For today’s blog entry, I wish to share a story that took place two weeks ago. My family and I were preparing to move ten hours away from our current home. We knew this would be quite a feat since we would need to drive in order to get our belongings to our new home. We knew our two cats would be very upset for the trip and that our baby, who hates car rides, would likely be crying for much of the trip.
I had resigned myself to the fate of the trip. I was certain this long drive was going to be a stressful one filled with a crying baby, a frustrated wife, and terrified meowing cats. My wife, on the other hand, showed her faith in her Heavenly Father and decided to pray for help. So, as we knelt in family prayer just before departing on our journey, my wife offered a prayer asking our Heavenly Father to help the cats and the baby remain calm throughout the journey.
My thoughts were not very faithful thoughts. I remember thinking something to the effect of, “That’s not going to happen.” I was still certain we were in for a terrible trip. It wasn’t that I had forgotten the power of God. I certainly knew He could perform such a miracle. The problem was I had forgotten how much He cares about even our smallest concerns.
But our Heavenly Father does care about even our smallest concerns. So it was that He heard my wife’s prayer and responded. The cats were frightened and meowed vigorously for the first hour or so. But they then calmed down and relaxed for the remainder of the journey. Our baby also decided the trip wasn’t a bad one. She spent most of her time happy and playful or sleeping. Close to the end she started getting restless, but this was nothing compared to the amount of fussing I had expected. Indeed my wife’s prayer had been answered according to her desires.
This isn’t the first time, or the last, that Heavenly Father has answered simple pleas for seemingly small matters. I’ve had my seemingly meaningless prayers answered many times. I’ve been able to find my wallet at times only after I pray for guidance to find it. I’ve been guided to places I’m trying to get to after requesting some help from my Heavenly Father. I’ve been able to make it on time to scheduled appointments when I should have been late simply because I’ve asked for the help of my Heavenly Father. And the list goes on endlessly of small matters I’ve received divine help with. And I know the same goes for my wife.
Now the response we get isn’t always the one we desire. There have been times I’ve requested help when it seems I don’t get it. I have a story that illustrates my point. When I was a young boy, I was given a toy truck as a gift. I loved the truck and loved playing with it. I remember it being my prized possession. One day I went to the sandbox to play with it and decided it would be fun to bury it. I did so just in time to be called in for dinner. I thought I could leave it and come back later to dig it up, finishing the imaginary story I had going on in my mind.
But tragedy struck. When I came back to the sandbox, I discovered I couldn’t find my prized truck. I prayed and prayed for guidance, but couldn’t find the toy. I remember looking for that truck many times in that sandbox and never finding it. To my young mind this set of circumstances became a valuable lesson. I learned that temporal possessions are very fleeting. It doesn’t take much time for our prized worldly possessions to disappear. My young mind decided this occasion was given to me by God to teach me that I should cherish the things of God, not man.
You may think that a laughable matter. But I can testify that my Heavenly Father knew this would be what I chose to learn from the circumstances surrounding the loss of my prized truck. He knew this is a valuable lesson that would serve me well throughout my life. And He knew it would be far more valuable to me than finding the truck would be. Oh, sure, I’ve forgotten it at times and had to be reminded. But having learned it so young has made it easier to remember throughout my life. Knowing this would be the case, Heavenly Father acted in my best interest and didn’t help me find my truck.
These kinds of circumstances have happened often in my life, as well. I haven’t always made the best of the times Heavenly Father has chosen not to give me the answer I wanted so I would instead have the opportunities for growth I needed. But even in the times I’ve chosen not to make the best of the situation, the lessons I learn prove invaluable. So sometimes we get the answer we hope for because we don’t have a lesson to learn from not getting this answer. Other times God knows we need to learn something, and our answer isn’t the one we hoped for. But He always hears and gives the right answer.
The lesson is that, no matter how small our concern is, God is listening to our pleas of faith and will respond in whatever manner is best for us. For our own good, we may not receive the answer we desire. But He is listening and responding nonetheless. If we don’t get the answer we want, we can choose to practice more faith and find out why. If we do we will learn valuable lessons that guide us to a better path than what we expected to be on. We will be stronger individuals and find ourselves closer to our Heavenly Father.
So ask for the little things in faith. Then have the faith and humility to accept the answer you receive, whether it’s the one you wanted or not, and learn what you need to learn. And in time you will find yourself far happier than you imagined.
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