Love, Prayer, and the Law of Attraction

I just finished reading the inspiring and fascinating Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by survivor, Immaculee Ilibagiza , in which she describes how she hid from armies of mass murderers in a 3'x4' bathroom with seven other women for 91 days.

While Immaculee's parents, two of her brothers (a third had moved out of Rwanda), and most of her friends met brutal deaths, she escaped. She credits one thing--and one thing only--for the fact that she lives and breathes today:

Prayer.

After she finally made it to safety and began a job with the UN, she says she sought to find love.

"As my heart slowly recovered," she writes, "I began to dream of sharing my life with someone special, of having a family of my own to care for and love. But I was nervous...I remembered my experience with John [a former boyfriend] and was unwilling to subject my fragile heart to a relationship that could go nowhere and end painfully. So, as I'd learned to do whenever faced with a problem or challenge, I called on God. If I wanted a marriage made in heaven, what better matchmaker could there be?

The Bible tells us that if we ask, we shall receive, and that's exactly what I did: I asked God to bring me the man of my dreams. I didn't want to cheat myself--I wanted to be very clear on the kind of person God should send me. So I sat down with a piece of paper and sketched the face of the person I wanted to marry, and then I listed his height and other physical features. I asked for a man of strong character, one who had a warm personality; who was kind, loving, and tender; had a sense of humor and strong morals; who loved me for who I was; who enjoyed children as much as I did; and, above all, loved God."

Some lines later, she continues:

"Once I was clear on exactly what I wanted, I began to visualize it, believing in my heart that it had already come to pass. I'd put it all in God's hands and knew that it was only a matter of time before He would bless me with my wish. But to hurry things along, I took out my father's red and white rosary and began praying for my husband to show up. Three months later, he did: Mr. Bryan Black, who was sent by God, courtesy of the UN, all the way from America!"

Today, Immaculee Ilibagiza and Bryan Black are happily married, the parents of two children, and live on Long Island.