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.