Happy Endings

Last week my daughter called me to "confess" that she messed up. She was upset that she didn't follow through quick enough on a prompting to help someone. A woman in line at Panda Express in front of her had her card denied and had to leave without her food. Said empathetic daughter told the cashier she would pay for the woman's items, but by then, the woman had left and couldn't be seen in the vicinity, so the moment passed. Flash forward to my recent experience. I was at a stop light and saw the unkempt old man with the ubiquitous cardboard sign. The only word I noted, which was darkened, was "HUNGRY." I knew I had no food in the car and rationalize it's no good to give money, and then the light changed and I moved on. But immediately my daughter's recent experience came into my mind and I thought, "I can do SOMETHING right now." I drove the few blocks to Taco Bell, bought the Big Box Meal and turned back to the intersection, hoping the man would still be there. He was. I rolled down the window and extended my offering, calling out, "Dinner?" He ran over, took the food gratefully and said, "Wow! this is great! Thanks!" I drove off, but not without emotion overtaking me and tears pricking the corners of my eyes. I called my daughter to tell her what had occurred and why. Her experience had prompted my actions.
But the story didn't end there. That night I lay in bed and remembered that my scripture study that morning had been cut short, and I wanted to finish the chapter I had started. I turned to where I'd left off 12 hours earlier and read:

11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have ^atasted of his love, and have received a^bremission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own ^cnothingness, and his ^dgoodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of ^ehumility, ^fcalling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing ^gsteadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.

 12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the ^alove of God, and always ^bretain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the ^cknowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.  

16 And also, ye yourselves will ^asuccor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the ^bbeggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

 17 Perhaps thou shalt ^asay: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—

 18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

 19 For behold, are we not all ^abeggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

 20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a ^aremission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his^bSpirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with ^cjoy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

 21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to ^aimpart of the substance that ye have one to another. (Mosiah 4:11-21)

I was overwhelmed with the Spirit, testifying to me of the love of my Heavenly Father, His mindfulness of me and my family, and how He wants to bless us. I was grateful for this opportunity to be receptive to His promptings, not only to help another fellow human being, but to comfort my daughter and uplift her, and to received this special "God wink" through His scriptures. My heart is filled with joy! 

 

1 Cor. 10:13

Hooray for me! Everyone is always bringing in goodies to share... Today I was in the break-room with a lone cupcake staring at me--my favorite too: chocolate with vanilla frosting. I picked it up, started to tear away the cupcake liner, then stopped and put it back. It taunted me for 20 minutes, until a co-worker came in and scooped it up and ate it! Yay! I resisted the temptation until it was no longer an option! After work I dropped Rich off at home and just ran in to get a jacket to go visiting teaching. While there I was feeling a bit hungry and remembered I had a coconut candy bar in my desk. I started for the bedroom to retrieve it then remembered the "cupcake incident" from earlier in the day and didn't want to negate that victory, so went out the door without my treat.

For a Wise Purpose

Just got an email from my sister with this accompanying map. It reminded me of the 116 pages of the Book of Mormon translation that Martin Harris got from Joseph Smith. God knew hundreds of years before that incident that He needed to prepare a second set of plates to replace the 116 pages that would be lost, so he had Nephi make the Small Plates of Nephi (see 1 Nephi 9:3-6), then he inspired Mormon to include those plates with his abridgment. (see Words of Mormon1-6-7). I don't know when these school district boundaries were made, or what the initial reasoning was to create this little "bump" that goes into Cortland County, but they have certainly served the greater purpose of allowing our Toby to attend a school that will be beneficial to him. I'm glad someone followed the prompting they must have gotten to do it!

2 in one day

This morning while eating my breakfast I was reading my scriptures --2 Corinthians 3--and had gotten to verse 11 when I looked up in frustration and said to Rich, "why can't these gospel writers speak in plain English? Why is their writings so convoluted?" A rhetorical, question, I thought, but then I looked down and continued my reading with verse 12: Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
ah, the irony!
Then I arrived at work and spoke to a co-worker about her weekend. She told about her experience ushering at the theatre and having a conversation with a flirty young man who told her she needed to smile more. I left her to check out my daily emails and read this post called 10 tips for dating. Number seven suggested volunteering as an usher at a theatre event, but "be sure to smile, as it makes you much more attractive."