Tonight, I had a chance to sit and talk with our Bishop for a bit. He's a great guy! As I spoke with him, I suddenly remembered something that had happened awhile back that was somewhat miraculous. I didn't share that story with him, but as it came into my mind, I thought, "Oh, I hope I wrote that down somewhere." But, I don't think I did. DARN!
Now that I'm home, I can't even remember what it was.
Just after that experience came into my mind, there was another that I remembered as something I hadn't written down. I've had the chance to share it with my family, and I think I shared it with the Primary kids in my ward, but I don't think, like the other experience, that I ever wrote it down anywhere, so tonight's the night. Here we go.....
Let me preface this with some details....This took place in what I recall was January of this year. #1 had been in a bit of a fender bender. It was enough of a fender bender that our beloved Suburban was going to be totaled. We had to pay a $500 deductible because of the accident. I think we were taking it easy on her because she was preparing for a mission, but because #1 was involved, we felt that she should pay at least half of that deductible.
Here was the snag, though. #1 was nearly ready to turn her mission papers in. We had figured that all the money she had earned, to this point, was dedicated to her mission, and she still had a bit more to earn to reach the amount she needed to cover the entire 18 months. If she had to pay that deductible, she would have to work longer. The concern: Would she have time?
Okay, now onto the story....
One morning that January, dark and early, I got up and got in the shower. When I was done showering, I threw on some clothes and then went to comb my hair, but....there was no comb to be found.
I considered turning on some lights and looking around for a brush or comb, but then thought better of it. Plus, the scriptures were waiting, and knowing myself as I do, I knew if I allowed myself to be sidetracked, that time would be gone for the day, and it wouldn't happen. I wondered what Heavenly Father would want me to do. I didn't have to think on that long to know the answer.
I grabbed my laptop and found a spot on my bedroom floor. I sat there with the laptop on my lap and opened the Internet to the scriptures. As I read, I came across this verse in 3 Nephi:
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly" (
3 Nephi 13:6).
My mind got stuck on this verse. I couldn't leave it without doing something about it, so I went just a few feet away and climbed into my closet. Now, I don't have a fancy walk-in closet. I have one that's roughly 2 1/2 feet deep and about seven feet wide. It has two sliding doors. It's a bit snug in there with all the clothes hanging down and the shelves, but it's not terrible. I shut the doors, and nobody knows where I am. It's pretty sweet. No one would imagine that I would go in there.
While there, I knelt and prayed. I prayed about a bunch of stuff. It was all very important to me at the time.
After I finished praying, I felt that I should jot down some of the things I'd felt. I needed a pen and paper, so I quietly opened the closet door and headed toward my bedside table on the far side of the room. As I headed toward the bed, I felt that I should grab my computer bag that was sitting there, but then talked myself out of it because I felt sure that there was a greater chance that the things I needed would be on the table.
It ended up that they were not, so here I was again in the quandary about turning on lights.
I rounded the side of the bed again, and again, felt that I should grab that computer bag....What did I have to lose?
I snagged it and sat down on the floor. I opened the flap and slipped my hand inside. The first thing I felt was a plastic package. I pulled the package out and there, to my surprise, was a bag full of combs. Combs of all sizes. What?! Combs in my computer bag? Why? Had I put those there? If so, when? Very strange.
I grabbed a comb out and ran it through my then partially dried hair. As I did so, I realized that a comb had been just what I'd needed that morning. I had sacrificed orderly hair without snags for doing what I felt God wanted me to do.
Sound silly to anyone else? I kind of chuckled to myself when I realized what had really just happened, but said a little silent prayer of thanks as I worked to detangle my hair.
How strange that He knew such a simple need and then provided it. The location of those combs made it that much more significant. I mean, I may do some pretty bizarre things, but I just can't figure out where those combs would have come from or how they got there.
I reached further into the bag and pulled out a small pile of random papers. I thumbed through them. About three or four pages in, I found something that again, gave me reason to pause and consider.
Amongst those papers was a check. The check was dated March 22, 2011. Weird. Certainly, I'd been through this bag since that time, but maybe not. My purse was stolen on March 21st that year, so I must have placed it in there because I had no purse to place it in, and I wanted to make absolutely certain that that check was put in a safe place.
Here's the extra strange thing....The check was for $225, and it was made out to....#1!
#1 was all signed up to run track that year but because of an injury, shortly after the season started, she had to bow out. That check was her reimbursement from the school. It would be what she would need to give her an enormous leg up on paying off the insurance deductible.
Again, a prayer of thanks and a great understanding that even though those weren't things I had prayed for that morning, just the little bit of obedience of climbing in that closet to pray brought about things that were needed most.
Let me just tell you, prayer works.
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly" (
3 Nephi 13:6).
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The last 20 minutes before #7 left were spent laboring over the word "it." "I, igloo, i-i-i. T, turtle, t-t-t." Over and over again. Each page began with "It."
