Making A Deposit On A Promise

For years now I have seen how important it is to keep your word. I think we all know how important that really is, but sometimes it really comes home in a unique way.

Many years ago I met a wonderful women. She was not a typical woman. She was her own self and was not afraid to be who she was. You might say she was a little quirky, but it was a very good quirky. To give you an idea of what I mean, when she married her second husband she and her husband went on their honeymoon with two other people, my mother-in-law being one of them. Telling you the whys and all about that would take too long, but it was something she, her husband and everyone else enjoyed a lot. Oh and she was in her 60's when this honeymoon took place.

This sweet and unusual lady was named LaBerta! I love her name and when she got married again he last name became LaTurner. LaBerta LaTurner. Isn't that just the neatest name? And it fit her wonderful quirky personality too. But what was even more important and wonderful about her was her testimony. She was a powerful woman of God. She loved the Lord and had no fear in telling others about Him and all He had done in her life. I loved that about her and through that testimony she taught me a very important lesson.

I'm sure many of you (hopefully all of you) know the importance of prayer. In any Believer's life it is vital. It can make a huge difference in how we live our daily lives and with our relationships with other people. But LaBerta taught me something about prayer I had never thought about before and have never forgotten since.

I need to tell you that LaBerta was an amazing prayer warrior. If you wanted someone to faithfully pray for things going on in your life she was the person to go to. She was consistent in her prayer life and she followed up. If you asked her to pray for something she would come to you later to find out what the answer to that prayer was. She believed in and practiced the power of prayer! I learned a lot from her by that example, but the one small step she took that impressed me the most was what she would do when you asked her to pray.

This small step became very evident to me the first time I asked her to pray for me. We were standing in the foyer of a church. She noticed that I was not doing very well (long story) and asked if she could pray for me. I told her what was going on briefly and she said she would pray. That's when the most amazing thing happened. She stopped right there in the midst of a lot of other people, took my hand and started praying. It did not matter who else heard or saw, she just started praying. I can't tell you how special that was to me.

But it was not the only time she did that for me or my family. If we ran into her at the grocery store she would stop right there and pray for us. If we talked on the phone with her she would end the conversation with a prayer. If we met in the post office she would pray for anything and anyone. Wherever she was, if you needed prayer she would pray for you right then and there. She did not care who else saw what was going on or who heard, not that she prayed loudly. Her concern was to pray and pray immediately.

I had a chance one time to ask her about it. She kinda snickered and said she thought that telling someone you would pray for them was a promise. Promises were something to be taken very seriously, as seriously as God takes His promises to us. She told me that when she became a Christian she learned how important promises really are to God and since saying you would pray for someone was in her mind a promise (and I agree with her) she had to make sure she kept it. So when someone asked her to pray she was going to make a deposit on a promise and she did every single time.

I treasured that thought and mulled it over in my mind for quite a while. I had never heard of anyone thinking about praying for someone in that way before. It made a huge impact on me. LaBetra taught me something that to this day has stuck with me and has changed how I see prayer and my prayer life.

Do I do the same thing as boldly as LaBerta did? No, I wish I did. But I have done my best to keep the promise I make to people when I say I will pray for them? Yes! Prayer is a vital part of my life and it was forever changed by a small lesson from LaBerta LaTurner.

Thank you Berta!!