My grandma and I were very close. She lived with us until I was 15, and then she got too old to fly overseas with us. Up until that point, she traveled with us everywhere.

She would make up stories to entertain me, teach me how to snap beans on the porch, and always cried at church because she loved Jesus!! She would tell me about her life -which was extraordinary…married three times, lived through WWI, the 19th amendment being ratified, the Great Depression, WWII, Korean War, Civil Rights movement, JFK assassination, Vietnam, NASA landing on the moon, the Cold War…

So much life!

Needless to say, she was one of my favorite people.

However, when you are a teenage girl and need to get ready for school, the bathroom becomes your priority, especially in the early 90’s when bangs were high and everyone should have been buying stock in AquaNet.

One particular morning as I was getting ready, my grandma needed to use the bathroom.

So, I let her in.

When she came out, I went back to getting ready.

Then she knocked again.

Okay…

This was unusual, but I let her back in and waited.

Finally, she was out and I was back in.

Then she knocked AGAIN!

At this rate, I was going to be late for school. I was irritated. My hair wasn't cooperating, I had even less time to fix it, and I couldn't understand why she kept interrupting me.

Eventually, she went back to her room across the hallway and I continued getting ready.

Then, God stopped me in my tracks.

My perspective changed.

Why am I getting mad about her having to use the bathroom?

This wasn't normal for her. She certainly wasn’t trying to disrupt my morning.

What if she isn't feeling well? What if she's sick?

Suddenly, I felt guilty.

I had been completely focused on myself—my hair, my schedule, my inconvenience—and she didn't deserve my irritation.

Then one thought came clearly into my mind:

I should go check on her.

I stopped getting ready and went to her room.

Her door was open but I didn't see her until I walked in and turned the corner.

She was laying on the floor.

Shaking.

Unresponsive.

Everything that had seemed so important only moments earlier suddenly meant nothing.

Thank God I checked on her when I did. We immediately called 911 and an ambulance rushed her to the hospital.

On the way there, she coded.

Thankfully, the paramedics were able to resuscitate her.

I have thought many times about what could have happened that morning.

What if I had ignored that little tug at my conscience?

What if I had stayed irritated?

What if I had finished spraying my AquaNet, grabbed my backpack, and gone to school?

I could have walked out of that house without ever knowing that my grandma was lying helpless on the floor across the hallway.

Instead, God changed my heart at exactly the right moment.

If I had gone to school mad about sharing the bathroom, this story would've had a much different ending. Thank God He told me to check on her and stop being selfish.

People are more important than other priorities.

I should've actually remembered this lesson for the lady picking up trash (Why Living in Fear is a Waste of Time), but hopefully I'm getting better at listening!

I'm so thankful my grandma survived that ordeal of deadly gallstones, and was able to live many more years and eventually get to meet my husband while we were still dating.

I told him meeting her was at the top of my priority list of things we had to do. So, we flew out to California where she was living out her final years and he got to meet one of the most important people in my life before she died peacefully at 94 years old.

I'm so thankful for her presence in my life, and thank God that He was looking out for her by changing my heart that day.

I pray that I am always open to hearing God’s voice and willing to change my heart and attitude to His purposes.

Jeremiah 18:6 "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand…”

Ezekiel 36:26: "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

I'm reminded that sometimes God's providence doesn't look like a dramatic miracle from heaven.

Sometimes it looks like a change of heart.

A sudden conviction.

A thought that interrupts our plans:

Go check on her.

Isaiah 30:21: "And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left."

Thank you, Lord!