Praying for Skunk

I wish I always prayed with the same innocence I had when I was a kid. When I was around 5 I decided I wanted a cat. My parents said not right now. I don't really remember what I thought or felt when they said that, but apparently I thought I needed to take my request higher up. Every night when my parents tucked me in, my mom would say bedtime prayers with my sister and me. After they told me no to a cat, my bedtime prayers went something like this, "Dear God, thank you for today. Thank you for mommy, daddy, and Jessie. Please be with Granny and Papa, Gramy and George. And God, can I please have a cat? Amen."

I'm sure my mom and dad had a good chuckle about my prayer. Eventually, after 6 months of me praying for a cat, my mom told me ever so gently, "Cait, you don't have to keep praying for a cat. We aren't going to get one right now."

As any stubborn 5 year old would, I continued to pray. Again, I don't remember what I thought or felt, but obviously I believed God could override even my parents wishes. My mom and dad must have decided to give up the fight and just let me keep praying. Every night, my prayer was the same, asking God for a cat.

Finally, approximately another 6 months later, my sister and I were outside playing. We live out in the country, and from back in the woods, a cat came walking into our backyard. My parents were outside, too, and saw it. They thought it was probably a distant neighbors' cat out wandering. If he was, he lost his way home. We had Skunk (he was black and white, so naturally I named him Skunk) for 3 more years. He blessed us with his wild wifey, who blessed us with 3 litters of kittens. From those litters we kept Nala, Simba, and Batgirl. Batgirl and Simba provided us with Blackie. (I was a very creative pet namer...).

My family looks back and laughs at the story. I appreciate God's sense of humor. Surely He laughed when my mom told me I could stop praying for a cat. I know to this day my mom laughs when she remembers telling me to stop praying. I wish as an adult I had the same stubbornness in my prayers I did as a child. Sometimes I do, because I like to be overly optimistic, so occasionally my childhood stubbornness finds its way back in. Then life happens and God says no or not right now. I'm left wishing He would have said yes. My optimism eventually creeps back over me and I know deep down, when God says no it's because He has a plan. However, I wish I was still stubborn enough to pray for a cat everyday for a year.