In My Experience...

I apologize for the delay, I was AWOL from a computer this weekend and I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one that got caught up in the Pioneer Day hoopla. But this does give me the opportunity to share a bit of insight I gained in the Relief Society meeting I visited today. The woman who was teaching shared the story from Elder Ballard's talk where he didn't listen to his father about a car that Ford wanted him to sell in his dealership called "The Edsel." His dad told him not to do it, but Elder Ballard decided to ignore the advice and was the first and last Edsel dealer in Utah because it failed miserably.

That led me to ponder what in my experience have I learned that would be valuable to others and the most important thing is that the Lord has His time frame and it may be different than yours. You do not need to feel that your prayers are not being answered if they are not answered as quickly as you feel they should be. Experiences like that are only meant to make you stronger.

The best example I have of this is my family. From the time I was 5 years old, I attended church by myself. I lived for this gospel. I learned that families can be together forever and I wanted that for my inactive family. So when I learned about prayer, I prayed about it every night. When I learned about fasting, I fasted about it. When I learned about the temple I went every opportunity I could to show the Lord how bad I wanted my family to be sealed. And even though I'm still not sealed to them, I have watched ALL of them come back to church. I've watched a wayward brother serve a mission and have his family sealed in the temple. My sister was sealed to her husband while I was on my mission, and both of my parents have received their endowments and been able to attend all of their childrens' sealings which I didn't think was going to be possible when I was 14 and decided that I was getting married in the temple with or without them. And even though my parents aren't sealed to each other, yet, it's sometimes so close I can reach out and grab it. But all of this has taken a very slow course over a twenty year span. And I admit, I lose hope. But I don't lose faith because the Lord does have his time frame, and there is a reason why I need to wait. But in the meantime, my own eternal family is beginning and I know the importance of preserving it because I've been fighting for one for so long.

Have a patient week, everyone.