Little Nuggets

I recently had a few experiences that strengthened my faith and testimony in the power of prayer. As our blog serves as our family history, I thought I'd record these experiences here. I also thought it might be nice to share these stories with my family and friends, as faith-building stories are always wonderful to hear from people we know.

Some Things Take Longer than Pulling Weeds

For the past year or so, I've been working through some personal issues by talking with Heavenly Father in prayer. (Nothing anyone needs to worry about - just some things in my life I'd like to improve.) I've prayed over these concerns for a long time now and had begun to feel like nothing was happening. Was God really listening to me? Why wasn't he helping me? Why wasn't anything changing?

I know Heavenly Father wants us to pray to Him, so despite feeling like it wasn't helping, I continued to pray each day.

One morning, the boys and I packed into the car to head to the zoo. I pointed out all of the lovely flowers and trees in our neighborhood as we pulled out of our driveway. Then I noticed a certain home near ours that has always been the eyesore of the block. There's always old, broken furniture in the driveway and weeds and garbage in the yard. Ugh! I had forgotten to say our morning prayer, so I said one aloud as we drove away, thanking God for our lovely home and neighborhood. Then a small hope of mine crossed my mind - I asked that the owners of the unkempt home would find the time or means to take care of their yard. It wasn't something I needed or that was even important in the scheme of things, but it couldn't hurt to ask!

I completely forgot about this small request when a couple days later I drove past the house and a young man was outside pulling weeds and shoveling out old tree stumps. You didn't have to look at his hot, sweaty face to tell that he had been working hard that afternoon - the yard looked wonderful! By the end of the day, all of the weeds were gone, the gravel was smoothed out, and it looked neat and tidy. We've lived in our home for over a year now, and we had never seen anyone working out in that yard. Not once! I know that God heard my prayer.

I have felt impressed that this was Heavenly Father's way of letting me know that He is listening. He hears my prayers even when I think I'm not getting any answers. Some prayers can't be answered as quickly as it takes to pull a few weeds. Some things take much longer to "fix", but you can be assured that Heavenly Father is listening and that He answers our prayers in His own time and in His own way.

The Faith of a Child

This past Friday, my children woke up with fevers and I was feeling lightheaded and nauseated. The boys spent the morning watching movies while I ran back and forth from the toilet to the couch almost a dozen times. The loss of fluids from the flu, combined with the drain of breastfeeding, super low blood pressure, and a slight case of anemia made me feel like I was going to pass out any second. I also had an awful stomach ache that wouldn't go away.

The boys took a late nap that afternoon and woke up feeling very hungry. When I tried to put some lunch together, I could barely stand up and crouched on the kitchen floor in pain. Three-year-old Hudson was sitting at the breakfast nook and knew something was wrong with Mommy. He put his head down and said a silent prayer. When he was finished, he sat back up and told me that he had prayed that Mommy, Beau, and Hudson would all feel better.

I was touched by his faith and concern and decided to say a prayer of my own. It was very simple. I needed to feel well enough to get up and make my babies something to eat. Not a second after I ended my short prayer, I stood up, walked over to the sink, and vomited. I immediately felt 100 times better! I was able to pull myself together for that brief "glow" after vomiting and made the boys a simple lunch.

I know this story's a little graphic, but it really demonstrated to me the power of prayer and the faith of little children. Hudson's prayer and mine were both simple but sincere. We needed Heavenly Father's help and He was there.