Prayers, Faith, and an Airplane Ride

This past week I got to go on a little vacation to Arizona. I have a dear friend there (my best friend's aunt) who has "adopted" me as her niece. She is one of the sweetest and most giving people that I have ever met and I love spending time with her! She took my best friend and I all over Scottsdale this weekend. We went and saw "Frozen", ate the most delicious gelato I have ever had, went shopping, visited a butterfly conservatory, soaked up the beautiful Arizona sun, and just enjoyed spending time being together with friends and family. It was a blast!!!!

 

 At the butterfly conservatory where I discovered my fear of being around massive amounts of butterflies at a time....

 

 

Dark chocolate gelato....YUMMMMMMM...

      

Me, Aunt Sharon, and my best friend

 

    Our last night in Scottsdale

 

 

 

We spent our last night watching Tangled in 3D at the house and laughing like crazy until midnight. We had the best time. I would have loved to spend a couple more days there, but I knew we couldn't stay.

 

The next morning we woke up and I wasn't feeling very well. I pushed through it hoping that I would eventually just feel better. But by the time we got to the airport I was feeling REALLY sick. I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before, we had to wake up really early to catch our flight, and I was feeling really nauseous. It got so bad that I thought that I would have to miss the flight. I had about two minutes to decide before they were going to close the gates. I started to pray. I told Heavenly Father that there was really nothing that I could do at to make myself better. It was all in His hands. I begged him to somehow take away my sickness and help me to be able to get home without getting sick on the flight. I prayed and prayed and prayed and then we decided to go ahead and get on the plane.

 

When I sat down I was still feeling terrible. The tears started coming. I was worried about how sick I was feeling and I was worried about hitting turbulence during the take-off and it making everything worse. I was so grateful that my best friend was there with me telling me that it would be okay. I asked her to pray with me and she did.

 

Our plane started down the runway. I prayed that we would take off without any major bumps and that the turbulence would be minimal. I kept praying. We took off into the air......no bumps. There were none of those "butterfly in my stomach" type of feelings that general come for me with take offs and we kept climbing higher and higher with no problems. Although I was still feeling sick, the smooth take off was a major miracle for me. The captain told us that he expected to have a bit of a bumpy ride throughout the flight because of the winds. But as of yet, all was well. I continued to pray.

 

"Pray always, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing"

(D&C 19:38)

 

When we started having a little bit of turbulence I started to pray fervently that those winds would not bother us or cause us any problems. And that is exactly what happened and the winds dispersed. After a while I even started to feel a bit better. I was able to calm down and relax. I almost felt as if I was in meditation mode when I was praying because I was so engulfed in my prayer and yet I was still there on the plane able to feel and see my prayers being answered.

 

I started to feel better. The flight was smooth. Before I knew it we started to descend to the airport. We made it! I poured out prayers of gratitude for the help and blessings that I had received that day.

 

"And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."

(Alma 32:21)

 

An important part of my prayers was faith. Faith has been on my mind a lot lately. Sometimes I feel like I have a hope for something, but not necessarily full out faith. I know it is important to always turn your will over to what God wants, but I felt strongly that in this situation I had to believe that he could and would indeed calm the winds. I had to know that with Him all things were possible and that he would heal me. It felt very much like a test of my faith and because I did have the faith my prayers were answered.

 

"For with God nothing shall be impossible."

(Luke 1:37)

 

Some people may say that what happened to me in that plane was just a coincidence. That the turbulence just happened to go away, that my illness was all in my head, and that I was just psyching myself out. But I know that it was not just a coincidence. I know I was helped in ways that I could not possibly have helped myself. I thought about not sharing these things for fear that people would think it was silly. But I knew on the plane that this was something I needed to share. I needed to share it because I needed to be a witness that God is there....

 

He is in our everyday lives. I know we can turn to him through faith and prayer. Each little step takes us on the road to Him whatever our circumstance whether big or small. We each have individual cares and concerns. Maybe you are worried about the exam that you have to take tomorrow. Perhaps there is a woman out there who is worried about being a good mother. Maybe your everyday stresses and financial cares are more than you can bear. My care today was being sick on a plane....

 

Heavenly Father cares about what I care about. He knows how to help me. Jesus Christ has been there and knows what I feel. He knows what you feel. I know as we turn to Him that he will heal us in whatever way we need healing...because He loves us.

 

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



Go back to school? Say what?!?!?!

I still remember the moment....

It was two summers ago when I was driving on the freeway, southbound, heading home to Springville. I still remember how the sun was shining and that it was a gorgeous day. I don't about you, but it is only on those special occasions where I get revelation that tells me EXACTLY what I need to do. Many times I feel like decisions are just left up to me. Which is kind of nice in a lot of ways. :)

Anyhow, as I was driving I had this RANDOM, can I emphasize that word enough? RANDOM thought come to my mind. The exact questions was "What if you went back to school... for Elementary Ed.?" Uh.....SAY WHAT?!?!?!?! It came so quickly and I got this strange happy/excited feeling coming into my chest. I responded to this little question in my head: "Well, I hadn't really ever thought about that." But this REALLY felt right. It was almost more poignant than any other prompting I had ever received in my life.

I immediately called my best friend who is one of my most amazing confidants. She answered and the first thing I said was "What if I went back to school for Elementary Ed.?" She paused and then said something like "I was just thinking about you being a teacher this week. DO IT." We both just started laughing. It seemed so crazy! I had thought about grad school but definitely not for a degree in education. I had started out majoring in Elementary Ed. my first semester and then switched to Deaf Studies. I had just graduated in 2010 and to go back to UVU for a second B.A. in what I originally started out with seemed mind boggling.

I called my parents. When I told them both what had happened and that I was thinking of following through with the prompting they were both SO incredibly supportive. They didn't even question it. Thanks Mom and Dad. ;)

That week I found myself sitting in front of a counselor at the Education Building at UVU. He told me I was pretty much set to go with the exception of my exceptional students class and two of the most dreaded classes EVER: Math for Elementary Education Majors I and II. I still get a little shudder inside of me when I mention it. YUCK! Fortunately because I started out majoring in Elementary Ed. and I already had a B.A. all of the other classes were taken care of. I was on my way!

I got through the most awful class I have ever taken in the Fall of 2012. I passed with just a few points to spare on the final. Then I passed the second math class last summer. There were so many nights and days in both classes where my stress level was so high that I thought I was just going to roll over and die right then and there. But somehow Heavenly Father helped me to make it through and pass the classes that I never thought I could. I will always be grateful for that.

I went into the group interview to see if I was "suitable" for the program and that went well. I got word that I had been accepted into the program and that I would start Spring 2013. It has been so much more vigorous than I expected. I always have homework assignments and projects to be working on. There have been days when I think that I am not cut out for the program because of the loads of stress that it so willingly supplies. My attempts to balance school and two jobs have been like walking on a tight wire carrying 50 pounds of sugar on my left hand, 30 pounds on my right, and a bowl of hot chicken noodle soup on my head.

Boy has it been a journey! But on those nights when I think that I can't take it anymore, when I am physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted from a long day and I have two assignments due the next day, I am lifted up by the people around me. I am reminded of how my Mom is praying for me everyday, I remember my Dad and his supportive nature and his words of encouragement, I picture my brother Mike smiling at me and saying "You can do it Meg!", and my Maddy texting me and saying "Hey Meg! Just wanted to say hi and see how you are doing!" Then my roommate and best friend come up and gives me a hug and I lose it. I cry my eyes out and she says "It's okay Meg. Let's see what I can do to help you."

During those hard times I cannot forget what got me here in the first place. It was a prompting. "What if you went back to school?" The thought didn't come with a warning that it would guzzle up the majority of my time and energy, cause more stress than I could imagine, and be incredibly hard. But what I do know is that it was not my own thought. It was from God and I am where He needs me to be. I can be a great teacher even if I feel that I am not good enough. I'm not sure why He wanted me to go back to school to be in this program. Maybe to meet the amazing people that I get to interact with on an every day basis, maybe it's to make me stronger mentally and emotionally, maybe for my own future children, or maybe it's to help the one student that only I can reach. I'm not sure. But I am grateful and I will keep trusting and holding His hand every step of the way.

--Megan

Video Clip of the Day: http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#patterns-of-light-discerning-light

                                          My El. Ed. Cohort (Dec 2013)

          

Thanks to these amazing people and every single other person who has helped me keep going in my program and made a difference in my life!!! Thank you, THANK YOU!!!!!

Seeing His Hands

How It All Started...

This morning I woke up and read my sister in-law's blog post about her second pregnancy. I like to follow along with her blog posts because I get to see how she, my brother, and their sweet little daughter are doing and I just love them. This morning after I read her blog I realized that I felt uplifted and amazed at their faith and the positive way in which they approach their everyday lives. In short I felt "encouraged" by what I had read. I felt a little boost of happiness in my own life because of what Annie (my sister in-law) had posted.

I continued to lay in my bed enjoying my last Saturday before school starts and then it came to me... "Why don't you create a blog that tells the stories of seeing God's hand in your life?" I thought to myself for a few seconds because I had already tried my hand at blogging before without success, but this thought it seemed like a great idea for some reason. Maybe because it may not have been my own. So I sat straight up and started this blog.

Numerous ideas have already been flowing through my mind about what I need to write about. I have had so many experiences in my life...seen so many blessings. I think it is time to share some of those experiences with others as a testimony that God's hands truly are in our lives.

This blog may not mean anything to some, but perhaps it will help to strengthen the faith of just one person. Maybe...just maybe...it will serve to be that little ounce of encouragement as my sister in-laws blog was to me.

--Megan