I'm sure you have all heard the poem about the man walking along the beach with the Lord looking at his life and at some point he notices that there are only one set of footprints during the hardest parts of his life. He asks God why this is and wonders why God would have left him alone when he was struggling the hardest. God answers that there are only one set of footprints not because he has been left along but because these were the times when God carried him.
I have always loved this story. I have known times in my life (like everyone else) when I knew without a doubt that I was being carried. Sometimes these times are easier to see with time - looking back you can see more clearly the help you received. The past few weeks have been some of the hardest in my life. I want to thank those who have prayed and fasted for our family. I have felt my burdens lifted. They are still heavy but I am bearing them. I have also come to realize - through the stories of others (thank you Bryce Holman for your mission story!and many others such as my patients whose lives are amazing) that the impossible can happen and just because we don't understand how it can happen that it will. My favorite scripture is still the one listed on our blog - With God nothing is impossible - it is true and I am relying heavily on that promise.
For those of you who may not know what is going on - just know that divorce -even when necessary- often come back to bite especially when you have kids. I don't think there is a limit on how many prayers you are allowed in your favor so I welcome all prayers that God's will will be done and that I can accept it whatever it may be. The following are some quotes that I have heard recently that give me hope!
- Elder Orson F Whitney - "No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, build up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable...and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil, and tribulation, that we gain the education we came here to acquire"
- Elder David A Bednar - "You and I cannot control the intentions or behavior of other people. However we do determine how we will act."
- Elder Richard G Scott: "Keep perspective. When you have done all that you can reasonably do, rest the burden in the hands of the Lord and worry no more. The Lord opens doors of opportunity and provides the strength each of us needs at difficult times in our life. He entreats us to love his Son that we may be comforted and strengthened."
- Elder Lionel Kendrick - "We cannot always control everything that happens to us in this life, but we can control how we respond. When we place blame for our actions on others or circumstances that we find ourselves in, we can never gain the strength to change."
- Author unknown - "God can heal a broken hear, but you have to give Him all the pieces."
- Elder Jeffrey R Holland - "Christ is saying to us 'If you will follow me, I will lead you out of darkness..I will give you answers to your prayers. I will give you rest to your souls' My beloved friends, I know of no other way for us to succeed or to be safe amid life's many pitfalls and problems."
- Elder David A Bednar - "There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. you and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, 'No one understands. No one knows' But the Son of God perfectly knows and understand, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch and succor --literally run to us-- and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power."
- Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf - "Hope encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father. Hope is not knowledge but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. With hope we can have patience, and bear our afflictions. The things we hope in sustain us during our daily walk. They uphold us through trials, temptations, and sorrow."
- Elder Joseph R Holland - "I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now. When He says to the poor in Sprite, 'come unto me' He means He knows the way out and He knows the way up. He knows it because He has walked it. He knows the way because He is the way. He is saying to us, 'Trust me, learn of me, do what I do. I will lead you our of darkness; I will give you answers to your prayers. I will give you rest to your souls.'"