Anyway, on with my story. At every 3 Key Elements event, we get a raffle ticket, along with several other things, and at various times during the event we get a chance to win different items. On Saturday we were a bit late getting back from lunch because the first few places we tried were either experiencing a power outage or had too long of a wait. We got back after the afternoon raffle had started and had just found some seats when they called Chris's number! He went up to accept his winnings and was rewarded with the entire audio library of CD's that Kirk has produced. Since we love this company and love to support it, we already had the whole library. Chris let them know that we already had it but they said if we already had it, we just had some that we could share with others and gave it to him anyway. On his way back to his seat he had several people ask for the entire set from him in front of everyone but he didn't feel quite right about it so he didn't give them away instantly. Lo and behold, two ticket numbers later they called my number! They were offering me another ENTIRE AUDIO LIBRARY. I went to the stage but I protested saying that we really didn't need three full sets of CD's and asked them to re-draw to give someone else a chance. Which this time, they did.
On his way up to stage, Kirk stopped where I was sitting and told me (and everyone else) that since I had such a good attitude and wanted others to have a chance to win, that he wanted to gift me the full library anyway. So there we sat with 2 full sets of CD's and another one at home and everyone in the audience knowing that was our situation. We thought for sure that at the next break we would be swarmed with people asking for some of our CD's. For those of you that know us personally, you know we wouldn't have hesitated to help out some other people by giving them some CD's out of our abundance. But, no one asked!
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| We met a couple there that we knew wanted two specific CD's so we offered both to them. That is why one stack is smaller. |
Do you ever find it hard to ask for what you want? I know that I do sometimes. I have wondered why a lot. What does it hurt to ask? Is it because I think I'm being selfish? Is it because I don't trust that whomever I'm petitioning will give me what I ask? This was such an interesting lesson for me to contemplate. Turning it to the spiritual side, because that is how I roll, maybe, just maybe, Heavenly Father is waiting for me to ask for what I want. Perhaps He is already prepared to give me what I want and He is just waiting to see if I have the faith to ask. The scriptures seem to be begging me to believe this very principle. "Ask and ye shall receive" is a very common phrase I read.
But what about those times when I don't get what I ask for? Elder Jeffery R. Holland has a book out right now called "For Times of Trouble". It is fabulous book that I highly recommend and it comes with a DVD of him answering questions about times of trouble from a panel of people. I, for one, want to know how to get on one of those panels! As he is answering a question on the DVD he says that "you can have anything you want or something better". Paraphrasing what he said, he explains that God's will is large enough to incorporate our desires, we just have to ask. He continues by saying that the only time we don't get what we want is when from a parental view He sees that it would be better for us to have something different, something better, so that we can learn what we need to learn and become who we need to become. Isn't that comforting?
So, last Thursday on my way to work I started smelling something burning and looked down to see my car temperature red-lining. I had to pull over, turn my car off, and let it cool down before I could continue on my way. It is a fairly new (to us) car and I had never had an issue like this with it before. So, I said a quick prayer asking for His help to get to work and back home safely without there being damage to my car. When I left the house that morning I was already a few minutes behind so I ended up getting to work late and feeling pretty grumpy about it.
On Thursdays we have a man that comes to our office to take our office supply order for the week. We have a really good working relationship and he likes to tell me about the boys he helps through his service in the community and we often chat for at least a few minutes when he comes. By the time I got to the office, he was already there looking at the order for the week. He joked about me being late and I ended up telling what had held me up. Without any hesitation he asked to see my keys so he could go out in a snow storm and look at my car. I protested, we have a good working relationship but I didn't want him to have to go out of his way. He insisted so I finally gave him my keys. When he came back in, he told me that he needed to finish his route but when he was done, he'd come back and take a closer look.
He came back around noon with coolant in hand, filled up the reserves, and told me to have my husband look at it but that it should be fine now. I was shocked that he was willing to do all of that for me. If he would have told me it was coolant I would have walked across the street, picked some up, filled it up myself and considered it good but he didn't even give me the chance. I am incredibly independent (just ask my husband) and I really don't mind doing things that I am capable of doing by myself. In fact, I prefer it. I know, I still have a lot to work on...
With some reflection, and guidance from the spirit I'm sure, I started to recognize some things that perhaps should have been clear to me. The first thing I recognized is that I had asked and Heavenly Father had acted quickly to answer my prayer. The second is that it wasn't answered in the the way I expected or necessarily wanted. I think, perhaps due to my independence, when I asked for help I expected that He would help me by somehow messing with my car to keep it cool enough to drive until Chris could look at it. This way, I didn't need to depend on anyone else except my husband. You'd think I'd know better but honestly, that is what I had in mind. Instead, he had prepared a way so that before I even left for lunch my car was fixed and drive ready while giving someone else the opportunity to serve me. His way was so much better! I need to just accept what He gives, especially when I have asked for exactly what He is giving.
I saw this video a few weeks ago and I wanted to share. I am learning that teaching moments from Heavenly Father are all around us if we are looking for them. The video is about 5 minutes long but really, really good. I think it shows that amazing things are around us all the time when we are looking for them.
Love,
Shanda
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