Peanut Butter Story                                                                                                   by Jeanne Thormodson©

When I was living as a missionary in Russia, there were times that I would get depressed and think, "poor me". I could always tell when I got this way because I would start to complaining. Of course, being a pastors wife I tried to keep my complaining to those inside my house, but I am like anyone else that has their moments.

It was one of "those" times when I was complaining to my husband and he said, "What do they have in America that we don't have here?" Well, although I didn't say so, I thought, "he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer ", because I could make a list that could go from the ceiling to the floor...and out the door. I thought of having a clothing dryer, hot water all year, a car, an elevator so that I wouldn't have to go up 72 stairs to get to my apartment, I thought of a thermostat on the wall instead of getting what heat the government decided to give on their city wide system. Now all those would have been good answers, but I just snapped out the words "Peanut Butter"!

Well, I didn't know what he would say, and sometimes being the wife of a pastor/missionary isn't easy and this was going to be one of those times as he asked me a typical pastoral type question, "Well, have you prayed for it?" to which I had to say "No!" There I was  standing there with hands on my hips, thinking that he doesn't care about my happiness and is just trying to brush me aside, when he added, "Jean, if you want peanut butter so bad, just pray for it." I snapped back, "ok, I will, but if I am going to pray for peanut butter, I am going to pray for my favorite which is Jiffy Creamy!" So I said a quick prayer for Jiffy Creamy peanut butter and left the room, giving the door a little extra push on my way out to show my frustration and that was that.

The next day  I heard a knock at my door and there was an American man standing there (his name I shall leave to be private) and he had a jar of Jiffy Creamy in his hands! My first thought was how did my husband set this one up, but as he talked I realized that God had answered a prayer that was not said in faith and was not heart felt and was actually working on my answer to that prayer before I even prayed it.

This man was a professor/scientist that came to do some studies on a Fulbright scholarship and  had left America some 30+ hours earlier. He said that my friend Natasha, who was studying at the university there, told him to be sure and see me while in Russia and to bring me something. He asked her what he should bring and she suggested peanut butter, so he went to Sam's Club to get the biggest jar of peanut butter they had and was walking around with it , but for some unknown reason he put it back and picked up a small Jar of Jiffy Creamy and he hoped I would like it instead.

I laughed and I cried... and I thought about the fact that God can do anything, and wants me to know he loves me and is with me, even half way around the world, and if I am not happy it is because I am depending on myself to do everything and get stressed out and start complaining, when if I let him know what makes me sad and let him be in the drivers seat life is so much better. I also thought I need to be praying a whole lot more, but now every time I see a jar of Jiffy Creamy peanut butter, I can't help but think about God and his mercy that is so great that he cares about every little detail of our lives and how I should pray about every little thing.

Rights to usage (let's keep this out there free)
All devotional materials produced by Jeanne A. Thormodson retain her rights to use as she wishes and may not be modified in text or be added to, sold, bought, or used in any monitory way or be put in book or booklet form without her written and explicit permission and must contain this disclosure.