As I was coming back from helping at the kids' school today, I stopped by my friends house who was watching Becks for me. The door was opened by her 2 year old son and as I looked in I could see that her and her sisters and brother- in- law were kneeling in prayer in the living room. She asked me to come in and pray with them -although I felt awkward for interrupting them, I am so grateful for her invitation. Her brother- in-law, I strongly believe, has been falsely accused of a crime and is in the battle for his life. I had heard many of the details of his situation from my friend over the last few weeks, and before ever meeting him had felt like this was a terrible injustice that was taking place. His family, career, and reputation are being clouded by a false accusation. The prosecutors have portrayed such a grossly inaccurate story that it has made me more aware of how misleading and unfair it can be when the media is only presenting the information they have or only one side of the story.
I was invited to pray with them, and I had such an incredible experience. As my friend's brother-in-law began to pray, I immediately began to weep - the spirit that I felt from him was so strong, so humble and GOOD. Without ever meeting him before, I could feel of his devotion to his Savior, his pleading for God to rescue him and his family, his absolute faith and of his tender character and intelligent mind. He prayed for the hearts of his accusors to be softened and for protection. He is a good man, and I am going to keep praying for him and his family.
I guess lately with all the uncertainties around us with the economy, politics, etc. I feel like what I used to fear, has now been replaced with letting go of that fear and only trusting in God and Christ and in our prophet and apostles. As prophesied, they have become the only constant. I was very anxious at the thought of scarcity, money losses, uncertainty, politicians that scare the bejeebees out of me and wondering what is going to become of it all. But I have to say that I feel like we have prepared the best we can - and daily the scripture that keeps coming to my mind is, " if thou art prepared, thou shalt not fear."
As a family, we have been preparing ourselves financially and trying to obey the prophet.I give much of the credit to my husband for never feeling 'invincible' and always wanting to do as much preparation as possible. Although it is not perfect, we have tried to live below our means, stay far away from any debt, pay cash for all big expenses, and save and invest. I feel like we are in a safe place because we have tried to be obedient in this. As scary as the economy is right now, I feel comfort from that same scripture, " if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."
There are definitely some areas that we are not as prepared in -and we are quickly trying to better those situations. We have been pretty good with food storage, but need to fill in a lot of holes. We have been lousy with 72 hour kits - and my worst fear is that we will have an earthquake and as I'm running out of my house I will see the "to do" item on my list for the last year of getting our 72 hour kits together. But I only fear this because we have not adequately prepared.
It was no surprise that in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis, our LDS General Conference did not come with any panic stricken talks - Get your food storage!! Hurry and get out of debt!! Save for a rainy day, right now!! They've told us for years and years. We needed only to be obedient.
I did seem to catch a theme this year of Unity in General Conference. Pulling together to find common ground with people in our lives. In the midst of world chaos and hateful politics, I feel a sense of peace in banding together and holding on for the bumpy ride ahead of us. In some ways, there is even a sense of excitement to it all. Knowing that money and worldly possessions aren't going to be the most sought after or envied items. Peace and security will be.
I am going to recommit myself to trying to follow the prophet and the apostles when all is calm and there seems no real urgency to have to prepare, but only to do it because we have been asked to. I believe that we will be blessed solely for being obedient and sacrificing. It is not too late, but it is a lot more work to try and pull it all together at the last minute to try and get to that safe point. The best is to be slow and steady in following the commandments, and we will find that we will be prepared.
My friends brother-in-law has lived a life of obedience and goodness and is spiritually prepared. I truly believe that he is going to be taken care of and that God will be with him because of his diligence and faith. He put in his preparation and now he has to pray and hope and fear not.
Legoland was like our own little Wallyworld. I have to admit I felt a lot like the Griswald family trekking across the country to visit a child's mecca. Very cool place, though, with lots of fun rides and play areas. The life-size lego replicas of Darth Vader, presidents of the US, Thomas the Train, Indiana Jones, and even a full size Volvo SUV were really small little wonders within themselves. I wonder what type of a person works as a life-size lego creator?
We had a great day here - but I couldn't figure out why Ethan kept wanting to go home early. I finally figured it out when I remembered that I had promised him we would get a small Lego set in the gift shop "when we were leaving" so we didn't have to carry it around with us. So in his mind, the sooner we left, the sooner he would have that delicious new set in his little hands.
