This experience has taught me that sometimes when we pray, we just might unknowingly be the answer to that prayer.

Wow...great story, Monique! I think we can all identify at some point in our lives when we felt the same way about the power of prayer and God's sense of humor.

Monique DeVere is a full-time author of Sweet 'n' Spicy Romantic Comedy and Contemporary Romance. She also writes Christian Supernatural Suspense movie scripts. She was born on the beautiful island of Barbados, where she grew up on a large plantation with enough wide-open space to let the imagination run free. She moved to the UK as a teen and shortly after met and fell instantly, and irrevocably, in love with her very own strong-silent-type hero. When Monique isn’t writing or spending quality time with her family, she likes to armchair travel to distant and exciting parts of the world and considers herself to have the best job on earth.

You can visit her at moniquedevere.com where she invites you to join her exclusive Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Readers Club packed full of goodies for her members. Monique loves to hear from her readers, do contact her at monique@moniquedevere.com. Also connect with Monique on Amazon Author Page | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook Fanpage | LinkedIn | Wattpad | Pinterest | or visit her Blog!

Monique's latest book, Party for Two is available now at Amazon. Here's a sneak peek....

Her sexy weekend fling.

Ex-lawyer turned pregnancy model Danielle Hampton has one simple rule; never date an attorney, even if he’s so deliciously hot she’s nicknamed him His Hotness Esquire. When her father asks her to strap on her silicone bump and pretend to be Casey Lowe’s pregnant fiancée in order to pull her family’s law firm out of trouble, her first answer is a resounding no! But she owes Casey for wrecking his pool.

Civil Rights Attorney Casey Lowe lives by a code of practice: never date his boss’s daughter, but he’ll do just about anything to make partner at the top law firm—even if it means violating his personal code. He hasn’t bargained on the fierce desire that burns hotter than the Mojave Desert and combusts every time he gets his boss’s daughter alone. She may drive him to distraction and melt in his arms, but will this party girl hang around long enough for him to convince her that all the best parties… are for two?

I hope you enjoyed today's thoughts. I certainly did!

Stay tuned each week for more Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight!

Until next time...take care and God Bless.

PamT