This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 1991 Conference.
Elder Earl C. Tingey quoted Boyd K. Packer saying:
When the servants of the Lord determine to do as He commands, we move ahead. As we proceed, we are joined at the crossroads by those who have been prepared to help us.They come with skills and abilities precisely suited to our needs. And, we find provisions; information, inventions, help of various kinds, set along the way waiting for us to take them up.It is as though someone knew we would be traveling that way. We see the invisible hand of the Almighty providing for us.”
Elder Packer was talking specifically about technologies that advanced family history work, and I noticed this same phenomenon when I was in a Young Women's presidency—when we needed help with something, the right person always seemed to just come along.
But I love the idea in a more general context, too. It is comforting to think that "someone knows" the things we're going to have need of; the things we may not be able to manage on our own. I think about this frequently in relation to my children. I understand and am hyper-aware of the influence parents have on children; I understand that our responsibility for them can't passed to others. But I am also so grateful for other people that connect with my children and reach them in ways I can't. I feel desperate for those people, sometimes (especially right now, in a new ward and area, where the wonderful caring leaders my kids had before have been replaced with…strangers. Probably just as loving and wonderful! But simply unknown to the kids right now). I am constantly praying that someone will be put in our path, with the "skills and abilities precisely suited to our needs"—and I'm reassured that because of the Lord's loving guidance, such a blessing is indeed possible.
I hope you find them, too.
ReplyDeleteThis season of isolation is not good for any of us . . . except as a testing/proving ground. I pray we all prove ourselves worthy and come out on the other side all the more loving, connected, and united.
Yes. I hope we'll be more united too. It seems pretty unlikely sometimes…but I know God works in mysterious ways! :)
DeleteI love that quote so much! The concept always reminds me of Rasband talking about Amulek being prepared for Alma. Alma was just pressing forward — going to do what he was supposed to but not knowing how on earth to do it. And all the while God was readying just the right help. It comforts me and kind of excites me really to think of people and opportunities he might be preparing right now for things me or my kids have ahead. This reminds me a bit too off my mom’s comment, when I mentioned something I wished I could do in the future that I couldn’t because no such opportunity existed, and then she wisely pointed out that it didn’t need to exist right now, when I couldn’t do it anyway, but it could perfectly easily be brought into existence as the right time approaches.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Every time I think about a new year it always boggles my mind to know that Heavenly Father already knows what's going to happen to me and my family! I just need to remember that that means he can and already is preparing us for it, too.
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