"FAITH"

                                                                       "Faith"

                       "Believe in order to understand rather than understanding to believe."

                                                   Neil A. Maxwell, General Conference 2002

I have been thinking about the subject of faith lately. It has always been one of my favorite topics because it is one of the most powerful subjects and yet one of the most simplest. But it can also be the most difficult. It is the most powerful, because with the simplest amount of effort, prayer, maybe fasting, and believing, it can have the most miraculous results; the hardest, because it takes our faith and our believing in order to bring these miracles about. We don't often have the spiritual confidence in ourselves or our Heavenly Father to know that we are worth it, or worthy of it.

I am thankful that I had such powerful faith promoting experiences as a child, before I was old enough to question faith or worry about my worthiness in having my prayers answered. I just knew that my Heavenly Father loved me and I knew he was there for me. I never doubted!

I was thankful to hear this past week that one of our grandchildren received a Priesthood blessing and that afterward, her arm began to heal as a result of that blessing and the faith that was exercised by all who were privy to it.

I would like to share and experience with you that happened this spring about faith. Let me preface this with some thoughts of last summer. I had just started a new job after Christmas and was pretty stressed out about it. By the time summer came I was pretty much topped out in the stress department. I new there was much that needed to be done outside in the yard but could not bring myself to do anything about it. I knew if I went out there it would just stress me out more because of all the things that had to be done. We did a lot of traveling that summer to see family for baptisms and graduations. Our summer was booked. I was glad to be getting away. I just wanted to enjoy summer, kick back, relax and enjoy the great out doors riding bikes and relaxing. So I never went out in the backyard. Not once did I even go out there. I could not have cared less.

Although easing up, my job remained stressful into the fall and winter, but as spring came I began to feel like I was ready to spend some time outside again. I was looking forward to it. I usually start my own flowers indoors but took the winter off while adjusting to the new job, and figured I would just plant seeds directly into the ground, like I used to, or just buy them. 

I knew there was much that needed to be done, from neglecting the yard the year before, but thought it would be alright. I had had to let the yard go a few other years, that were hard years for me and it survived and so did I. But I knew it would take some extra incentive to get it into shape this coming summer. 

At the beginning of spring, our supervisor from our Guest Service Missionary group, was talking to me about wanting to have a Bar-b-que that summer to get everyone together and was asking where I thought would be a good place to have it. I jumped at the chance to have it in our back yard. There is nothing like having something in your backyard that motivates you to get it cleaned up and get the jobs done. So I offered and she accepted.

In reviewing the situation, there were fences, decks, bridges and trellis's needing to be stained or painted, overgrown foliage to be trimmed away, a barren 10 x10 patch of non-grass area full of last years cut down tree roots, that still needed to be removed, raked out and new sod placed. There were weeds that had gone to places I didn't know there were. There were many flowers to plant and I came to know how much money I had been saving over the last few years growing my own flowers when I began purchasing them. It was a mess. But I was motivated and so was Ken. Beautiful days would come and we would want to go bike riding, but I would insist that we kept at the yard. And I was glad that we did. We were coming up on the date of the party, July 9th, and there was still much left to do; some things that had to be done and some that could wait till after, but knew they would slip into the lists of fall or next year.  

And then there was the pond. It needed to be cleaned and the pumps rearranged into their summer positions. The large pump sits in the bottom of the big pond during the winter, so it won't dry out, while the little pump is moved from the lower waterfall/pond into the big pond to run the little hose during the winter, the small pond remaining dormant. I was in the pond, in my waders, cleaning it out, while Ken moved the pumps back into their summer positions. The last thing needed was for Ken to hose out the big pump and get it into position and ready to turn on. He did, and when he  plugged it in, and turned on the switch, nothing happened. He undid it, plugged it back in, and nothing happened. He moved the plug to a different outlet; Nothing happened. He re-cleaned it, nothing happened. We were exhausted and down to one of the last details before we could say that the yard was ready. We had spent a lot of time and money fixing and repairing and now we faced having to buy a new pump? It wasn't that old. It had worked when we put it in the pond to winter over. Why wouldn't it start?  I looked up at Ken with a "Now What?" look on my face, and he said "Well I guess I can run down to the pond place and get a new pump?", questioning like we had any other choice. And then I had a thought pop into my mind, "Say a prayer". I told him what I was feeling.

So there in the middle of the back yard, in the middle of the pond we bowed our heads and I offered a prayer. I thanked the Lord for the opportunity that we had to have such a beautiful back yard where we could invite family and friends to come and enjoy his creations and told him how hard we had worked to get it into shape and our desire to not have to spend any more money than we had and asked him if he would bless our pump that it would start so we would not have to spend anymore money. Then I thanked the Lord and closed our prayer. I looked up at Ken to see him gathering up the pump cord and reach in to take the pump out of the water. I said to him, "Don't you think we ought to show a little faith and plug it in one more time?" He looked at me apologetic and reached down to plug the cord into the socket. And then flipped the switch. And the pump started right up!  We both looked with amazement and felt blessed. Then I suggested we say a prayer of thanksgiving. Again we bowed our heads in the middle of the backyard, in the middle of the pond and thanked the Lord for this blessing.  The pump has worked without fail all summer.

Now I must ask you. Do you think that we needed the pump to start working that very moment? Could we have gone and bought a new pump right then? Would we have been 'ok' financially if we'd had to spend the money? Yes. But that day the Lord felt that we needed to have that experience of having our faith tested and having our prayer answered, and that we needed to share this experience with our family that perhaps at some time when we need to know, we can remember the answers to prayers that have come to us in our lives, that assure us that there is a Heavenly Father that loves us, enough to answer our simple and maybe what might seem meaningless prayers. I hope you will think on this experience and others that you have also had and share them with your children, that you will bare testimony to your families  so that they will believe in order to understand. 

I want to bare my testimony to you, that I know there is a loving Heavenly Father that love's each of us and that he cares about our individual concerns. He does answers prayers! Hold on to the rod, say your prayers, and have faith!

Love, Nana