For A Purpose

An Answered Prayer

It’s always exciting to share how God answers my little prayers. God is just so, so good. Sometimes I get so caught up with everything that I don’t even realize that He has already answered my prayer! Things may go wrong, but if you commit it to Him and do what you can, your character will be refined. Now here’s a testimony I’ve been waiting to share…

Recently, my piano went kaput. It was play-able, but I was slowed down due to the “sticky” keys. I couldn’t play the fast songs effectively and it was out of tune. I think it was due to the erratic temperature changes. I was really upset about it. It’s really untimely because I’ve been getting some tough pieces to master. And oh, talking about lessons, I’ve wanted to tell you about my awesome piano teacher!

I really enjoy learning from Ms. Sandra Birze. She’s fun and quirky. My previous teacher certainly wasn’t like her. I am captivated and inspired each time she plays a piece for me to hear before I try it. Ms. Sandra’s encouraging and she’s quick to correct me until I get it right. I feel that I’m advancing to a whole new level. My previous teacher was pretty slack with the technical stuff, so I’m learning a lot of hard-core stuff this year. But I still look forward to every lesson because Ms. Sandra gives me room to make mistakes and be expressive. I love it.

So anyway, back to the kaput piano. I was nearly in tears one day when I was trying to play the Fantasie Impromptu. I knew it was no use to pester my parents about it or worse, stop practicing. My best hope was to commit it to God and pray that something can be worked out. I didn’t know what or how, but it was a relief to just leave my worries to God and keep practising much as the piano allows.

Some days later, Ms. Sandra gave me the contact of the guy who tunes the school’s pianos. We got our piano tuned, but it was still a tough piano to practice on. Of course, there are always better pianos; nevertheless, I’m thankful that I have one.

A week later, my teacher surprised me when she asked if my piano was tuned. I didn’t think that she’ll remember. Moreover, she said, “Oh, I talked to Mr. Farrell (the tuner) about it. He told me it’s amazing that you’ve gone so far because your piano is a difficult one to work on.” She gave me a sympathetic look and smiled.

What Ms. Sandra said next was the answer to my prayer. She kindly suggested that for the time being, she could open her piano room for me to practice during lunch! I was thrilled. I like playing the school piano. It’s almost a luxury. In my heart, I knew that it wasn’t a coincidence that she had spoken to Mr. Farrell and found out about my sticky-keyed piano.

Moreover, how would she have known that I’d actually want to sacrifice lunch hours to practice? Haha, frankly, I don’t think any student would willingly want to. I’m certain that God heard my prayer. And this was specifically just for me. No other student was allowed to use the teacher’s piano at lunch time.

See, I told you. God is so, so good! Many times, our tiny minds can’t see the bigger picture. I sure didn’t see it when I was faced with the problem. I didn’t see any other way out. But God can always make a way out if we will trust Him to. Every problem is an opportunity for us to lean on Him more, and it is an avenue for us to testify of His faithfulness.