rials bring strength of character; faith in God, when exercised to its fullest. I've tried to convince myself that wealth is not the best asset to child rearing. I must admit, though, that it sounds like something I would like to have: wealth. But then the following story could never have happened. It is one of the highlights of our family's memories.

It was time to fix supper. I had put it off as long as I could, but the kids were getting hungry, and Daddy would be home from work soon. I pulled out all the food that was in the cupboard: one potato, a handful of macaroni, a little rice, and about one cup of lentils. I checked the refrigerator: half an onion, two eggs, and two carrots. I cooked the rice and lentils, the potato, and the bit of macaroni. The carrots were grated and sautéed with the chopped onion. I added a little salt and garlic powder. Everything was mixed together with the eggs, tossed into a casserole dish and popped into the oven. Supper. I called it "gunk." I hoped it would taste good.

Gene came into the kitchen. "Mom, can we have salad for supper?"

"No, I don't have any. Sorry."

A couple of minutes later Gene asked again, "Mom, please can we have salad for supper?"

I told him that I didn't have any and that he would just have to do without.

Gene begged again, "Mom, please, oh, please, can we have salad for supper?"

In a not-so-pleasant tone of voice I told him I didn't have any salad. He would just have to ask God for some. He disappeared around the corner.

About 15 minutes later I heard a knock at the door. The neighbor kids said a woman had left all these bags of food by our door. Just then the phone rang. I left the sacks of groceries and dashed for the phone.

"Hello?"

"Go to your front door. You will find a gift from God."

The line went dead. I ran back to the door. The boys helped carry all the bags to the kitchen. I couldn't believe my eyes. Gene was so excited. He kept shouting, "God said yes, God said yes."

Those bags contained everything you could ever dream of putting in or on a salad: a variety of lettuce, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, three kinds of salad dressing, sunflower seeds, croutons, alfalfa sprouts. What a treat!

We were just about to sit down to supper. There was another knock on the door. There stood my sister and Mom with more sacks of groceries. They greeted us with, "Hi. Just thought maybe you could use a few groceries to tide you over till payday." Could we ever! I started to squeal with delight. There was a 15-pound bag of potatoes, loaves of bread, broccoli, milk, margarine, peanut butter, jam, rice, beans, and some cans of fruit-even a bag of cookies. Food enough for at least two weeks. They had no idea that we had just put all the food in the house in that one little casserole dish.

Now for the exciting part of the story (as if it hasn't already been exciting!).

I recognized the voice and went by to thank this friend for the gift of food. She was one of the tenants from some apartments we had managed. We had discussed prayer and had prayed for each other many times. I wanted her to know how God had used her to answer a little boy's prayer. In discussing it, we realized that she had bought the salad before Gene prayed. She said she had just been impressed that we could use some good, fresh salad.

"It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Isa. 65:24).

Gene received his prayed-for salad. God also gave above and beyond what he had asked for. He gave us enough food for two weeks. He knew I had used the last food in the house. He knew salad wouldn't be enough. He tells us in Philippians 4:19 that He shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He taught a little boy about the power of prayer and how He sometimes chooses to answer above and beyond what is asked of Him. And He taught a mom to faithfully teach her children to trust in God and to trust completely in Him herself.