Flashback

In October 2007, President Henry B. Eyring gave an address in General Conference titled, "O Remember, Remember". His closing comments were:


"Tonight, and tomorrow night, you might pray and ponder, asking the questions: Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my life or the lives of my children? I will do that. And then I will find a way to preserve that memory for the day that I, and those that I love, will need to remember how much God loves us and how much we need Him."


For a couple of years after President Eyring gave that talk I faithfully, daily, wrote experiences down where I had seen the hand of God in my life. I just took a few minutes every night, and I have several notebooks full of these small miracles--which by themselves seem small and inconsequential, but added together are an incredible testimony of God's love for me.


I just got started doing it again (after 1 1/2 years of not), and so was going through my most recent "miracle journal", and found the following entry (it's much, much longer than my normal entries...):

Monday 16 March 2009

What a fun day! We went out to the farm this morning, went on a hike after a McDonalds lunch, went shopping with Grandma (just me--and we bought things for Brett & Scotty, too), and had FHE with "dirt dessert" for dessert. It's 8:45pm and I still hear the pitter patter of little feet sneaking back and forth. They are so sure they are so sneaky!

Mom just kindly reminded me how exciting it is to be in a new place and how hard it is to settle down. That's right--I remember visiting Grandma & pa in their house on Kings and having such a hard time going to sleep. So I am ignoring the excited whisperings and visits back & forth. It's not every day we get to visit Grammy's house! And half the fun is not getting caught!

Elise and Mason were playing outside at the farm today, and when they came inside Elise asked if she could talk to me alone. We went into the sewing room and I closed the door and sat down on the futon. Elise came and stood by me and started sobbing. She explained what had happened: She and Mason were playing on the teeter-totter. Mason was getting off and she was trying to get on and the seat split in two.

She was sure that she had broken something special and would be in big trouble. I hugged her and held her and told her the story of when I was about her age and broke one of Grandpa's wine glasses. I was certain that it was an expensive special glass, and I was heart broken.

Dad came and talked with me and when he left, Grandpa came in. He sat next to me and put his arm around me and told me that he could get any old wine glass for a nickel, and the one I broke wasn't anything to him. Then he said, "Gosh, you even made your old grandpa cry!" And he wiped away a tear. I don't think I ever loved any one so much as I loved my grandpa then. And I knew he loved me, and I was more important than any old wine glass!

Back to today...I asked Elise if she would like me to send Mormor in, and after a few minutes she said yes.

She and Grandma were in the room for about 10 minutes. When they came out, Elise was beaming and very happy. I had a chance to talk to her a few minutes later and she told me what Grandma told her--that there was nothing in her house more important that a granddaughter. And, Mormor told Elise of a time that she broke a lamp and felt so bad about it.

Elise's comment was, "When I'm older and have a daughter or granddaughter and they break something I'll have a story to tell them! Just like you and Mormor!"

I talked with Grandma some while shopping and told her Elise's response. She told me about how when she was a little girl they had an old coal-burning lamp, and about 10 years after they got electricity (they no longer used the lamp), she knocked it off a shelf and broke the glass lampshade. She felt so terrible that she climbed onto a pile of blankets and hid there all day. Finally her mom found her--and the lamp--and said, "This has got to stop. Is this all you are worried about? I've been meaning to get rid of this for years!"

She had a story that Elise needed to hear, and she knew Elise's distress was real, and was willing to take time to help her.