The exact date is the only mystery.
A lady mentioned in Church that when her husband got the news that he had leukemia, he began to evaluate his personal relationship with Heavenly Father. I think that's great. But if that is the first time such an evaluation occurs, it may be too late, or at the least, a painful realization/comeback. This is probably something that is meant to occur weekly (if not more) during the Sacrament. We are taught, exhorted and plead with to build this kind of personal relationship with our Maker during a one-on-one prayer.
Sadly, I went way too long not completely feeling like I have had alot of prayers answered. A counselor in my Bishopric in West Valley asked me to give a talk on Receiving answers to prayers. Initially I thought 'oh no, I can pull some scriptures to show people who have had answers to prayer, but I have no real experience with this to speak of.' But what a cool thing happened as I kept thinking that week about any answer to prayer that I had received. Very slowly I began to recall different moments when God had undeniably answered my prayers. Sad that it took an assignment for me to really sit and think when the God had listened, cared, and responded to a cry from me. I finally decided to make a list of when God had answered my individual prayers. The more I looked, the more I saw different ways my prayers were answered. And I'm still trying to add to that list.
I came across an article by Elder Holland ( http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1997/04/because-she-is-a-mother?lang=eng ) on Mothers on a day that I needed it and it taught me a couple things....
He read a few lines from Victor Hugo,
"She broke the bread into two fragments and gave them to her children, who ate with eagerness. 'She hath kept none for herself,' grumbled the sergeant.
”'Because she is not hungry,' said a soldier.
”'No,' said the sergeant, 'because she is a mother.'”
He mentioned a letter from a Mother, how she feels guilty every time she hears a talk on Parenting because she doesn't feel she is measuring up.
” Maybe it is precisely our inability and anxiousness that urge us to reach out to Him and enhance His ability to reach back to us. Maybe He secretly hopes we will be anxious,” she said, “and will plead for His help. Then, I believe, He can teach these children directly, through us, but with no resistance offered. I like that idea,” she concludes. “It gives me hope. If I can be right before my Father in Heaven, perhaps His guidance to our children can be unimpeded. Maybe then it can be His work and His glory in a very literal sense.”
I, too, found comfort in this thought. I certainly hope and want and believe God can teach me things that I ask Him or need help with....so why wouldn't He be doing just that with the little ones? If I have access to the Holy Ghost and am being formed and molded into a better person, who's to say that the same isn't happening when the kids are young? There is no age restriction when receiving help from divine powers.
Sometimes my kids have been taught from me verbally, sometimes by example....and sometimes I have to un-teach them what they just saw....do as I say not as I do, especially when Trent is gone for 15 hrs/day and my weakness comes through...but then I get to learn, from them, how to quickly and completely forgive and forget. Some of my favorite words are from them, ” It's ok, Mom”, followed by a quick hug and even quicker smile. Man, those kids are good at that principle.
I have seen things in these kids, like forgiveness and kindness, that I don't remember having an fhe lesson on, or being a model example of, but yet it is there. Nothing is by accident and it would be foolishness not to acknowledge the hand of God in everything...even, no, especially, their goodly character traits. How grateful it makes me that I have a God that is invested in my kids, and when I am anxious about measuring up and come to Him for help to mold these kids into the best they can be.....and the goal of most parents is for their kids to be better than they were, upward societal progress idea...and it's a great thought that these kids can have access to even more than I can give them. I'll pray for that.
They are worth my fragments of bread, as well as my fragmented efforts to bring them to a place where, if called to go back Home early, they, and myself, can all meet in the same place. That would be the very definition of sweet.
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