A Special lesson by Miguel

In our church we try to set aside Monday nights as a special night reserved for our families called Family Home evening.  Since our children were small we have always tried to follow this pattern and reserve time together each week.  Sometimes we have a short lesson, message or video, other times we might do an activity together like a game or go out for some ice cream. Regardless of what we do, it is a time to show love and appreciation for our relationships and hopefully teach some good values along the way.  This past week was Miguel's turn for the lesson.

Climbing with Faith

I just read this great talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks  https://www.lds.org/new-era/2002/04/reach-out-and-climb?lang=eng  it made me really stop and think about so many times in my life when I have been required to climb and stretch myself and my faith beyond what I thought possible.  Other times I have been required by faith to simply walk through doors that are opening up for me and to have the courage and fortitude to keep going, as was true in the case of our adoption. 

Years ago a powerful lesson was taught to me by the spirit. I was sitting alone with one of my children in a hospital room. We had been transported there by ambulance for evaluation and to get my child's stats up from a severe bout of asthma. We had been through this routine in many emergency rooms before as both of our young children battled with what felt like constant asthma attacks. I sat there in the room waiting  and exhausted from my lack of sleep.  As I waited for a doctors approval to be sent home a prompting came to me that I had just been sitting back accepting this as a life sentence for my children when I didn't really need to.  I was encouraged then to begin to exercise my faith and pray for our children to overcome this chronic illness. I hesitantly thought at first we just had to accept the diagnosis that medical professionals had given us, which in some cases may be true. But I felt that day an even stronger urge encourage me on to pray for them to be made well and whole and to not struggle so severely with this throughout their whole lives. My mind caught hold of a small glimmer of hope that our pediatrician had held out to us, that some children tend to outgrow their asthma as they get older. Also I knew that they were now free from a smoking environment which could have contributed to much of this from their birth. With these two thoughts in my head and the prompting of the spirit, I began to pray right then and there that my kids would get well and not carry any adverse effects from asthma throughout the rest of their lives. I began to believe that this really was possible.  I also started to talk more positively to them about how they could one day outgrow this and not need to be on medicine for the rest of their lives. Things from that day progressively got better. They relied less and less on their nebulizer and we never did go back to an emergency room again for a treatment. Today they no longer require long term everyday meds and only occasionally use Albuterol if they are feeling that they have a severe cold that they can't shake.  Our doctor no longer lists their condition as chronic and they now function as normal as any other child.

I think no matter what our challenge, if we listen to the spirit as our guide he will prompt us with his still small voice. He will gently guide us towards solutions and a plan. He will put people in our pathway to teach us important lessons and give us instructions that will help us progress in our journey and challenges here on earth. What sweet comfort this brings me :-) A loving Heavenly Father encourages his children in this way and shows us his great love!