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Prompted
I am grateful for a teacher who encouraged his students to keep a journal of the whisperings or promptings of the Spirit in their lives. He directed us to note what we felt and what resulted. Little things became evident. One day I was frantically trying to complete some assignments and prepare for a trip. I had just been down to the laundry area of the dorm to move my clothes from the washer to the dryer. Unfortunately, all the dryers were in use, and they all had many minutes to go. I went back upstairs discouraged, knowing by the…
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The Blessing of a Home Teacher
My father was a hardworking man with a desire to have his own business, a business he conducted with his own truck. Our living conditions may not have been the best when I was a boy, but he took good care of us. I suppose it may have been because he took his responsibilities so seriously that he worried so much. Eventually he developed a bleeding stomach ulcer that put him in the hospital. Medical knowledge and approaches were very different then, and because the doctor felt that stress was a factor in my father’s condition my mother was counseled…
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Again
Well friends, I’ve done it again. Just when I think I have victory over a challenge in my life, It’s ugly head creeps up, again. I’m not perfect. I know that part already. I also know this life isn’t about finding perfection. It’s about placing value in God rather than the things of this world. It’s finding more room in your heart for God than the game you are playing on your phone for hours, scrolling on social media way too long, or any addiction that takes our focus away from Him. The solution to any problem sounds so simple.…
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I Found Myself Singing
Often the Lord sends us special blessings through the love and support of other people. One night, when the responsibility of everyday tasks seemed overwhelming, I knelt and tearfully pleaded with the Lord for perspective and help. A few minutes later, a friend of mine telephoned. She had been wrestling with a personal problem and was also discouraged. Though neither one of us came up with a satisfactory solution to the other’s problems, we enjoyed our brief chat. A half hour later, I found myself singing. Surprised, I realized that my burden had been lifted. My friend later told me…
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Wings of Faith
I wanted to make my son’s Christmas wish come true and see in his face the joy I desperately wanted for myself. My three-year-old squeaks with excitement. His response is an innocent reply to my offhanded question, “What do you want for Christmas?” I mutter a hesitant “We’ll see” before putting him to bed, relishing the rare moments I get to spend with him. I’ve been too out of sorts to be present most of the time. The unceasing screams of his sister, suffering from colic, keep pulling me into the black hole of postpartum depression. I feel like a…
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Mom’s Empty Chair
My husband and I lived in the same ward as my angel mother. Each Sunday, as a member of the Relief Society presidency, I sat at the front of the Relief Society room, facing the sisters. My mother always sat in the same place on the front row. I enjoyed watching her responses to the lessons and hearing her comments. After each meeting, she kissed my cheek and squeezed my hand. My mother and I were close, so it broke my heart when she passed away unexpectedly. After her funeral, my emotions remained tender. When Sunday arrived, my husband asked…
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Stuck
One winter while I was driving home from a wedding reception for several hours in the middle of the night, the snowy weather became frighteningly intense. I was driving through a canyon, with 30 icy miles (48 km) stretched between me and my home. Almost instantly, it seemed, the road got slicker, the night sky darker, my eyes heavier, and the falling snow much thicker. Having foolishly forgotten to put my mother’s sport-utility vehicle into four-wheel drive, I realized there was little traction, but that thought arrived too late. I completely lost all control of the vehicle and began sliding across…
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Sister, I Love You
During an interview while I served in an elders quorum presidency, I asked a fellow quorum member if he had ever felt and acted on a spiritual prompting. He thought for a moment and shared an experience. One afternoon he was washing dishes when he received a strong impression to go knock on a neighbor’s door. He did not understand why, but the prompting was powerful and urgent. He stopped what he was doing and left right away. He arrived at his neighbor’s door, not knowing what to do or say, and knocked. No one answered. He knocked again. There…
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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,…
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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…
