
The Power
Of Prayer
Louise
Redden, a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked
into a grocery store.
She approached
the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would
let her charge a few groceries. She softly explained that her
husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children
and they needed food.
John
Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave
his store. Visualizing the family needs, she said: Please,
sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can." John told
her he could not give her credit, as she did not have a charge account
at his store.
Standing
beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between
the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocerman that he would
stand good for whatever she needed for her family.
The grocer
man said in a very reluctant voice,"Do you have a grocery list? Louise
replied "Yes sir!" "O.K." he said: "Put your grocery list on the
scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that
amount in groceries."
Louise,
hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and
took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She
then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still
bowed. The eyes of the grocer man and the customer showed amazement
when the scales went down and stayed down.
The grocer
man staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly,
"I can't believe it."
The customer
smiled and the grocer man started putting the groceries on the other
side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more
and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more. The
grocer man stood there in utter disgust.
Finally,
he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with
greater amazement.
It was
not a grocery list, it was a prayer which said: Dear Lord,
you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands."
The grocer
man gave her the groceries that he had gathered and placed on the scales
and stood in stunned silence. Louise thanked him and left the store.
The customer
handed a fifty-dollar bill to John as he said, "It was worth every penny
of it."
It was
sometime later that John Longhouse discovered the scales were broken, therefore
only God knows how much a prayer weighs.
author is unknown

