Christmas Blessings

This year for Christmas we traveled to see my family. Unfortunately we all got a nasty virus which lasted the entire time we were there. While laying on the couch trying to keep warm from the chills from my fever, I could hear the TV in the background left on from the mornings Mormon Tabernacle Choir program my parents like to listen to. Though on "vacation", the trials in my life were still very present and on my mind. Although I was too tired to turn and watch the TV program I found myself listening intently. They were speaking of the Mormon pioneers, specifically the Willie/Martin Handcart companies. This peaked my interest because our family has ancestors that walked in the Martin Handcart company and I have been reading and thinking about them a lot over the last year or so. I watched the movie "17 Miracles" and I felt like I had a better understanding of what those pioneers endured, but my curiosity was also peaked and I wanted to know more. I also had an ancestor, Samuel Miles, who was in the Mormon Battalion. When I was reading some information I had on him I was very impressed by his life and accomplishments. I read one writing that cited his funeral and all the people that attended and the things said. It was clear this was a great man. But as I tried to find information about his posterity,especially my line, there was little to be found and in what was found, there was little to be said. Now maybe there is more to the story and I'm just really bad at research, but I still wondered how a man could be so wonderful and great and then within a few generations have things be very different. And as I look at my ancestry I want to be like Samuel Miles, but still identify with the rest of the bunch that weren't quite so accomplished. Where do I fit in in this picture.

 So these were some of the thoughts that had been in my head as of late when I found myself intently listening to the tv show. They shared a story of a man who had walked in the Martin Handcart Company who made a statement in Sunday School when he was much older. I had heard this story before, but found a pertinent application in my life right now. The other class members had been criticizing the handcart leaders when this man stood and informed them that they knew nothing of what they were talking about. He went on to state that he didn't regret making the trek or the extreme trials he had had to endure. He told them that in their deprivation they "became acquainted with God." This phrase that they "became acquainted with God." spoke to me that this was one of the reasons for the trials I have been facing. Through all this the Lord wants me to become acquainted with Him. I always find myself in the pattern of forgetting to be diligent in my prayers and scriptures and then I find myself trying to do it on my own and then find myself not where I want to be or where the Lord wants me to be. 

Once again, the answer is simple--put forth a concious effort of reading daily and praying and then the guidance will come. My mom made a simple observation while we were having a conversation. She said that if we don't pray first thing in the morning then we won't be able to receive those blessings that the Lord has for us that day. This kindof hit me, since some days I would think the days not over yet, I can still read my scriptures and say my prayers before I go to bed. And while this method is getting it done, if I look at life through my mom's observation then I will be missing all the help I am in desperate need of. Since the kids and I had been so sick, I asked my dad and husband to give us each a Priesthood Blessing. In the blessing I received, I was told to pray and the things I was in need of I would be given. With my mom's comment I realized how necessary it was for me to make sure that the first thing I did each day was pray. I began to pray as soon as I could after waking each day and then one morning I prayed specifically for something that we needed and throughout the morning things fell into place so smoothly it was clear the Lord's hand had orchestrated it all. It reconfirmed in my heart that the Lord does know me and my family and what we are in need of. I just need to turn to Him and put Him first in my life.