On this beautiful Sabbath morning, I thought I'd share the talk I gave in church last week. It has some beautiful quotes and scripture.
Often times
in our life we notice coincidences or times we just got lucky or we write on
social media, #blessed. But today I’m
telling you it’s more than that. I want
to illustrate how the Lord has had a hand in my life . He is with us every step
of the way through both our trying times and our good times. It’s important that we show gratitude and
ackowledge his hand.
Psalm
100 speaks about gratitude really beautifully
1 Make
a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
2 Serve
the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3 Know
ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us,
and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter
into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be
thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is
everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Some time
over 5 years ago, I received a job offer to teach at a little red brick school
in the mountains. I was at an inner city
elementary school teaching in Minneapolis at the time and was ready for a
slower change of pace. At the same time,
I had just begun dating a new guy. I
flew out for my interview and was really in love with this school and the
mountains that I didn’t have where I’m from in MN. As I flew home from my interview on the plane,
I sat next to this woman and I told her
all about my interview AND about the guy I was dating and how he was
conflicting my decision to take this great job.
She told me I would feel peace in which decision I made. She told me, “I think you already know what
to do.” Well, I was not about to give up
my dream job for some guy…but I felt no peace in accepting that position. I stayed in MN and continued dating this guy
and then we got married! I emailed this woman on the plane to tell her what
happened because I knew she’d be ecstatic but she never wrote back. I’ve even searched for her on facebook like a
creepy little stalker. I never found her or heard from her again even though we
exchanged contact info on that plane. I
swear now she was an angel sent to sit with me and tell me “that I would feel
peace in my decision.” I learned that
the Lord doesn’t want me to be confused and I was confused about taking that
job and I wasn’t confused about marrying my husband.
Elder
Scott has taught us that sometimes our decisions can be made with a confirming
assurance. He said: “you can feel the peace,
comfort, and assurance that confirm that your decision is right.”
So my
husband and I lived the American dream and bought a brand new beautiful home,
got a dog, had a baby, etc. And then my
husband randomly saw a job opening in the Dominican Republic, the country where
he was born. Now who’s going to just up and
leave to a third world country with a three month old baby and both of us had jobs in
Minnesota that we would need to quit? Just
apply for fun, just interview and see, we thought, no big deal. And then we got the offer! How were we going to quit both our jobs? I was a teacher on maternity leave at the
time! You can’t just quit on maternity
leave. What were we going to do with our new house and all of our furniture? It was much too expensive to ship back and
forth between countries. Then, a family in our ward offered to rent our home
while we were living abroad and if that wasn’t a sign to go, I don’t know what
is. Both our jobs understood the
opportunity and told us we were welcome back anytime. It truly felt like the Lord was making a way
for us to take this opportunity.
President
Hinckley has said: I too believe that God will
always make a way where there is no way. I believe that if we will walk in
obedience to the commandments of God, if we will follow the counsel of the
priesthood, He will open a way even where there appears to be no way.”
Once we got
to Domincan Republic, it was tremendously hard.
I didn’t speak much Spanish (I do now) , I was not a student, I was not
a missionary. I was a woman with a new
baby who had to learn how to live in a 3rd word country with no
Target store to buy my neccessities and where I didn’t speak the language. I had to learn where to grocery shop, how to pay
bills, how to get around walking, by taxi or in the public cars that crammed as
many people in as they could without seatbelts all with my small baby while my
husband went to work. How could I make
friends when I couldn’t even communicate?
I cried a lot. As time went on,
our ward became the greatest blessing in our life. I was called to YW and had to teach…in
Spanish! I taught English classes to the
community. Another young womens leader
became my best friend and she practically brought me tracting through the city
each Sunday to visit the young women in their homes. I became happy by doing service.
I learned I
can do hard things living there.
Phillipians
4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
But the best
part was for as much service as I did that helped me find happiness, the people
there served me more. I needed them. I
needed my possy of youth to walk me home every night after mutual or English
class after dark. I needed friends from
the ward to come over and have FHE with us.
They took us in, they helped us with whatever we needed when they had so
little . They had tiny homes where you
could see the rafters holding the roof up from the inside, concrete floors and curtains
hanging for a bedroom door. Yet they
were some of the happiest people I’ll ever know. I was a changed person because
of their humility and gratefulness to the Father.
Richard
C. Edgely reminds us: “Yes, the strength of the Church is in
the millions of humble members striving every day to do the will of the
Savior—day by day, one step at a time. These humble members come from all
nationalities, all social strata, and every economic background. They include
those of the highest educational backgrounds as well as those of the humblest
who live in the smallest hamlets in the most remote areas of the world—all
having hearts throbbing with a vital testimony of Jesus Christ and a desire to
serve the Lord.”
Now finally
I’ll tell you, how did we end up in Texas?
After living in the Dominican Republic, we returned to MN for a year and
a half and quickly rememberd how cold
Minnesota was. So we thought and thought
about states all over the country that were warm and Texas made the list! There
are better housing prices and lower taxes here in comparison as well. Dallas is a huge city with a great food scene
so…why not? Why not move to Texas? This decision did not feel as “led” as the
Dominican Republic decision but our prayer became, “just stop this if it isn’t
right”. Well we’re here and haven’t fallen
flat on our faces yet so I think the Lord is ok with it and there is a
reason. We did not have a job re-locating
us here or school or anything. We just
wanted to come so we both applied to jobs until one of us found something, we
got an apartment and here we are! And so
far, we really love it here!
Jeffrey
R. Holland has said: “God expects you to have enough faith and determination
and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact,
He expects you not simply to face the future (that sounds pretty grim and
stoic); He expects you to embrace and shape the future--to love it and rejoice
in it and delight in your opportunities. God is anxiously waiting for the
chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has.
But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He
can't if you don't believe.”
It was a
leap of faith for us to be here and still feels that way as not everything in
our plan to be here is figured out yet but we have faith it will be soon.
Sometimes
God answers prayers with no response.
Elder Richard G. Scott has said: When you are
living worthily and your choice is consistent with the Savior’s teachings and
you need to act,” proceed with trust.”
All in all,
The Lord knows us and he knows it will be ok even when we don’t. We have had to put our faith in the Lord
through this move as we were a little spontaneous but the prayer of asking the
Lord to stop this if it isn’t right has been helpful because it hasn’t been
stopped.
Dieter
F. Uchtdorf has said:
Brothers and sisters, the most powerful Being in the
universe is the Father of your spirit. He knows you. He loves you with a
perfect love.
With all stories I just told, there is no way for this
not to be true in my life! Heavenly
Father is the Father of my spirit. I am
his. He loves me. And I say these things
in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
