The Dog Experience

Hmmm. Interesting. Here I am sitting in front of a fresh blog post again. After a brief hiatus. Lapse. Apparently chasm is a synonym as well.  That's a good one.  It sounds like chaos. That just sounds so fitting for these here parts!

Regardless of what I call this great blog deficit, I just can't ignore the many (many, many) recurring thoughts (promptings) of things I know I need to write down before they are forever lost in time.

Prime example was a little experience we had today.

This morning the kiddos and I headed up to Ammon, Idaho to hear my oldest nephew speak in Sacrament before he heads down to Sao Paulo Brazil on his mission. Jacob needed to stay home for Bishopric duties so I was in the driver seat. Just me and the chaos.

We started the trip with our usual prayer then off we went.

Ugh.

I just remembered.

It was daylight savings too.

SPRING FORWARD. Lose an hour of sleep. It's not the most wonderful time of the year. I much prefer to fall back. So sorry you lovers of spring daylight savings, I don't share in your delight.

Anyhow. Back to the task at hand.

We were on a stretch through Petersboro and heading up a hill when I looked down at my speedometer and realized I was cruising along pretty fast. I had a simple thought come in my mind, "you have plenty of time, you really should slow down." So I adjusted my cruise control and took it down a few notches.

Not one minute after this, we came over the hill and onto a straightaway where a big, fat, black collie mix wandered out into the road in front of me. I had to brake fairly fast to avoid hitting it, then cringed and tried to look away as it headed toward the truck in the other lane. Thankfully the dog made it to the other side of the road and all was well. Whew!

About a minute after my heart slowed down a bit, it just hit me: I had the thought to slow down which gave me just enough distance to prevent a disaster. It hit me so quickly that I grasped the steering wheel and shouted out, "Oh my heck, that's so cool!" As quickly as I shouted it out and let it sink in, I was overcome with tears. My kids were wondering what in the world was going on! I finally got it together enough to tell them about the thought I had. They were able to put two and two together and we just kind of sat there in a beautiful silence for a minute. We had a great little discussion on the power of prayer and following the Spirit.

About 5 miles down the road as my mind was still going over what had happened and I was offering a huge prayer of gratitude, I had another thought come. (I'm slow, I admit, but I was pretty fresh on the lesson of thoughts need to be followed through with!) This thought led me to Lehi and his family. When the Lord had watched over them and helped them, they took the time to offer prayers and sacrifices specifically in gratitude. So, we had a little discussion about that and Ty offered us a prayer of thanks for the great blessing we had received.

We made it safely (and in plenty of time!) to Idaho. After a great Sacrament meeting and a nice meal with family, we started to work our way back home.

As I drove I got thinking again about our little happening. Who knows what would have happened? Would it have just injured the dog? Would the dog have been killed? Would it have traumatized the kids? (I'm a tender heart when it comes to animals, it would traumatize me!) Would it have thrown us off course and ended up in a crash? I really don't know.

One of the coolest things about these experiences is that the Lord uses them to continually teach us little by little. As I kept thinking about it, I had a new thought enter my mind. If the Lord is aware of me enough to simply tell me to slow down and not hit a dog, then He most certainly is aware of pretty much everything. In that moment the Lord was telling me that He knows and He's there. This time it worked out. But there are times when it doesn't- at least not how we want it to. Times when despite all our prayers and offerings, we still "crash." Times when I feel like I'm really struggling. Times when I feel like things aren't working out the way I want or think they should. All times. He is aware. He is there. Thankfully, this time we stayed safely on the course. But even in times when it's not going how I want, He is still very much guiding and directing me and in actuality it really is working out the way it's supposed to. This is something I need to know and remember.

So many lessons I learned and relearned today:

Prayer is so important. Yep, those simple Primary lessons once again that just get deeper over time.

Listen to those "thoughts."

Keep listening to those "thoughts."

Heavenly Father will always be there. Even if it's about a dog. Even if it's hard. Even if it seems dark. Even if I don't feel like I'm getting any of the "thoughts" I want to get.

I'm so grateful the Lord is so incredibly patient with me. I'm a slow learner, but He's willing to wait.