Faith and Miracles

As you probably notice, I don't post here very often. Over the past several weeks, I've been assessing our life and counting our blessings. Our experience with baby Honey has helped me realize the fragility of life and made me grateful for so many things, things that I used to take for granted. As I've thought about all of this, I could often hear the many voices in my life that have said we are crazy/courageous for having so many kids, for getting married so quickly and so young, for jumping into a condo and now the house, for pretty much making every big decision in our life. I am in no way ashamed/embarrassed/regretful of any of those decisions. Our life has been a great adventure, and we have been greatly blessed.

This weekend we had stake conference, and our mission president made a comment that has really stuck with me. As I've thought about it more, I realize that the principle he taught has been thoroughly active in our life. He said that he teaches his missionaries the following:

When you feel doubt, replace it with faith, go to work and expect the miracle.

Let me explain. In our life, we have, at times, questioned the decisions we were making. We prayed and probably wanted that huge revelation with angels and lights and visions and the like. Many times, we received very little. Many times we felt very little. Most times, Honey and I had looked at the decision, analyzed our options, prayed about it and were still "left on our own" to make the decision. We felt good about our analysis and acted on that knowing that we would receive guidance as we acted - as Elder Bednar said, feeling the nudging of the spirit to go in one direction or the other. When we made the decision, we jumped in knowing we would make the best of it that we could. When things became difficult, we prayed more and went back to work. We became committed. Only after much analysis, prayer and action did we actually see results. Looking back, those results have been truly miraculous. We are blessed with four healthy, beautiful children, one waiting for us, and a host of blessings too long to list.

When you feel doubt, have confidence in the decision you've made (replace doubt with faith), go to work and watch the miracle come.