GOD HEARS ME
One of my favorite primary songs is the one that we sometimes sing in a round. A child begins by asking Heavenly Father if He is really there, and if He really answers every child's prayer. A parent then responds in the affirmative that God is there, and that He does hear our prayers. Sometimes when I am having a difficult day, I find myself singing this song while I drive. As I sing, I am also praying. Whenever I have these moments, this song seems to testify to my heart that He is really there, and He really does hear our prayers.This past weekend, I went to Featherville, Idaho to prepare for girl's camp and I experienced the reality of God's love and His hand truly taking part in my life. Me, my sister-in-law, and our kids decided to go check out a possible hike location up a mountain on the Gator. We checked the gas gauge before setting out--more than half full--, and we were on our way. We drove up the mountain several miles until we came to a crossroad. We knew there was a trail reaching back to town, and we thought we would take that trail. At this point, we still had plenty of gas to make it down the mountain; however, the new trail we took kept stretching out in front of us with no real end and we began to feel that something was wrong. It was at this point that I happened to look at our gas gauge. My heart clenched a bit as I saw how little gas we had left. We were at least 10 miles away from the beginning of the trail. We knew we had to get down the mountain, but we just didn't know the fastest route--should we keep going and hope we would find the end, or should we turn around. As we were contemplating our course, we came to a dead end. We were on a narrow track high up on the mountain. In order to turn around, we had to make several stops and turns--inching ourselves back and forth--being careful of the mountainside looming before us until we were able to turn the Gator around. When we were finally turned around, the gas gauge began flashing in and out indicating that we had no gas left in the tank. Just ahead and to the right was another trail we had previously passed, we felt that we needed to stop and explore our options on foot in an effort of finding the fastest way down the mountain, so we pulled the Gator to a stop all the while praying that the engine would start again.
The trail was worth the exploration--it proved to be a dead end as well. By exploring it, we were certain as to the direction we needed to go back the way we came in order to get off the mountain. We were nervous of the distance we needed to cover and the lack of gas we had. We asked Hailey to pray prior to attempting to start the Gator. I don't remember the exact wording of Hailey's prayer. I do remember my lack of faith compared to her faith for as she prayed with faith that we would make it off the mountain, I was already preparing my mind for the inevitable hike we were facing. (It's not that I don't have faith that Heavenly Father creates miracles in our lives--I do. I know He does. I believe in Him with all of my heart. With that being said, I also believe that that sometimes the best answers to prayers are those in which we have the opportunity to grow and learn a lesson from our mistakes, and I was gearing myself up for the lesson I was going to inevitably learn.) As soon as Hailey finished her prayer, we started the Gator once again and to our complete shock and utter amazement the gas gauge went from zero to 3 bars of gas. I stared at the gas gauge in disbelief. My sister-in-law quickly put the Gator in gear and started down the mountain while I continued to stare at the gas gauge. I didn't even want to allow myself to hope--I was sure that as soon as I looked away from the gauge, the gas would plummet again and we would be destined to walk. Again..., it's not that I didn't believe in the power of prayer on our behalf--I think I just believed in the power of learning lessons as well.
After a while of staring down the gas gauge, I started to allow my heart to believe that a miracle had just occurred. The gas didn't disappear as I feared--instead it slowly inched down with each passing mile. My heart began to hope and pray for a continued miracle. We still had a huge distance to cover with a limited amount of gas. We didn't stop, but instead we used the momentum of the hill to our advantage. The kids in the back were a bit disgruntled as it wasn't quite a comfortable ride. When there were branches we would give a warning yell, "On your right..." and "Look out for that one...". With a few miles still to go, our gas gauge once again indicated we were out of gas. Still--my faith had been strengthened. I prayed for a continued miracle and my prayers matched the flashing of the gas gauge. The gas gauge flashed that we were completely out of gas for the last 2-3 miles of our journey, and yet... we made it. As soon as we arrived back at the cabin, we unscrewed the lid to the gas tank. We were not surprised to discover it was completely empty. We had experienced a miracle. Heavenly Father heard our prayer and blessed us to get off the mountain.
President Uchtdorf said, "God cares about you, He will listen, He will answer your prayers" (The Love of God, October 2009 General Conference). I have always believed this statement. Just like the primary song I mentioned earlier states when the parent speaks to the child--"Pray, He is there. Speak, He is listening." Every time I have sung those words, I have felt the truth of them in my heart. Every time I pray, I know He is listening. And although I know He is listening when I pray, I have never expected to receive a miracle as we did with the Gator. Most of the time my answers come slow... little by little; however, this prayer was immediate and personal. In general conference, Jaun A Uceda asked, "When you pray, are you really praying or are you just saying your prayers?" ("The Lord Teaches Us to Pray", Jaun A Uceda, October 2016 General Conference). I think this experience reminded me to pray with more faith--believing that with God all things are possible. Making it off that mountain was a message of love from my Heavenly Father to me. There was no other explanation to our arriving back at the cabin than it being a direct answer to prayer. It was as if God was teaching me to trust Him a little bit more, to believe in Him a little bit more, to rely on Him a little bit more. It was a lesson on opening my heart to the possibilities of prayer.
