Our families experience yesterday helped re-new my faith a bit and reminded me that despite sometimes feeling lost in a world of people, the Lord is watching over my family. Now, in the past we have had medical scares and health issues, financial struggles and other trials. We've experienced the loss of loved ones and been amazed and humbled at the miracles wrought in our behalf. This story may not seem as compelling; but it will always hold a special place in my heart. And for that purpose, I am recording it here today.
Earlier this week I realized that my freezer was not living up to its name and purpose. Monday evening when I grabbed the carton of my favorite ice cream, I discovered mush. I figured one of my little friends has messed with the dial, so I turned it up a bit and forgot about it. The next morning when there was no new ice for our smoothies, I realized the freezer was barely the temp of the fridge. I set to work moving everything that hadn't thawed too much into the chest freezer. I figured while it was inconvenient, there really was no worry because we had a chest freezer and the fridge was working fine. That night we cleaned all the dust and build-up out from under the fridge on the coils.
Wednesday morning when I awoke, I discovered the milk was barely cold to the touch and the left over chicken from dinner didn't smell right. I noticed that despite the lights being on the "running" sound was absent. I grabbed my keys and headed to a friends house to borrow a cooler, then stopped at the grocery store for ice. I unloaded the entire fridge with the kiddos and we determined what was still cold enough to eat, and what had to go. The contents of our entire fridge filled 4 ice chests. We needed more ice though. As I headed back to the store, I started to fall apart a bit. Now was not really the ideal time for this to happen. Payday wasn't for a few days, and even at that, we weren't exactly in a position to drop nearly a grand on a new fridge; despite it being a necessity and all. So as not to "lose it" in public, I called my little sis, who often is my sounding board. I knew she'd listen to me vent and then I could go "be the mom" again. As I knew she would be, she was helpful and upbeat. She even got on KSL while we were talking and started browsing classifieds for me. Feeling ready to tackle the day that lay ahead, full of searching through ice for things, cooking all the pounds of thawed sausage, turkey, hamburger and chicken that I couldn't re-freeze or fit in coolers, I hung up and got more ice.
Back home the boys started helping me cook, and cook, and cook. I tried calling a few repair men who informed me the fridge had lived a good, long life by any standards. I was distraught. Now what? I hesitated to spend money on a random listing in the paper, there was no guarantee it wouldn't break next week. New was out of the question unless my lotto ticket came through...wait, I don't gamble. My husband called to tell me to stop what I was doing and to read an article he found. He told me to gather the boys and pray after I read it. Clearly he was a few steps ahead of me "spiritually" because I had been so caught up, I hadn't even thought to pray. The article was uplifting and beautifully written. If you'd like to read it also, just click here. I enjoyed the entire article, but this part stood out to me the most; the author said :
It is not the velocity of the storm
that makes our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
willing to help us.
It is our faith in Christ’s calming power
and our hastening to call for His help
that allows Him to calm our hearts
during life’s storms.
I knew this storm probably wasn't the worse I had ever faced, or will face, but that didn't matter. I just needed to have faith that if I asked, he'd calm my storm. So, I gathered the boys and we knelt together in my room and we started with the youngest and were making our way to the oldest. Each was taking a turn praying, asking in faith for something to work out; we needed a miracle. What happened next was a series of events that only Heavenly Father himself could have orchestrated. Half way through the children taking turns praying, we paused and were about to start the next prayer when my phone rang. Normally, I'd have ignored it. However, I felt like I should answer it. It was my sister. Since we had spoken, she had called her husband to chat and he reminded her that my brother had just re-done a few things in his office and removed his old fridge and replaced it with a mini fridge instead. He was going to just leave it on the curb for someone to haul off, but his sweet wife said they should put it in the shed in case someone needed it. My sister had called my brother who said the fridge was available and we could have it. He arranged with my sister to have her pick it up, load it in a van, and deliver it to my house...TODAY. As she spoke, I could barely remain standing, the tears flowed freely and my body shook with each sob. I was overwhelmed with the feelings of love and generosity my family had for me; and in awe of the Lord's hand in my life. We had barely even begun to ask, and He had delivered our miracle.
This was a moment every mother hopes for as she spends years teaching her sweet children that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them, and hears and answers their prayers. My faith had been a little low that day, in my discouragement earlier in the day, I had asked my sister what the Lord wanted me to learn from this trial. She answered that question as we finished our current conversation. She said over the years she had always wished she could help someone but often found herself as the one being helped; she loved that driving this fridge to us was something she could do to help. She also said that sometimes we need to be reminded of the importance and strength of family; they are a precious gift and we need to stick together. I echoed her sentiments as I hung up and hugged each of my boys, telling them what had just happened. We gathered again in my room and finished praying; only this time we were thanking the Lord instead of asking for a blessing. As we took apart the old fridge and got it out of the house and cleaned the floor and waited for my sister to arrive, I found my mind fixating on a talk recently shared in our General Conference for Church. The entire talk can be found here; but my favorite excerpt was this:
"If you came upon a person who is drowning,
would you ask if they need help-
or would it be better to just jump in
and save them from deepening waters?
The offer, while well meaning and often given,
"Let me know if I can help"
is really no help at all. "
My sister didn't have to do anything, just listening would have sufficed. However, she jumped right into my deepening waters and found a way to save me; and my brother was right there beside her. She and my brother have always been great examples of this and I am so blessed the Lord placed them here with me, and provided a way for them to answer our prayers. They will probably never know quite how grateful I am, or what an impact they made. I hope to repay the favor someday, in the mean time, I will find ways to follow their examples and just "do" instead of ask.
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