"Faith in God includes Faith in His Timing"- Neal A Maxwell

When we think of the Lords timing there are basically two different reactions that people give. One is a reaction of…well I don't know a word to describe it but it is not an excited feeling! :-) The thought of the Lords timing may imply that trials will last a long time and things will be hard until it is the right time that our burdens be lightened. We are not upset at the Lord, we just know that we will have to endure for a time, and we don’t know how long that time will be. I think we all face these feelings. But its important that through all these thoughts we continue to have Faith! He will take care of us. He loves us. He knows we are here and He really wants what is best for us.

The other reaction and possibly the later reaction, for me sometimes, is absolute amazement and gratitude that God can mesh things together like He does. You start to see the miracles and realize how much our Heavenly Father is aware of YOU. Things start to come together and as you see the Lords hand you just sit back in total admiration and say things like, I never saw that coming, that wasn’t the way I had planned it in my head. But you are so grateful that the Lord has been by your side during these hard times and has blessed you and will continue to bless you as you strive to put your faith in Him. Sure things might not have turned out the way you had planned but as you look back and realize all of the wonderful things you have learned and how much closer you are to our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ, you can’t help but be thankful for their tender mercies and as Garth Brooks sings, unanswered prayers. (I don’t know if this applies to everyone and their trials, but this is something that I have learned and am continuing to learn. If there are other perspectives…please share! :-)

I have been thinking about the Lord’s timing for a couple of months. Well, ok maybe for a couple of years. I have had my wound, aka Bertha, for 4 years now and have often thought about the wonderful things that have happened because of it. I still have my moments where I just want it to all end but then when I look back and see the blessings I get excited to see what is going to happen next. If I didn’t have Bertha I would not have been home with my brothers before Alan left on his mission or be there when he came home. I got to spend a lot of time with Tyler and be his second mother before he left for his mission as well, well I have always been his second mother! Haha I have met friends that have changed my life for the better and I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to know them and have them in my life, and the list can go on and on!

And then there is the surgery. I can’t possibly write here all of the many miracles and blessings dealing with the Lords timing that have happened since I have been here at the hospital and rehabilitation, but I can name a few. Actually some of them are written in previous blogs when I was talking about coming over to this hospital in the first place and the miracle of how that happened. But recently I have learned that in June the nursing staff just hired a new supervisor here in rehab. She said that I came at the right time because it used to be really rough around here. I can’t imagine they were all that way because I have some pretty awesome nurses that have been here for 15 and 20 years. But I guess they are the exception. I also have a great Dr who just started working here a month ago. He used to be at the VA hospital so he knows what he is talking about. He listens to me and he listens to my suggestions. The other rehab Dr is very knowledgeable but my personality fits best with Dr Castillo. I don’t like Dr’s telling me what to do with no explanation or without letting me talk about it with them and come to a compromise sometimes. Had I have come any earlier things might not have turned out as well as they have. I know for a fact that it was meant to be that I am here at this time and in this rehab hospital. And I am so grateful for the tender mercies that the Lord shows me to remind me of this.

Ok and now for the purpose of this post!!...oh but first, I am in a room by myself and have 3 hours of therapy a day. The nurse comes in to give me medicine and unless someone visits I am alone for the other 20 hours or so. I am not complaining at all, just saying that you put a keyboard in front of me and I can go for hours!! Haha

Meshing our lives together with the Lords. When you look at a net there are multiple pieces of rope starting from the top and then just as many or less than that on the side. The two mesh together to form a net. I like to think of the top of the net with the rope going up and down, as the Lord. And we as an individual are the rope that goes sideways. As we mesh our lives with the Lords we form a working net. 

But this requires that we do things in His timing. What happens when we decide that we want something so bad we don’t want to listen to or wait for the Lord? What happens when one side starts taking off and we don’t wait for the top of the mesh to come together? We end up with a hole in our nets. 

What’s the big deal you say? When a fisherman has a hole in his net he misses out on catching all the fish he can and should have since he did all the work to catch them. When we want what we want right then and don’t have faith in His timing, we put holes in our nets and when the blessings come flowing in, some of them will go right through that hole in our net and we will miss out on those blessings that could have been ours had we of listened to the Lord and had faith in his timing. Thankfully we have a loving Father in Heaven that gives us many chances to listen and teaches us line upon line how to have faith in Him. 

I am so grateful that the Lord has helped carry me through the difficult times in my life. Just like in Mosiah when the people of Alma weren't allowed to pray out loud so they prayed in their hearts and the Lord told them that He would ease their burdens that they didn't feel them upon their backs. He did this because of their great faith. I know that just as He did that for the people of Alma He can do that for us if we have Faith in Him. When things get tough and we want to run away from it all, remember what Neal A Maxwell said, "Faith in God includes Faith in His Timing." Things will always work out if we have trust and faith in God. He will always take care of us and bless us with those things that will be best for us. Even if we can't possibly see how that will all work out right now. My hope is that my net is meshed together with the Lords so my life will be lined up with His and no matter what happens I will continue to have the faith that things will work out the way they are supposed to, remembering that the Lords timing is always best.