Answered Prayers - and What to do Next

Mom and and I have prayed more intensely, frequently, and specifically for our children and their families in the last 18 months than perhaps during any previous period of time. Each of you has carried (or so it seems to us) an unusually heavy load duirng these months. For some of you your load has been huge, and we all know of it, and pray for you. For others, perhaps by comparison, you feel that I can't be referring to you. But these are difficult times for all, and you all have faced in one way or another greater challenges than you have before.

Our prayers have been three-fold (if I am to speak only generally):
1) That Heavenly Father would be mindful of you, and draw close to you, and where appropriate in His wisdom, open doors for you where the way has seemed blocked.
2) That you would recognize His hand in your lives when He answers our (and your) prayers, and acknowledge your gratitude to and your dependence upon Him.
3) That you would use wisely and faithfully whatever He sends to or opens for you.

This blog is to testify that we know that our prayers have been answered! (No surprise, because He loves and knows you more deeply and personally than we are capable of as mortals.) Some of the answers have (to us) seemed quick, and yet so small that they might not be recognized immediately by you. Other answers have seemed to come much more slowly (in our time, at least - likely not in His), and appear to us quite recognizable.

We have poured out our thanksgiving to the Lord, but cannot do much about parts 2 and 3 of our prayers on your behalf. That is up to you. Our 2nd purpose for this blog is to extend an invitation to each of you. We invite you to:

1) Come together as a family and make a written list of evidence that God has helped your family over the last many months. Consider it as a husband and wife; invite your children to join with you. Be as specific as possible in your list, and do your best to recognize even the smallest gift of help from Him.

2) Consider how well you have responded to and used the gift He gave. With the smallest, perhaps just acknowledging to Him that you know, and that you thank Him will be acceptable to Him. Larger gifts may require an evaluation of the acutal use of the gift: how have things changed in your lives that would reflect having received the gift, and somehow moved forward as a family and/or as individuals. Where you find that the gift has NOT been properly acknowledged and/or used, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT NOW.

3) Keep an organized watch for the hand of God in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Make it a recurring family tradition to "Take Time to Find Heavenly Father in Our Family".

4) In all of this, include the study of some specific scriptures. Among others consider:
D & C 59:21; Mosiah 2:20-25; Mosiah 4:16-24

We love you so deeply. We continue to try hard to offer love, appropriate support of all kinds, and occasional counsel which you are always free to ignore, and no feelings hurt nor love lost. We continue to pray for you - and to thank God that our quiver has been so richly filled with such giant sons and daughters of God! (Psalm 127:3-5)

Seeing Life with Renewed Hope

Walking With Two Sisters

A poem by Larry Hiller, Ensign June 2009 p 9

Faith walks before me,

Holding up her lamp

As I try not to stumble in the ink-dark

hours before the dawn.

Her light illuminates

One step and then another.

Beside me, Hope, arm linked

with mine, encourages and steadies.

Sometimes in the tedium,

Distracted by the pain,

My mind begins to wander, then

my feet. I hesitate.

Unsure, I look to Hope.

Her hand takes mine.

The touch reminds me of another

hand held out to me,

One pierced and scarred

Yet oh so tender

Lifting me and blessing me when

I had fallen and despaired.

Remembering,

I move ahead

Buoyed up by Hope, who sees

the end with perfect clarity.

Helaman 5:12

12. And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Two Powers in Force on the Earth - Not One

Mom and I spend a lot of time not listening to or reading the news these days. We try not to slip into total ignorance of what is going on locally and internationally, but frankly there is very little in the news that lifts and gives hope.

Satan swore to God that he would "reign with blood and horror on the earth." The terrible impact of his promise fulfilled has perhaps never been more evident than it is in our day. And the truth is that even our own family news is not all that good right now. If we were to publish our own family newspaper, the headlines could easily create feelings of hopelessness, and cause us to ask the same question asked by Joseph Smith 170 years ago: "O, God, where art thou?" (D&C 121:1)

The answer to that question is, of course, "I'm right here, next to you." Of this truth we cannot lose sight, for therein is our only true hope. To help us refocus on this hope, I offer the following from Moses 7:61-62, and from D&C 84:88. (Italics are mine)

Moses 7:61-62

61. And the day shall come that the earth shall rest, but before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth; and the heavens shall shake, and also the earth (and also our family); and great tribulations shall be among the children of men (our family)...

This is a summary of the power that Satan has over the earth and its inhabitants in the last days. If we were to stop our reading here, we would indeed have cause to despair. But The Savior had more to teach Enoch, and He continued:

61. ...but my people will I preserve.

62. And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth....and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood..."

In other words, while the world's news-delivery system finds it nearly impossible to give any focus to what is happening under the Savior's power, He is not just sitting by and letting Satan have his way. Christ is sending forth a flood of righteousness and of His Holy Power to counter Satan and to "preserve" His own people.

The following is at least one way through which God watches over us.

D&C 84:88

88. ...I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left,and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.

We have spoken before about ministering angels. It is not a stretch to my faith or hope - or even my imagination - to think about your mother's parents, and mine, and Stuart who at least have a right to be ministering angels for us if God should choose to allow them to serve - and according to my understanding He would most likely send them before sending angels unassociated with our family.

Find and Focus On God's Presence in our Daily Lives

We must let our eyes and hearts look for, find, and then focus upon, the times in our lives when God's presence and love and care for us are manifest plainly. And as we do so, we will realize that today, and yesterday, and the day before He was present, making manifest His will and His power on our behalf.

This is a perfect time to make certain that not every prayer we offer is a prayer of pleading, and of our list of needs. Let there be frequent prayers interspersed wherein we simply say: "Thank you, Heavenly Father." And then share with Him the events small and large where you have seen His workings on your behalf. If you ever kneel to pray and cannot share with Him even one such moment of having seen and felt His love and power, call me immediately, please, for we need to talk!

We love you immensely, and draw strength, faith and hope from your strength, faith, and hope. I invite you to refresh your "God's-Hands-in-My-Life" journal by at least making a list of the miracles large or small (mostly small, I suspect) which are occuring in your lives. Find a way to share them with us. One possibility is to post them to my blog as a response, or to post to our family website.

Press forward in Faith

In Times of Stress

Alma 26:6-8

6. Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place (their family), that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them. (Italicized words are my own addition)

7. But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest; and they are his; and he will raise them up at the last day.

8. Blessed be the name of our God; let us sing to his praise, yea, let us give thanks to his holy name, for he doth work righteousness forever.

Moroni 7:33

33. And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.

Elder Rafael E. Pino (Apr GC Saturday afternoon ), "Faith in Adversity"

[Quoting Pres. Howard W. Hunter] "If our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right."

[Elder Pino quoted 3 Nephi 14:24-27 about the houses built on 2 different foundations, then made the following observation:]

It is interesting to notice that the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew against both houses! Living the gospel does not mean that we will everlastingly escape adversity. Rather, it means that we will be prepared to face and endure adversity more confidently.

Some observations of my own

There are (and will be more) times for all of us when life fills with serious stress; when there are seemingly more things happening to us beyond our control than under our control. Though we know better, we have the tendency to focus all of our thoughts and energies on battling against the causes of our stress. In doing so we give less time and energy to the very things that will be our greatest strength in overcoming our trials:

• We seem to have less time and energy to spend meaningful and adequate time conversing with and seeking counsel from our Father in Heaven - we pray less, we spend less time in the scriptures, and we can't seem to get to the temple as often as we feel we should
• We may also spend less time with our families doing fun and uplifting things.

The first thing we should do when life is too heavy and frightening is to increase all of the above - literally

• Spend more time in the scriptures and in prayer
• Go to the temple more freuently than you have been
• Fast more often
• Serve more people
• Draw the family together - if only briefly - more often.

From this base of renewed strength and hope, then fight the battles, make the hard decisions that have to be made. In the strength of Jesus Christ you will succeed, for all things are under his control!

D&C 88:63

63. Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.