In the Lord's Time frame

If you haven't guessed from previous posts, my family is members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Another name would be LDS or Mormons.  I teach the kids that are 8 years old turning 9 right now.  This year we are studying the Doctrine and Covenant and the Life of our first prophet Joseph Smith.

This weeks lesson comes from Doctrine and Covenants sections 5-10 and Joseph Smith--History 1:66-67. This was after the 116 pages of manuscript were lost, Joseph had the plates taken away and returned, and he was attempting to translate on his own.  This was turning out to be a very slow processes. He was feeling very overwhelmed with this task and decided to pray and ask for help.  He was told in D&C 10:4 to not run faster than he was able to and in D&C 5:30, 34 he was told to finish what he was doing and then to stop and stand still for a time, and that the Lord would provide a way for him to finish.

And so he did.  He finished the pages he was working on, and put them aside for a season.

During this time, a young teacher was staying with his parents in Palmyra NY. After much persistance and patience, he was finally able learn about the Golden plates and their son Joseph Smith.  He gained a testimony for himself that Joseph was indeed the Prophet and asked to meet him.  Joseph's younger brother Sam took Oliver to meet Joseph.  Upon meeting Oliver, Joseph new immediately that the Lord had provided a way for him to finish translating the Book of Mormon.  Translating began shortly after this.

I feel that this can be applied to our own lives when we are running faster than we feel we can.  When asked, the Lord will provide a way to help us or encourage us or to give us the means to finish the task that he has set forth for us.  As an example, I have felt very impressed that I needed to finish my bachelor's degree.  I ended up with a full semester in hopes to finish up quickly.  John has found himself struggling to keep working and to keep up on kids and home while I am away.  We prayed to know what to do.  I could have dropped a few classes prolonging my time in school, but making it more manageable.  The answer came back with a strong "no stay in school."  We were not sure what to do then.  We were both feeling the stress of my long days.  The answer came from the volunteering of John's parents to help us out.  John's dad would come each morning to help get the boys off to school and 3 days a week they would have the boys dropped off at their home after school and cook them and John dinner.  This became such a blessing in our lives as we were able to get our work and school done without leaving the boys to their own devices.  Just like Oliver was an answer to Joseph's prayers, John's parents were an answer to our prayers as we were struggling to follow the Lord's commands.

Do you have this in your own life?  Have you noticed a time that someone or something has aided you.  Sometimes, it is that we are to hold off until a better time, just like Joseph waited until Oliver would come to him.  Sometimes it happens fast.  But the Lord is mindful of each one of us and while he allows us our trials, he does bring relief.

Hyrum's Shoes

Hyrum needed new shoes a couple of months ago, but finally brought it to my attention a couple of days ago.  He came home with his first lace tie up shoes.  He would never allow me to buy him lace up shoes before now.  But he liked the shoes (and I wasn't willing to go to another store) and was willing to learn how to tie them finally!

We got home and Karl started teaching him how to tie his shoes.  He became very frustrated because he wasn't getting it.  I tried teaching him by putting him in front of me so that he could mirror my actions. This helped, but not enough to get them tied tight.  It was late, we finally got him into bed and us into bed.  It was Friday night, so you would think he would sleep in on Saturday.  NOPE!

He was at my bedside at 6 am telling me that he was going to learn to tie his shoes today.  10 minutes late, he came back in super excited because he had accomplished his goal!

I love that he didn't give up until he got it done.  This is very much Hyrum style. When he wants something he doesn't give up until he gets it learned or accomplished!