My Faith Brings About Peace

There was a time when I heard a young man as he spoke of his experience as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He spoke of the kind of young man he was throughout high school. He said that at that time his faith was a part of his life. After serving a mission, he learned that his faith was his life. My faith is my life and the peace that I receive from the knowledge that I have is remarkable, even life-changing. I am so grateful for all that I have in my life!

I Prayed

Today, we spent a day as a family.  It was a nice day.  We saw some scenery of the beautiful state of Utah.
As we began our day, our youngest, Danny, complained of his teeth aching.  Shortly thereafter, he complained that his eyes hurt.  Becky told him that he needed to just close his eyes and give them a rest. 
We went about our day and enjoyed it together.
Tonight, as we were traveling home, Danny said, "Mom, do you know why my teeth and eyes don't hurt anymore?"  Becky asked him why.  He adamantly responded with.  "I prayed."
Becky and I wonder all the time how two people can be as blessed as we are.  Heaven smiles on our lives with mass amounts of generosity.
I love life!  Heavenly Father loves us immensely!  We love Him, too.  It's been a wonderful day.

I Can Hear You Now

I attended a stake Youth Conference one year, and a part of that involved a service project. We helped to clean up the church buildings that resided in our stake boundaries. The Youth Conference was a two day event and the Saturday night portion was a youth testimony meeting where we could share our feelings about the events that we were a part.

The meeting was to be held out back of the large piece of property, behind the stake center. A man who was a member of the stake high council assigned to help with the youth brought a portable microphone/amplifier combination to help so that the speaker could be heard. I still remember the first girl standing in front of all of her peers to share her feelings of youth conference. The sound was great. About a minute into her speaking, the microphone went silent and the young girl could no longer be heard clearly. The man stood up and attempted to wriggle the cords to try to get the setup to work. To no availe. He grabbed the amplifier and walked out into the long grass until he disappeared from sight. I thought that he was walking back to the church to change out for another one. The meeting continued and those who stood to speak were asked to speak loudly so that everybody would be able to hear what they were saying. The man was gone for about ten minutes.

My dad was serving as a counselor to the stake president, at this time. I arrived home that evening after a very nice evening. He asked me how the night had gone. I told him about how spiritual and uplifting the testimony meeting was. I also told him about the microphone problems that we had encountered.

The man came back a short time later and plugged the microphone into the amplifier and it worked perfectly throughout the entire meeting. It was nice to be able to hear each of the kids as they shared personal feelings about youth conference.

A couple of days later, my dad arrived home, one evening, following a church meeting he had attended. He asked me if he could speak with me, in private. He began to share with me an experience I will never forget. The high councilor had told my dad that he had enjoyed a spiritual experience at youth conference. He talked about the trouble he had experienced with the microphone and amp. He then said that he wanted so badly for the youth of our stake to have an enjoyable experience. He had grabbed the amplifier and walked out into the tall grass, where he could be alone. He placed his hands on top of the amplifier and pleaded with God to allow it to work during the testimony meeting. He ended his prayer and excercised faith that God would hear and answer his prayer. As soon as he plugged the microphone in and it worked, he knew that God had indeed heard and answered his prayer.

I am trying to live my life so that I know that when I pray, I will be heard. He does hear and answer our prayers. Of these things, I have no doubt.

Faith In Every Footstep

There is always a lesson to be learned and today was no different.  Let me share an experience that touched my heart.
Our oldest daughter, Natalie, spent some time up in the night ill.  Becky and I didn't hear her at all in the downstairs bathroom.
Becky and I had no idea that she had been up until she told us this morning.  She questioned whether to stay home from school.  There really wasn't that option, today.  She asked my opinion and I thought back on the many times in my life, for many different reasons, I have gotten little sleep.  I told her that she needed to go to school and that I would give her a blessing of strength and that she needed to exercise faith that she would have the strength that she needed to make it through the day. 
I wondered how her day had gone.  When I got home from work, I asked her how her day had gone.  She smiled and told me that it had gone well.  She expressed her gratitude to Becky and I for teaching her about faith.  She was thankful that she had learned a valuable lesson today on faith. 
I love when a lesson is learned.  It's been another great day of learning.