Hope letters
Finding hope through noticing God's fingerprints in our lives.
-
Letting Go
The other day, I felt prompted to write a very difficult story down in which I lost $21,000 dollars. This was a hard experience to go through losing that money I didn’t have, and the lesson was just as hard, that money really doesn’t matter to God, it shouldn’t matter so much to me. He asked me to let go, and I, after quite a while, conceded. Not initially because I felt I was really ready to let go of that money, but I needed God back in my life. That was the more important thing. Through time, I was…
-
Healing the Issue of Blood
With Easter a few weeks past (but still on my mind) I’m remembering the Miracles that Jesus performed here while He was on this earth. Each miracle had a purpose in healing, but, with all of His parables lies additional truth for us to find. In this story, this woman made great efforts to get close to the Savior for this healing. She didn’t just hope for healing, she sought Him out. We don’t really know her name, but Jesus knew her, calling her “Daughter.” Many times we feel forgotten, unknown, unloved or broken. Friends. He knows your name. It…
-
A Miracle Through My Struggles
On January 7, 2023, I woke up to complete blindness in my right eye and only about 10 percent vision in my left eye. The world had suddenly faded to gray—literally. Color and light were gone. I was left in darkness, fear, and doubt. As an artist, all I ever wanted to do was add to the beauty of the world through art—a passion I have had nearly my entire life. What would I do if I could no longer see, participate in, or appreciate beauty in the world? A few days earlier, my eyes became sensitive to light, and sharp…
-
It’s not much of a story, or a miracle. Still, It’s a hammer stroke that helped forge my testimony in God. I think I was 10, and I was playing a Sherlock Holmes computer game. It was one of those old games where you clicked on the screen, and if it was there was a clue there, it would light up. I had been looking for clues to get through a locked door for what felt like hours (it was probably only a few minutes). It felt impossible, and I was ready to give up. I remember saying a prayer,…
-
A Prayer of a Child
Some years ago, some close friends of ours loaned us their cabin in Island Park, Idaho. When we arrived at the cabin, we found that the key that we had been given to unlock the front door didn’t work. We tried to undo windows and pry open screens, all to no avail. Suddenly our son Steven, who was about seven years old at the time, shouted to us that he had just successfully opened the front door. Steven, with a big grin on his face, was standing triumphantly inside the front doorway. I was amazed. I asked him how he…
-
Abide In Faith
While serving in Guatemala as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Randall Ellsworth survived a devastating earthquake, which hurled a beam down on his back, paralyzing his legs and severely damaging his kidneys. He was the only American injured in the quake, which claimed the lives of some eighteen thousand persons. After receiving emergency medical treatment, Elder Ellsworth was flown to a large hospital near his home in Rockville, Maryland. While he was confined there, a newscaster conducted with him an interview that I witnessed through the miracle of television. The reporter asked, “Can you…
-
That Darn Cold
Two weeks ago, my husband got sick with a nasty cold. It was not just sniffles. It was full blown fever, chills, heaviness in his chest. He thought he could die. It was that bad. Hey. It happens. We all get sick sometimes. The problem was timing. We had a daughter getting married and it was important that he could show up and support her. As this cold dragged on, the realization that being there was becoming bleak. With the wedding in two days, we were still waiting for the fever to break, a sign that he was getting better.…
-
Miracles Through Death
One of the hardest things to go through in this life is losing someone. Especially a child. Our oldest got invited to a sleepover birthday celebration for one of his friends. That night, as most boys do, they stayed up playing games and eating junk food. Early in the morning they decided to go swimming in a reservoir close to his friend’s home. Having been up all night, they made it out about 100 feet and then realized they were exhausted and decided to swim back. All of the boys made it back except one. My son. As they looked…
-
Help Through Prayer
When I was a young resident physician at Boston Children’s Hospital, I worked long hours and traveled between the hospital and our home in Watertown, Massachusetts, mostly by bicycle since my wife and young family needed our car. One evening I was riding home after a long period in the hospital, feeling tired and hungry and at least a bit discouraged. I knew I needed to give my wife and four small children not only my time and energy when I got home but also a cheery attitude. I was, frankly, finding it hard to just keep pedaling. My route…
-
A Blessing in Retrospect
A few years ago, my dad’s appendix burst, which was a tender mercy. Most people wouldn’t say that getting appendicitis and having emergency surgery is a miracle, but it was for my dad. When the doctor removed my dad’s appendix, he found cancer in it. Luckily, after some testing, doctors found the cancer hadn’t spread. With his appendix removed, he was cancer free. When we had time to process this situation, my family felt grateful that my dad’s appendix had burst. The cancer in his appendix was subtle, and without the emergency surgery, it’s likely it wouldn’t have been noticed…
