Sweet Reminders

17 October 2018

God called Joseph Smith by name.   He had watched over Joseph's family generation by generation long before the Scribes began writing their books.  The heavens must have been filled with great joy when Joseph Smith was born in 1805.   The Plan was still in place and going forward.   

A prayerful 14 year old Jospeh entered a grove of trees and God called him by name.   This is not hard to imagine since God had painstakingly watched over Joseph.   I wondered though,  could God really call me by name too? I have had sweet reminders through the years that might give me an answer.   

As a very young girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old, it was on my grandfather's farm of my first memory of when it was implied that maybe God did know who I was and had my best interest at heart.  When I now look back on this accident,  I realize that I was being protected.  

In 1958 while living on the farm we had our own landfill for our garbage.   Today that sounds aweful but that is the way it was.   My grandfather had dug a huge hole far off into the field.   We took our garbage barrels out there and lit it on fire and when it filled he covered it up.  It was a great thrill to ride on the tractor's trailer hitch holding on to Papa as we traveled across the field.  I had done this numerous times and was a seasoned trailer hitch rider!   

 One day my dad had taken on the job of garbage disposal and I assumed my regular position hanging on the back.   Dad proved to be the novice this day.   I guess Papa knew all the bumps, rocks, and holes along the way and knew how to avoid them.   Dad, not so much!  He hit a big rock and it bounced me off the hitch with little effort.  I landed on the ground under the trailer.   By the time Dad had realized what had happen the wheel of that trailer drove right over my little head.  There was a lot of weight in the trailer that day loaded with several garbage barrels.  My dad was ill with the immediate thought of him having crushed my head.  I am sure he thought he would find me seriously injured if not dead, but instead,  he found me dusting myself off trying to figure out how I had fallen off of my well acquainted hitch!  My head should have been crushed between the weight of the trailer and the rock hard Oklahoma ground.   The bedrock is really close to the surface of the land in Oklahoma but that day there was ONE extremely soft, sandy patch of ground.   My head just sunk into the ground and was no worse the wear.  

I never heard God call my name that day but it was evident that He knew who I was and where I was. Much later in my life it became one of those sweet reminders that God could have called me by name had He needed to do so.  

As a teen I was protected again.   Several of my summertime friends and I were swimming at our favorite swimming hole, The Bend.   It was a bend in the Spavinaw Creek that created a deep water hole.   There was also a heavenly sent boulder that was perfectly placed, probably centuries ago and served as the best diving board for miles up and down the creek.  The water was fast running and in order to get to the diving rock you had to go up stream, float down with the water inching your way over to get to the rock.  On the way down you snag the rock, pull yourself up and before you know it, your diving back into the water.  

One day several of us arrived at the Bend anticipating hours of great fun.   I was first in the water and heading toward the rock.   Just as I snagged the rock, it took my breath when I realized that I was eyeball to eyeball with a coiled up Cottonmouth snake just sitting on top of that rock like a chameleon.   I heard instructions as clearly as two people speak.... "let go NOW and float on by as if you are driftwood".   The snake nor I never flinched!  I got to shore as quickly as I could.   My friends and I went downstream and found another swimming hole.   

I didn't understand at the time what had happened but I know now.   Another sweet reminder....

Through the years there have been many such occasions just not so dramatic.    Somehow I get the feeling that I was protected a lot but I just don't always know when and how.  The reminders have not always involved protection.   Most of the time it has been just a sweet message indicating that He knows who I am and where I am.    The most recent was just a few weeks ago. 

At times I get a bit crusty and a bit hard-hearted. One Sunday morning I prayed that I would have an experience that would soften my heart and feel the Spirit.   As almost every Sunday we attended Music and the Spoken Word  to listen to the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square in the Tabernacle.  The beauty of this experience rarely varies.  It is always extraordinary.  This one Sunday while in the Tabernacle, Brian received a text from Taylor (one of my sons who has a tendency to put on a crusty smoke screen himself) including a silly little story he had written for his daughter, Juliette.  This is what he sent explaining that Juliette often makes her father write stories for her.   This is what she got that Sunday: 

My heart was touched and the tears began to flow. I am not sure if it was the cute little story or the prayer so swiftly answered.  The story was correct.... I would love Juliette no matter what!  I had received  my softened heart and my spiritual experience.   He knew exactly how to do that ... through a sweet granddaughter and a son who really can't hide from his mother behind all his crustiness.  

I love the sweet reminders that reinforce the gospel principles... that God knows who you are, where you are, what your life's mission is and what you need to accomplish that mission.   I have never heard God call me by name but He has never given me any doubts that He knows what it is!