About A Perfect Gift and Of Prayers: When You Pray Hard God Really Listens

"When you pray hard God really listens! "

I almost failed to be with my wife and son on the eve of Christmas last night due to work reason.  

Yesterday, I was surprised when my manager tasked me to do a physical count of all the stocks we have in our warehouse.  When I hear it I was really pissed off. I know that it will take me from morning until almost midnight. I mean there’s a whole lot of inventory stuff that we need to reconcile. 

The “umph” (gigil sa galit effect na di mo mailabas) is that it’s not part of my job. Bakit ngayon pa na pinaka-importanteng araw sa akin! Are you kidding? I murmured. I don't know if it's still part of the trust in me that maybe he gauge that the best person to do it is me since the people who had done the inventory reconciliation completely provided unreliable reports. And so to rescue them from wrongly doing it again I came to the scene. 

I am not really happy with it because it would completely ruin my plan of going home for the Christmas Eve celebration with my wife and my little cute boy Caleb. As a first time dad, I'm extremely excited to spend our first Christmas as a family. 

Heck of a hell! This is our first and it should be special. But it seems that devil really overpower some people and used them as instrument to fulfill his wicked desire - to stop us from celebrating together.  

And so when I heard it straight from my office nemesis ( I don't like my manager because he's a "mafi mok" (Arabic for walang alam or mahina - Oh sige na masama na ako, per totoo naman) - pretentious ogre who feels like he knows everything yet he doesn't) I don't have any personal issues with him, only work issues. And to back it up, almost all my office mates dislike him for his being domineering, authoritative and suspicious. He's not fit to be a superior. Honestly, di naman talaga kasi ang hina niya sa management skills and ang English tumatambling - gusto ko sanang intindihin kasi Yemeni (Arab from Yemen) siya and English isn't their 2nd language. 

Pero bilang nasa managerial position, you are expected to deliver and deliver well - pero siya hindi! hindi! hindi! - galit na ba ako? di naman nagpapaliwanag lang..hahaha! 

The reason why he got the job is because kaibigan siya ng pinaka- boss ko. A thing that really puzzled me kung bakit kinuha siya as reliever ng boss ko - my boss is currently in England for further study together with his wife. 

Anyway, going back to the inventory part. So, we (Me and Faisal - new officemate ko) headed to our warehouse. A 30 minutes drive from our office. While on our way there, I called my wife about the concern. I muster the guts to tell it early para di siya mabigla kung di ako makauwi sa gabi. She's also apprehensive about it but I explained to her that I don't have any control with my manager. I just told her to simultaneously pray with me that we can finish it before 6pm. 

But seeing the inventory list added to my agony. I know we cannot even finish it for a day. I'm a bit discouraged because I know that I won't have any chance to be with them comes Christmas Eve.

I was really praying while we are on our way to the warehouse. Few more turns and we reached the warehouse. I talked to Iftakar- the stockman in-charge. We asked for assistance but it turned out that  none from the three of them is available to assist us. I argued hard with him and ended up calling our manager that the people weren't available due to lots of work loads that day. 

Then, I handed my phone to Iftakar. He and our manager talked in Arabic. After few minutes of exchanging words, Iftakar disclosed to me that inventory reconciliation will be cancelled and it will be move on the next day. 

My heart thumped so fast in joy. Yet, I contained it first since I'm not sure if changes will still occur in the afternoon - yung tipong pinigil mo ang kasiyahan mo kasi baka sa hapon ay pabalikin kami uli doon to do the physical count. I didn't even called my wife to tell her about the good news because of that anticipation. I only told her around 3pm that we didn't push through with inventory. 

Luckily, it was completely cancelled and I was able to spend my Christmas Eve with my family. I traveled almost two hours last night just to reach home. We arrived at around 8:30PM. I'm with my brother in law in the car.

Indeed, prayers play an important role during critical situation. When you know you have no one to burst your emotions to, suddenly in a blink of an eye you'll find yourself praying to God. 

God never let evil ones meddle in your plan especially if it  is for Him. He won't let any wicked being hamper the happiness my family would feel and enjoy being complete while we celebrate His birthday. 

As you can see above, we are a picture of a happy family. Apart from the material gifts or whatever, this is the greatest gift I am happy to receive this Christmas - to be with my immediate family.

God is really a great God and I like.