Yesterday was awful. Not even 24 hours after our interviews, I woke up, went running, and right before I was leaving for work I went to put my ring on and I couldn't find it. I could not remember for the life of me where I had put it the night before. I called Sean in a panic, and he told me places to look while he was waiting for his class to start. I said a little prayer and continued to look. I even went outside with a plastic bag covering my hand to check Blaze's poop to make sure he hadn't swallowed it. (It was disgusting and I will NEVER do that again.) Luckily, Sean remembers my nighttime routine better than I do apparently and asked where I had put my ring after lotion. I then checked the pocket of the sweatshirt I had been wearing and there it was.
Now I'm not saying it was Satan that misplaced my ring, but my overreaction was probably, eh, most likely aided by him. It was a scary thing worthy of a few tears, but I was hysterical. It was a terrible feeling, and I know Satan wasn't helping.
Anyway, after I found it, I said a quick thank you prayer and hurried off to work. After work, Sean picked Blaze up and took him down to his house where we were eating dinner because I was getting off late. We borrowed a long leash from our neighbors so Blaze could move around while on the leash. At some point, he slipped his collar and took off. I have no idea how long he was gone, but it was a good 10 minutes before Sean finally found him. Again, though, the hysterics started. I couldn't believe all these things were happening and in such a short amount of time. I'm an emotional person, but not this bad. We got Blaze in the car and said another quick thank you prayer.
Prayer is amazing. In the last 48 hours Sean and I have had experiences that have helped grow our testimony of prayer immensely. I am so grateful that we are able to communicate with our Heavenly Father, and that He listens and answers even the simplest of prayers, like finding my ring so I don't have to go without it for a day, or finding Blaze after 10 minutes of looking and him not being injured at all.
I love this story President Thomas S. Monson shared in October at General Conference:
"I gained my testimony of the power of prayer when I was about 12 years old. I had worked hard to earn some money and had managed to save five dollars. This was during the Great Depression, when five dollars was a substantial sum of money—especially for a boy of 12. I gave all my coins, which totaled five dollars, to my father, and he gave me in return a five-dollar bill. I know there was something specific I planned to purchase with the five dollars, although all these years later I can’t recall what it was. I just remember how important that money was to me.
At the time, we did not own a washing machine, so my mother would send to the laundry each week our clothes which needed to be washed. After a couple of days, a load of what we called “wet wash” would be returned to us, and Mother would hang the items on our clothesline out back to dry.
I had tucked my five-dollar bill in the pocket of my jeans. As you can probably guess, my jeans were sent to the laundry with the money still in the pocket. When I realized what had happened, I was sick with worry. I knew that pockets were routinely checked at the laundry prior to washing. If my money was not discovered and taken during that process, I knew it was almost certain the money would be dislodged during washing and would be claimed by a laundry worker who would have no idea to whom the money should be returned, even if he had the inclination to do so. The chances of getting back my five dollars were extremely remote—a fact which my dear mother confirmed when I told her I had left the money in my pocket.
I wanted that money; I needed that money; I had worked very hard to earn that money. I realized there was only one thing I could do. In my extremity I turned to my Father in Heaven and pleaded with Him to keep my money safe in that pocket somehow until our wet wash came back.
Two very long days later, when I knew it was about time for the delivery truck to bring our wash, I sat by the window, waiting. As the truck pulled up to the curb, my heart was pounding. As soon as the wet clothes were in the house, I grabbed my jeans and ran to my bedroom. I reached into the pocket with trembling hands. When I didn’t find anything immediately, I thought all was lost. And then my fingers touched that wet five-dollar bill. As I pulled it from the pocket, relief flooded over me. I offered a heartfelt prayer of gratitude to my Father in Heaven, for I knew that He had answered my prayer."
I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father that I can turn to in all situations for help, guidance, or whatever I need, and I know that He will answer prayers in His timing. Sometimes it is immediate, sometimes it takes years. But He will answer if we are willing to ask.
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