My 15 year-old daughter is named Haley. She has always been really cute but extremely short for her age. I am 6’1” and my wife is 5’5”. My other daughters are 5’5” and 5’9”. My sons are 6’4” and 5’10”.

Haley got off to a slow start. She was born without a palate. She couldn’t suck milk without a palate, so she barely grew at all until her surgery at six months old. She had a palateoplasty, which gave her a palate from her own mouth tissue. Still, she remained on the bottom of the growth chart, often mistaken to be years younger then her actual age. When you’re my age, that’s a compliment, but not to a kid.

Haley desperately wanted to be taller. By the time she got into Jr. High, I began to make it an item of prayer that she would make it to at least five foot tall. Just six months ago she measured 4’10 1/2.” She had plateaued at that level for a year.

But a couple of weeks ago, she seemed taller. I measured her. With joy in our hearts, she measured exactly five foot in bare feet. You see, I had been promising her for years that I would throw her a party if she ever hit five foot tall.

Some prayer requests fit into the category of “the desires of our hearts.”

“Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4). “O Lord, in Your strength the king will be glad, and in Your salvation how greatly he will rejoice! You have given him his hearts desire”. (Psalm 21:1,2).

Do you have some desires that only God can orchestrate and fulfill? Have you made it an object of prayer? There is a prayer in 2 Thessalonians that you can claim by faith.

To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, 2 Thessalonians 1:11.