FEELING HIS LOVE

Most of you who read this will have had the experience of sitting in church and having the leader who's conducting the meeting ask for one or more persons in the congregation to extemporaneously bear his/her testimony. In fact, maybe you've been that person. I have sometimes heard the person who was asked begin by saying he/she had a feeling that might happen and had begun gathering thoughts. I have sometimes thought I might be that person, but it's never happened. Until last Saturday evening. At the adult session of our Stake Conference. In a room of hundreds of people. People who have lived here for years and years. People who our Stake President knows. People who might have had an impression that they would have this opportunity.

You've guessed it - I was caught by complete surprise. Not only did I not have any such forewarning, I wasn't in the best of moods. It had been a somewhat challenging day and I had gone to the meeting with a great desire to be fed spiritually. The theme for our conference was seeking, inviting, and using the gift of the Holy Ghost, and I was learning a lot as I listened and took notes. Suddenly I was putting my shoes back on, standing up, and heading toward the pulpit. It was a long walk from the center of the cultural hall (where we weren't visible to the stake president) to the stand. As I approached, I smiled at the stake presidency hoping they would know I was not upset, just overwhelmed.

As I looked out on so many members of our stake, I saw a sea of faces and recognized only one - that of my husband. I know there were a few more that I should have recognized, but I either didn't see them or I was blinded by the circumstances. As I began to bear my testimony I felt the sweet sustaining of the Spirit. I was able to express my knowledge and thoughts clearly, inspite of my emotions. After I finished and returned to my seat, I wondered why I had been one of the two people chosen to bear testimony. Two possibilities came to my mind and heart.

The first was that my loving Heavenly Father knew of my inner struggle and wanted to comfort and strengthen me as immediately as possible. He did that by providing an opportunity for me to remember and voice the truths that I know. While I bore witness to the congregation, I affirmed to myself that I do indeed KNOW that the gospel is true and that Heavenly Father knows and loves each of us individually, that His Son atoned for us, and that the gift of the Holy Ghost is real. When I recognized that this "opportunity" was a gift from Him, it was if I felt His loving arms around me.

Second, perhaps the stake president was looking for direction in his closing remarks. He said he felt impressed to talk about the Spirit's ability to bring peace. He described the additional blessings that accompany peace - light, optimism, enthusiasm, joy, confidence, and more. (I couldn't write fast enough.) He taught that the Holy Ghost is the mechanism for heaven to interact with earth and that we have control over whether we qualify for that mechanism to work in our lives. He said much more and I gained new insights and felt uplifted. I began to feel the peace that he was speaking about.

The moral of my story: God really does move in mysterious ways to perform his wonders. And if we put our trust in Him and seek to learn the language of the Spirit, we'll recognize His hand.