and I will be the first to admit that I've left the house before looking like a mess but the point is that I just feel better when my nails are done. Also, (haha I feel so silly saying this) the color really matters. Sometimes if the color is just right then the rest of the day can be just a little more perfect. So anyways back to the story. I decided after seeing her nails that the color would be perfect for the next week. The only problem was that I didn't have any teal nail polish at home. I had pink,green, purple, blue, yellow, chartreuse, beige, magenta, and any other color but no teal. So on tuesday I was at the store with mama and I asked if I could get some teal nail polish. She said no because honestly there's probably a lot of better things you could spend $3 on. But me being 17 year old Matisse so much younger... (haha not really I'd probably do the exact same thing today) decided that I had had to have it. So after getting the no I decided to ask my papa. No, not my dad but my papa God. I thought well, God you say that you'll take care of your children and give us the desires of our hearts and that you feed the sparrows so I know that I don't need this teal nail polish but papa I really really would love if I could somehow get some soon. And then went on with my day. Forward to the next night, wednesday night, I go to Acteens. Basically it's this girls group from 7th-12th grade and we meet once a week at church and talk about missions and our week and encourage each other and have lessons and snacks and do some mission trips. It's really awesome. So I walk into the class room that night and sit down ready for a lesson or speaker or craft when one of our teachers walks in and says something like "Okay girls, I know we've never done this before but tonight instead of lessons we're going to paint nails." And of course I was half freaking out and half thinking of course papa:) you are so good and always follow through. And then she pulled out a giant bag of all pink nail polish. But I really believe that God cares about even the tiniest details down to the color. So I just sat there and waited and then about 5 minutes later her daughter came into the room late because she had forgotten a bag in the car and then she pulled out a big bag with all different colors. Inside the bag was not just one bottle of teal nail polish but 
five bottles of different shades of teal. God is so good!! I of course got super excited and cried and was overwhelmed with how awesome my papa was for listening to such a simple and kinda silly prayer and told everyone in the room what happened. Then the next day my teacher shared with the people at her work what happened with my prayer for nail polish and then one of the women she worked with showed up a few days later with a lovely present bag full of all this new nail polish and polish remover and cotton balls she had gotten for me because she'd been touched by the story. So my teacher gave me the sweet gift and I was really kind of in shock because it had started out so little then it had gotten all the way to that kind woman. I already had most of the colors so I saved the nail polish and took it with me on my mission trip to Guatemala in June 2013. While I was there we visited a mountain village where we helped with a local program that fed children twice a week. The children lined up outside to be served 
and while they waited I painted the girls nails with the nail polish the woman gave me. Most of them had never had their nails painted and they were beyond excited. Their little faces would light up when I finished and told them how pretty they looked and how beautiful they were. They walked around skipping and showing each other and getting back in line to have their nails painted again. I absolutely loved every second of it. I also got to paint more nails after dinner when they came out from eating
and while I was painting my heart was breaking because some of the leaders at the meal program told us that most of these children didn't have anyone at home hugging them or loving on them or telling them they were beautiful. They were lucky enough if they got a meal that day and their parents were either absent physically or mentally because they were exhausted from working too much to make enough for meals and schooling. I was just talking to God and asking why papa why are all these beautiful children going without these basic needs isn't there something I could do. And He said that even though it wasn't much when I sat down and took the time to paint their nails they felt seen. They maybe for the first time in a while had someone give them undivided attention, someone looking into their eyes and braiding their hair and holding them close. And for now that's enough. Because just like in the starfish story you can't save every starfish, but for the one that you pick up and throw into the ocean you made a difference. So there's my story about how incredibly good God is. He's so good. He answers the smallest prayers not always how we expect, sometimes in a completely different way or like in the nail polish story where He answered it and used it in ways much larger than I expected.
Know that when you pray He will listen.
love love love you guys
Matisse
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