Lesson

I used my ring trial as the basis for my FHE lesson this week.  Since it was still fresh on everyone's mind, I knew it was a perfect opportunity to teach about the Lord's time.  While sitting in Sacrament meeting directly after Randy had found it, I had a thought hit me pretty hard.  If I would have found it Wednesday night after I prayed to find it for family prayer I wouldn't have learned the same lesson.  We wouldn't have learned the same lesson.  I had to get to my most hopeless state, feel as if I would never see it again, to fully understand the blessing I was given.  Just like Lazarus.  His sisters knew that if Jesus had been there while their brother was alive, but deathly ill, He could have healed him.  However, the true miracle came because Jesus waited.  Just like the song by Kenneth Cope, "If he had been here, when we hoped he'd been here, we might be doubting his power over death."  My ring was definitely not a life or death miracle, but it did teach me a profound lesson.  My Heavenly Father loves me.  He answered my prayers for something as insignificant as a worldly ring.  He waited to bless me with my miracle until my hope was gone, my resolve set that I would never see it again, before he showed me his power.  He answers prayers.  Sometimes his answer is no, just as my two lost babies had been.  Sometimes his answer is not yet.  Sometimes we need to be tested.  But our prayers will always be heard by our Heavenly Father.  He loves us, He wants to bless us.  He knows the desires of our hearts and wants us to return to live with Him again.  Randy ended up finding the ring in our closet.  He doesn't really understand how it happened, either.  He was pretty confused as to how it all came about.  I was too!  The night before I had been on my hands and knees combing that very carpet.  Randy said it could have fallen out of a crevice of a suitcase he took out to get ready for today's business trip, it could have fallen when he moved around some of the baskets we use as "drawers," or it could have come out when he pulled his socks out.  Regardless, it was pretty camouflaged in the carpet.  I have no idea how I missed it, my fingers touched every inch of that carpet.  Again, I know that finding my ring didn't save lives, didn't restore health to the masses, will not be broadcast on national television as a remarkable story, but to me, it meant the world. 

I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father, who loves me, and I love Him!