Earlier in the week my mom had sent her $30 to go get some ingredients for green smoothies. She also suggested that she get in touch with the relief society president to help her get a food order. My sister has extreme anxiety talking with people on the phone or asking for help and she wrestled with the idea for a few days. Realizing that she couldn’t do it alone, she got down on her knees and said to Heavenly Father “When my parents left on their mission, you promised them that their children would see miracles. I really need one of those miracles right now.”
She went to bed and then the next day had this conversation with our mother.
“Hi mom! I wanted to call and apologize, but I also wanted to call and tell you of a miracle that happened.
I know you had sent me money to go buy food for my family, but my garments all had holes in them and I used the money to buy garments instead. I hope you can forgive me.”
I know that I was supposed to call the Relief Society president but getting on the phone was giving me a lot of anxiety and so I didn’t reach out to her. But this morning when I woke up a phone call came through from the RS President and I did not answer the phone . Immediately I heard a voice in my head say “I cannot bless you if you don’t answer your phone.”
So I called the Relief Society president back and the RS president said that she was at a house helping somebody move and they had about 6 or 7 boxes of canned foods that they needed to give away and she wanted to know if I wanted it. I immediately told her “yes please!” She said she would be at our home within the hour. I thought they would be small boxes, but they turned out to be huge apple boxes filled with all sorts of spices, boxed meals, sauces, noodles, and canned foods. We filled our entire pantry which is quite large and then took the remainder(which was 2 overflowing apple boxes)over to our Brother and sister in law next door.”
My sister got her miracle that she prayed for! She shared this with me on a day that I was having a hard time and I was on my way to work and I couldn’t help but bawl with her as we were reminded of how much our Heavenly Father loves us and is very aware of our needs. Since General conference was last week, this experience reminded me of a couple of things.
1. President Nielsen asked us to have more confidence in the Lord. He said “When I speak of having confidence before God, I am referring to having confidence in approaching God right now! I am referring to praying with confidence that Heavenly Father hears us, that He understands our needs better than we do.” I love how my sister had the confidence in the Lord to know that she could pray and ask for what she needed knowing that he is capable of providing miracles. And also just as President Nelson said recently, we need to expect miracles, and she did just that also! I love this great example from her.
2. The other thing that really impressed me about the story is the fact that she chose to buy garments rather than food. This shows her unwavering love and dedication for the covenants that she has made, and that she would rather spend the only $30 she had on garments rather than buying food. What a great example of faith and dedication to the promises that she has committed to.
3. I also love how the Lord meets us where we are at and he knows what our capabilities are and what we can and cannot handle. If it were me, I probably would get the prompting to call somebody and I would not have a problem with calling. But for my sister Heavenly Father knew that that might be too much for her so he had the relief society president reach out to her to still allow her to have her needs met. He’s not going to ask more of us than we can handle. Even if it’s just something as seemingly simple as making a phone call. Heavenly father and Jesus Christ always want what’s best for us, and they are never going to give us more than we can handle. And because they love us so much they know exactly what it is that we can and cannot handle and they won’t punish us for not being enough. Or for not being where we would like to be or being as good at things as we would like to be. They love us, no matter what and they will push us, but not give us more than they know that we are capable of. I’m so grateful for that knowledge!
I’m so grateful for my sister that set such a great example for me this week in turning to the Lord and asking for blessings that were already promised to us. I’m also grateful for her example of trust in the Lord and her ability to expect miracles. I’m also so grateful for her unwavering faith in the Lord even though life is really hard right now. She has talked to me for many many hours these last few weeks as I have been going through a really difficult trial. I’m grateful that she unselfishly listens to me, even though she is going through her own hard stuff. And last but not least, I’m grateful for the blessing that we are able to receive because my parents are serving a mission! Even though they are not close they work to support us and show up when we need them. Our parents are remarkable!!!
I’m also grateful that my mom reminded my sister about the blessing that he had promised us when my parents left. God is good all of the time! He had already given this gift to our family, but I had forgotten about it, and I find it interesting that the Lord and my mom reminded my sister that that was already promised and therefore he was just waiting for her to ask so that she could receive that blessing when she needed it. As Elder Holland says. “We are not alone in our little prisons here. When suffering, we may in fact be nearer to God than we’ve ever been in our entire lives.” And my sister reminded us all of this, this week :)
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