During the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught the people the following:
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is,
and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of
little faith ?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall
we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
When Jesus was sending his disciples out to teach he told them this:
Matthew 10: 28-31
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall
not fall on the ground without your Father.
30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many
sparrows.
Heavenly Father knows us, every detail, even the ones WE don’t know
about. He knows our worth. He values us. He knows our struggles.
Even a tiny one celled creature is more complex than most of us
realize. Hannah I watched a video for
science that talked about the complexity of the flagellum on a single celled
creature. Those little whip-like tails
that move the tiny cell around are powered by a tiny motor that works just like
an outboard motor! The tiny parts of the
motor are created from proteins that assemble in exactly the right order. That’s just the cellular level, it gets even
more complex at the molecular, atomic, and quantum levels. But our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know
all of these tiny bits that make up our bodies.
They did the organizing! I can’t
even keep my house organized and clean…
I’ve been listening to Christian music on the radio while driving my
minivan for the past two and a half years.
I have found it amazing at what having those positive messages whirling
around in my subconscious can do in my life.
(Just imagine if I were better at reading the Scriptures!!). I have found myself reliving past hurts and
disappointments or having negative conversations in my brain (anyone else do
that?), only to realize that the next level deeper is the refrain to a song… He
is faithful, He is faithful.
I woke up the other morning with the following chorus from the song “I
AM” by David Crowder running through my mind.
There’s no space that his love can’t reach
There’s no place where we can’t find peace
There’s no end to amazing grace.
Take me in with Your arms spread wide
Take me in like an orphan child
Never let go
Never leave my side
I am
Holding on to you
I am
Holding on to you
In the middle of the storm
I am holding on
I am
Now you can take this song two ways.
You can think I am
holding on to HIM. Or He is holding on
to me. Think of that. The Great I AM is
holding on to YOU…
I am continually amazed by how much Heavenly
Father cares about our seemingly insignificant lives, how he answers prayers
for things that we sometimes wonder if they are too inconsequential to even ask
for. But if we don’t ask, we might not
realize just how great our God is!
Last summer, my husband heard about a
department head job at Pittsburg State University… That’s in Pittsburg… Kansas. I’d never heard of it. My parents are FROM KS, and they’d never
heard of Pittsburg. But on the other
hand, I’d never heard of Evansville before we moved here either… So, Pete heard about this opening, and I was
already convinced he’d get the job.
Before he had even applied to the school, they contacted him saying they
thought he was a good fit (Pete’s mentor from his PhD student days had made a
phone call and recommended him) and would he like to interview… I wasn’t the least bit surprised when they
offered him the job after a phone interview and a campus visit (he had to demo
his teaching and research).
So, I had 10 months to get us ready to
move… I’m not sure if that is better or
worse than short notice. The stress
lasts a LOT longer.
I started researching what I could, and found
that Pittsburg did indeed have a ward, not just a branch. I’m on a FB group for LDS homeschoolers and
one day someone asked if anyone else in the group was in KS. I responded, ‘we are moving to Pittsburg, KS
in June… not that anyone lives there.’ I
got a super excited response saying ‘we just moved from Pittsburg to KC, and we
loved it there. Great ward. We are meeting the Pittsburg youth at the KC
temple tomorrow, and I’ll let them know about you.’
umm, wow.
I started praying for friends in Pittsburg. We would be leaving so many wonderful friends
here, we would have to have good friends there as well.
In December, we planned a side trip to
Pittsburg on the way to OKC to see my
parents for Christmas. I wanted to spend
one night and go to church on Sunday to see what it was like. About a week before our planned arrival, my
husband got a phone call, on his cell phone mind you, from a church member in
Pittsburg asking us to stay with them.
Pete had him call me and work out the details and left it up to me
whether or not we spent the night with strangers… Honestly, we can only guess how all that
happened. The homeschool mom refused to
ask for our phone number because it was ‘too creepy’… Our church is very connected, and the
persistent find a way J
The members we stayed with were amazing. They invited the Bishop and his wife over to
meet us on Saturday night, and they were really nice. The church was initially disappointing to
me. So small. It was the Sunday before Christmas and the
weather was awful… so there were fewer people than normal. My 3 kids were ¾ of the primary, the Bishop’s
son was the 4th.
I started thinking we could live 20 minutes
away in a town just north of Joplin, MO.
We would go to church in Joplin then… that sounded better to me, and the
houses in that area are NICE and super inexpensive. Very temping.
However, I really felt we were supposed to live in Pittsburg.
Fast forward to early Feb. Pete had been invited to some meetings, so we
planned another trip to Pittsburg. We’d
see the town, look at some houses, maybe look around Joplin, etc. We stayed with the same older couple the
first night, and they invited a family over to meet us, a family with a
professor dad, Primary pres mom, and 5 kids (ages 9 to almost 2). Friends!
Church on Sunday was better (still no girls
Hannah’s age), and the family we’d met invited us over for dinner the following
day. They ended up with a snow day, so
we came over to play in the afternoon as well.
Looks like God wants us in Pittsburg.
His love for us is so great. He has plans for us. We just have to follow him. Every once in a while I have to sing the
Primary song, “I will go, I will do, the things the Lord commands…”
The ultimate act of unconditional love was
made through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
There is no sin that is too big.
Nothing is too big for God.
Through the Atonement God can use our sinful selves to do Great works
for Him. He wants us, He pursues
us. Think of some of the “Great Heroes”
of the Old Testament.
Noah – we know he got drunk at least once
Abraham – grew up as an idol worshipper, a
liar (how many times did he lie about being Sarah’s brother?)
Isaac – major family issues
Jacob – thief, liar, usurper (Jacob even MEANS
usurper)
Joseph – I don’t know this for sure, but I get
the feeling Joseph was an insufferable, spoiled brat
Moses – murderer
David – adulterer & murderer
Jonah – disobedient prophet
Solomon – sex addict
I think (hope!) most of us are doing a better
job than these guys, and think of how God was able to use them. Do his work through them, when they obeyed…
When I was pondering what I could talk about
for this talk, the parable of the Prodigal Son came to mind. I wanted to find a modern take on it, but
found this article from Christianity Today.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/february/prodigal-son.html
***
Disclaimer: one month after giving this talk, my marriage ended, and the kids and I didn't move. However, I know that God has something better planned for us.
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