The next year, when I was five, a visiting Sunday school teacher told our class that if we asked God for something and listened carefully, we would hear Him whisper one of three answers: “Yes,” “No,” or “Wait.”
I had already heard God speak to me in full sentences before, in a normal voice, but I decided to try the whisper method she described. When we got home, I told my mother I was going to ask God for a tricycle and listen for His answer.
I closed my eyes, asked silently in my mind, and waited.
A soft whisper came immediately: “Wait.”
When I opened my eyes, my mother asked, “What did God say?”
When I told her, she laughed and said, “Well, I’m glad He said ‘wait,’ because I wasn’t going to run out and buy you a new tricycle if He said yes.”
Early the next morning, the phone rang. I was still asleep as my mother answered it. It was our next‑door neighbor. She said, “Mrs. Strader, you have the cutest little boy. My son is grown now, but I still have his old tricycle in the garage. Would your boy like to have it?”
When I got out of bed and looked down the stairs, there it was—the tricycle God had promised me—waiting for me to climb on and ride.
For me, it was one more gentle reminder that the divine always knows what’s coming, and that answers often arrive before we even know where they’re coming from.