And then a wave of peace washed over her and told her it wasn't where she lived that mattered, but that she was walking with Him.

You once said a man's life is a series of choices. Small decisions made every day that don't seem to matter. That nobody notices but you, if you even notice. Over time, those decisions are like raindrops, falling and filling the stream of a life. You believed the big choices were made in the small ones. If I had chosen differently in a thousand ways, maybe I wouldn't be here.

Please, God, she prayed. Help me to hear him and let him just say what he needs to say. Help me not be afraid.

You would enable him to make good choices. Help him turn to You. Don't let the enemy win a victory in his heart. Lord, do whatever You need to do in order to bring him to his senses." There were no guarantees in prayer.

She was putting it in God's hands. If Tony came to mind, she'd pray. Otherwise, she needed to keep moving forward. Do the things she was assigned to do.

Life is about making good choices, Matt. One after the other. They pile up day after day. It's only when you look back that you can see what the choices led to. What you're able to stand on.

The believer's job was to come to God with a surrendered heart. To come empty-handed every morning not to get what you wanted but to receive all of who He was and what He wanted for you.

People let their feelings push them away from God or away from believing that their life makes a difference. They think that because they don't see God working the way they think He should work, He's not there. Or they think He doesn't care and they get discouraged."

You can influence Tony. You can pray for him and ask God to work in his heart. You can love him with the kind of love only God can give you. But you can't make decisions for him. You can't change him. You can only allow God to change you. You can change the way you think about him and yourself and God. You can believe the truth about the power of God and join Him in what He wants to do.

One choice changes the construction of a life. You'll never experience the joy and tenderness of a lifelong love unless you fight for it.

Pray and wait. That's what she had done in the past few weeks. And in the waiting came the strengthening of the muscles of faith. It was a whole-faith workout to wait and allow God to do what He wanted to do. As Clara said, it was time to just get out of His way.

Yeah, right, I thought. God hadn't asked me if I wanted to go deeper, and thank you very much, I liked the shallows. It's easier to play when there's no current. In the middle you lose your footing; you lose control. You lose.