Monthly Archives: October 2015

Miracles

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It seems too often that miracles are cast away upon the evocation of science and logic. The Book of Mormon even mentions that in the last days this would enfold, stating that the learned men will say, “Behold , hearken ye unto my precept; if they shall say there is a miracle wrought by the hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of miracles; he hath done his work.” [2 Nephi 28:6]

I was at church yesterday listening to a Primary program [this involves the young children giving testimony and singing songs of Christ]. One of the boys stood up and related a story about being on a plane. The plane struck some turbulence and people began panicking. The boy and his brother prayed for a miracle and he said that immediately afterwards the Lord provided a miracle by smoothing the journey.

My immediate thought on hearing this was “that is not a miracle.” The pilot, using skill and knowledge, corrected the plane’s path and smoothed out its journey. How cynical! I immediately castigated myself. To this boy, he felt the hand of the Lord. This is no doubt in part what the Lord meant when he told the people:

Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 18:3–4]

I sat there and then observed the miracles within this boy’s story. He was on a plane hurtling through the air. He had a skilled pilot who was in the right place and time. He humbly called on the Lord in faith and was answered. I then had another thought: how often had I overlooked the miracles of my life, writing them off as happenstance or luck or the skill of myself or others? I must admit that I rarely look for and even more rarely acknowledge the hand of the Lord in my life.

Do I want to live in a world without miracles? I think not.

The Joy of Zero Balance

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I have struggled for years to pay off my credit card debt. My balance may not have been as high as some that I know, but for me it often seemed to carry the weight of the world. I racked up to my limit during the years of depression that seemed to encompass me after my mother passed away. I lived for years on it, especially when I did not have a job or was paid a low salary. In all, I have probably paid off something like $10,000 over the last five years.

In August, I was finally able to pay off the remainder of the debt. The joy that I feel about that cannot be adequately defined with my own poor grasp of emotional expression. I can only say that the words that came forth on seeing the below were sufficiently exuberant. To be sure, I still owe massive amounts of debt to the government for my student loans. To see at least one zero balance, however, gives me hope to finish that off as well. I only hope that this zero balance business never extends to my checking account.Capital One Credit Card Balance

P.S. – Yeah guys, I will definitely send you that $0 by the 27th.