Hope letters
Finding hope through noticing God's fingerprints in our lives.
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Small Blessings
I have the most beautiful tender mercy I thought I’d share with you, prefaced with a little background. When I go to church every week, I always just slip in the back usually because I’m either right on time, or slightly late and can avoid any kind of disruption of the worship walking in front of people, having people scoot over, etc. In the back of the church, the chairs are hard, with the softer benches at the front of the chapel. They are uncomfortable! There have been more than a few times I’ve complained to my friend how hard…
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The Gift
Miracles big and small all come from the same place. The difference is that we often claim the small ones as lucky, something that just aligned in our lives for no reason. We celebrated the gift giving part of Christmas late, since some of us were sick the day of actual Christmas. There was one son I hadn’t purchased a gift for. I had really pondered what I should give him. He has a partner now and so it was even more challenging choosing what to get them both that would be thoughtful. Finally, after much thought, I decided to…
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STOP
Late one afternoon, we were heading home from a hunting excursion our family took every year. I grew up in this small town, and as you drove down the street, there was a railroad track with a stop sign. The tracks were rarely used, and as a kid I would just barrel through the stop sign, no need to look. This afternoon, going down this same street, fast approaching were the tracks and the stop sign. I had many of my children with me, chattering about the weekend, all of us looking forward to going home. As I approached the…
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Dear God
I wanted to share a story of lightness and humor. This morning, God told me a joke which I have never experienced before. I was meditating and praying in my bed and thinking fondly of all that God provides for me. I asked God to send me an image of how He views our relationship. Almost instantly in my mind, I received a picture of a child in a harness, running ahead of a parent who was holding onto the leash. It made me laugh out loud immediately. I could feel God smiling with me. Then I got a second…
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Hope Through the Pandemic
Today I learned that chocolate prices are going up in January 35%. As always, my first thought is how are we going to survive another chocolate price hike? I then remember that the Lord knows me and anyone involved with our little shop and that regardless of what happens, everything will be ok. You see, four years ago when Covid 19 became a pandemic, we were getting ready for our biggest convention of the year in Seattle. ECCC. We were waiting to see if they were still going to do the convention, after finding out that Seattle was ground zero…
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Have hope
Recently my daughter and her husband were struggling to maintain their marriage. Things had been especially bad for the last 10 days and I was feeling bleak, worrying about my grandchildren and my daughter. One very bad night, I went to bed but was unable to sleep because I was so worried. I tossed and turned. “What was going to happen? How would the children respond? How would they live?” Dark scenarios and accusatory speeches rushed through my mind. I prayed fitfully, hoping to sleep, but not able to turn my mind off. After 2-3 hours of this, I once…
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Trying to be like Jesus
This is a story about my spiritual and mental journey. I love the scripture that says, “47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. 48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ…” Moroni 7:48 I’ve done that throughout my life to different degrees, but about 6 months ago,…
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Saved by a Voice
Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting and share the story of a near death experience that I endured about 6 months ago. To paraphrase, I was running down the highway through American Fork Canyon, blasting music at an unholy volume, and I felt a prompting to remove one of my earbuds. Because of this, I was able to hear a car that was approaching from behind and be able to move off the highway accordingly, but since I was running in the oncoming lane, I wasn’t in too much danger of being struck…
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When Your Problem Turns Out to Bless You
I have been working with realtors and lenders to purchase a property in Virginia for my Mom’s trust that my brother found and that he is going to manage. The lending process feels especially long because we are forced to find something due to an eminent domain. We were looking at other properties that didn’t pan out before this one, so we’ve been working with Stephanie at Fidelity Mortgage for 8 months. Finally we got a property under contract and our loan was almost fully approved except we needed a letter from Mom’s CPA stating that our “use of business…
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Prayer From a Distance
During World War II, Elder Graham W. Doxey was in the navy posted to China. He and several others went by train to the city of Tientsin to look around. Later they boarded a train to return to their base, but after more than an hour, the train turned north. They were on the wrong train! They spoke no Chinese. They pulled the emergency cord and stopped the train. They were put off somewhere in the countryside with nothing to do but walk back to the city. After walking for some time, they found a small pump-handle car, the kind…
