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God’s Orchestration
For several years, I have longed to reconnect with my grandparents’ family. I felt that I could feel their longing for their family to care for each other. Beaver, Utah was their family home site. Even though my grandparents’ home was demolished, the town still holds lots of sweet summer memories that make it a special place on the map. Recently however, it had become more meaningful to me. I had reconnected with a first cousin there whom I had never known well. When her parents died many years earlier, she had fallen out of the family focus. It had been years since I’d seen her, and had begun catching…
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In The Details
I am really lucky to be able to walk to work. My shop is only a block and a half away from where I live which is a blessing all by itself. Most of the time I walk to work but on shipping days I drive my Ford to take packages to the post office. This Monday, I loaded up the Ford and drove the boxes to the post office in the back where we can drop off multiple packages. Usually I can park my running truck by the bins but this day I parked in a stall. I finished unpacking the back and jumped in to start the truck. …
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Listen
On Mother’s Day one year my husband unburdened me with my daily tasks and gave me time to do some family history research. I was really making some progress on my family history that I decided to work on it the next day while my boys were playing in their room. As I was working on it the thought came to me to get the boys some lunch. I looked at the time and it was only after 11 and thought it was too early to feed them lunch. I dismissed the thought and I started on my research. Not 5 minutes later one of my sons came to me…
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The small ask
I admit, sometimes I feel this cloud of discouragement just over my head, threatening to pour down rain on me. I know how real depression is and sometimes it’s a daily battle. This one particular morning, I was heading to the Temple to worship. The cloud over my head this morning was heavy. I needed to know my Heavenly Father loved me so I asked Him for a tender mercy. Maybe an “I love you” just from God. I said Heavenly Father, can you make sure there is a parking spot in the second row? I had enough faith for this simple ask, and so I drove down the second…
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The Train Ride
Sometimes it’s the little tender mercies that remind us that God is in the details. Earlier this year, our son got a mission call and was able to go to the MTC, prior to flying out to his mission which was out of state. We were excited for him to go, but it was a little hard knowing we wouldn’t see him for two years. My husband works in Salt lake and regularly takes the train rather than driving in traffic. This particular day, my husband ended up taking a train to work that was a little later than usual. When he stepped onto the train, he noticed missionaries on…
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See The End From The Beginning
Allow me to share with you an experience from my own boyhood. When I was 11 years old, my family had to leave East Germany and begin a new life in West Germany overnight. Until my father could get back into his original profession as a government employee, my parents operated a small laundry business in our little town. I became the laundry delivery boy. To be able to do that effectively, I needed a bicycle to pull the heavy laundry cart. I had always dreamed of owning a nice, sleek, shiny, sporty red bicycle. But there had never been enough money to fulfill this dream. What I got instead was…
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Don’t Give Up
There are times I wonder where the miracles in my life are when I’m literally seeing the miracles in others lives. I have to admit, sometimes I feel forgotten. Then, as I focus on this thought, I start doubting lots of things, like am I loved? Why has He turned His back on me? This self defeating behavior could go deeper to I’m not worthy. This is a hard place to be. We, as children of a loving God, are never forgotten. We’re in the middle of our trial and that is what we see, feel, hear. The trial is bigger than life. It’s like Peter, walking on the…
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A Prayer of Protection
Our family was headed to spend the weekend with my parents who were living in Providence Utah with us living in West Jordan at the time. Before we would leave to go on a trip we would make it a point of praying and asking for safety and protection while doing so. This has proved to be a blessing many times over and I’m very thankful that we have always made a point to do so. On this occasion we had made it to Brigham City and stopped at the stop light before starting up the hill that would take us into Sardine canyon. After the light turned green we…
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The Dream
My dad was a brilliant accountant. He had retired from the family company and decided to pick up a few accounts to do on the side, never really wanting to retire fully. Sometimes, being the teacher he was, he would ask me to come help him balance out his accounts, teaching me little by little his business. At the time, I had a full time job. I never planned on doing accounting for a living so working with my dad was good because I got to spend time with him. The beginning of the new year, my dad found out he had cancer, and it was terminal. I felt confident…
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The Unexpected Post-Pornography Blessing
Earlier this month, I shared my testimony about pornography at the pulpit. I felt hesitant because it involved my 20-something son. I had recently had a conversation with him, wherein he said, “I’m thankful for my pornography problem, because I came to Jesus through fighting it. I don’t think I would have built a relationship with Him otherwise.” This was inspiring to me because his mission was really hard for him and he didn’t love it (although now he is starting to realize what it did for him). But he clearly recognizes the fruits of his pornography battle. As I shared his insights, I was nervous. (I told the audience…
