I love the MANY opportunities we are given to see our Heavenly Father's hand in our lives. The other night, in the middle of the night, the power went out. This always wakes me up because our Carbon Monoxide detector likes to squeal with every power change it experiences. Anyhow, the house was DARK. And due to the antics of our wonderful 3 year old, I can never keep track of flashlights (I am buying one today and keeping it under my bed, where no one knows, from now on). So I just lay in my bed that night wondering how I was going to take care of my baby when he woke up and needed to eat. We sleep in the basement and, really, it is pitch black in the middle of the night. I was really stressed about the situation and found that I was getting worked up and unable to sleep. I let myself do that for a while before I finally humbled myself and turned to my Father in Heaven. I explained how stressful this was to me and that I needed to be able to feed my baby and I also needed to be able to relax and go back to sleep. I begged for his help. I don't remember how long it took, but it wasn't long before I was back to sleep. Heavenly Father had answered my prayer. And then I was woken up to the familiar little squeal again and knew that the power was back on. The baby hadn't woken up yet to eat, so all was well. Soon enough the baby woke up and I was able to take care of him and attend to his needs. What a sweet answer to my prayer, my heart was FULL of gratitude.
The wonderful part of this story is that is doesn't end there. In Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, a young man was giving a talk. He was telling about how he likes to play computer games at night and was doing so the other night. His father came in and invited him to study scriptures. He said that he would be there in a little while (he was still busy with his game). His father checked with him several times and finally the spirit spoke to him and he knew he needed to get off the computer and go to his father. Guess what happened just then, the power went out! Guess what that did to the computer? (hee hee) Guess what that young man then did with his father. I love how the Lord works in our lives, I love that that young man had just really come to understand how important it was to go study, and I love that Lord allowed him that time he needed to come to that decision on his own.
The Lord loves us more than we can understand. He knows it is best for us if we can come to these understandings on our own, so He will grant us every opportunity to do that. Sometimes we don't ever come to those understandings on our own and we need more intervention - referred to as "being compelled to be humbled". It is so much better for all of us if we can come to Him on our own, with our own desire to be closer to Him and more obedient to His commandments. I am so grateful for His patience in allowing us to do just that.
