The winding travels of life

This photo of me was taken by my college roommate-
about the same time as that Australia trip. 

As I went out grocery shopping with my children last night, I got to telling them a story about my trip to Australia (back around 1993). They wanted to know all about why I'd gone there. So I told them how I'd men a young LDS man at a Sunday devotional in Orem, Utah. Rob. He was visiting from Australia. We went on a couple of dates before he went back home. From there we kept in contact through letters and an occasional phone call. (Very expensive!)

At one point Rob wanted me to come out and visit him in Australia, and said he'd pay the way. Which he did. He arranged for me to stay with an LDS girl from his ward (Rhonda) who had room for me to live in her flat (apartment) during my visit.

My excitement grew about the prospects of this trip. I also wondered if this is the man I would marry. But one night, the Spirit of God made it very clear to me that I was not going to marry Rob. I felt disappointed, and figured the trip wasn't worth going. In fact, I wanted to cancel! But I felt strongly I still needed to go.

My children asked if I knew why I had gone, I explained that I do not know why, though I did make many friends, and I did share my testimony of Jesus Christ to them, but I know of no specific reason. Perhaps my influence and friendship made a difference in the life of someone I met.

I also told them that while in Australia I learned that Rob had begun dating another LDS girl there before I arrived. Eventually they were married! I only spent a little time with Rob while there. Mostly I spent time with single LDS men and women, and Rhonda, who rallied around me and showed me all kinds of wonderful Australian sights, and many other kindnesses.

I share this because that is how life works. We will not always understand the positive influence we had on others, nor can we remotely comprehend how our seemingly insignificant influence makes a difference in the work of God here on earth. We just keep doing our best in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

I was reading a beautiful BYU-Hawaii devotional today. And the stories he shared touched my heart. But, as those stories would take too much space to share, I will share an abbreviation of Brother Brian Carringtons closing remarks:

"You were leaders before you came to Earth..the Lord has picked you...You will have many difficult choices ahead of you. Like David and Goliath, you will confront many great "Goliaths" in your day."  

"There is a very good chance, that on your "road to Jericho" you'll not only find the fallen friend here and there, but you'll encounter Goliath between you and that friend. You will have to exercise the faith of a David, ... to accomplish whatever the Lord wants you to do in your life. ... Fear nothing. The Lord will be with you and you will conquer..."

"... I know God lives, that I know Jesus is the Christ. I have this testimony not because I've heard it, but because he has been with me every step of my life, and He listens to me sing in the ocean waves. He'll listen to you, and he'll save you, and he'll rescue you... pray that the Lord will let you be a servant for Him and use you to your best use..."

For the full text:  http://devotional.byuh.edu/node/411

 

As you prayerfully seek God and study his word each day, He will give you direction and answers on the direction of your life. 

These words, of another devotional, gave me renewed gratitude to face the hardships of life.

"Some(day) we’ll understand fully, and when we see back from the vantage point of the future, we shall be satisfied with many of the happenings of this life which seemed so difficult for us to comprehend."

"We knew before we were born that we were coming to the earth for bodies and experience and that we would have joys and sorrows, pain and comforts, ease and hardships, health and sickness, successes and disappointments; and we knew also that we would die. We accepted all these eventualities with a glad heart eager to accept both the favorable and unfavorable."

"We were undoubtedly willing to have a mortal body even if it were deformed. We eagerly accepted the chance to come earthward even though it might be for a day, a year, or a century."

"Perhaps we were not so much concerned whether we should die of disease, of accident, or of senility. We were willing to come and take life as it came and as we might organize and control it, and this without murmur, complaint, or unreasonable demands."

"We sometimes think we would like to know what is ahead, but sober thought brings us back to accepting life a day at a time, and magnifying and glorifying that day."

[Spencer W. Kimball, “Tragedy or Destiny,” Improvement Era, March 1966, pp. 216–17]

Join with me in learning how to glorify God, with gratitude for our blessings of each day!  Christine