Lately I have had way too many moments when I have felt like the Holy Spirit has prompted me to do something or say something and I have ignored it (For example when I propped Scarlet on the couch and had the thought to ask Ken to watch her while I did something else for a minute, but I didn't say anything, and then she fell face first into a pillow. Fortunately within a few seconds he did notice, but I wouldn't have felt like such a dinglebat if I had just told him to watch her. p.s. I came back soon enough that had he not noticed I am certain there would have been no lasting damage. Or the time when I asked him to go to Home Depot to buy a new air filter on his way home from work and I felt like I should send him a picture of the old one, but didn't, and he bought the wrong one.) If I had just listened and obeyed that little prompting life would have been just a tiny bit better, or easier, or more convenient, nothing dramatic, just easier. Well, in the Sunday School class that I teach we have been having an ongoing discussion about seeing Heavenly Father's hand in our life. This past week I decided I would try super hard to just act on any little thoughts that I had. One night I woke up at about 2:00am to use the bathroom (I thought I would be done with the middle of the night potty breaks after giving birth but they have not totally stopped.) As I was finishing up I had the thought, "Go check on the baby." I have also been trying to fight the first-time-mom paranoia and not check on her so much so there was a slight hesitation, but fortunately, I decided to just do it. I sort of asked the Spirit, "Do I need light?" and the answer was, "Yes" (which seems pretty obvious if you are going to go check on a child but in my half stupor I needed to ask the question.) So I went out and turned on the hall light and then went in to check on her. As I approached her crib I could see that the blanket was only half way on her body so I decided to pull it up on her. As I pulled up the blanket she startled and flailed her arms. When she flailed her arms I noticed that her sleeves were covering her little hands. Since she is a thumb sucker (see previous post for a picture) I knew that would be a problem if she needed to self-sooth later that night/morning. I was able to gently roll up her sleeves without disturbing her too much and she was able to sleep until sometime after 7:00am. I am fairly certain that had I not rolled up her sleeves she would have woken up much earlier, mad that she couldn't find her thumb and then wanting to eat. It was definitely a little tender mercy from the Lord for both of us.
One of my favorite scriptures that relates to this topic is found in the Book of Mormon, when Lehi and his family are on their journey from Jerusalem to the new promised land. They received the Liahona (compass/ball) to guide them and Nephi makes this remark, "And we did follow the directions of the ball (Liahona), which led us in the more fertile parts of the wilderness."
1 Nephi 16:16. The journey was difficult and they had to make the journey regardless, but by following the Liahona they went through the best parts of the wilderness, which made their journey just a little bit easier, just a little bit happier. When we have the gift of the Holy Spirit to be our companion, AND we act on the promptings that he gives us, our journey of life, which can be very difficult, is just a little bit easier, a little bit happier. I had another experience today at church with my Sunday School class, that I won't go into here, but it was obvious to me that it was a tender mercy and an answered prayer, and I felt like I was on cloud nine because of the great joy that I felt. To me, feeling that intense, true joy that comes from following those promptings is one of the absolute greatest things about living the gospel of Jesus Christ and looking for God's hand in my life. I know He is there.
