How Not to Follow a Prompting....

Sometimes I get so used to following promptings of the Spirit that I take them for granted. It almost becomes so routine that I can easily wonder if it is just my natural worrying or another prompting. Sad to say, here I am, almost 60, and still having to learn a lesson the hard way.

It was at our school music concert for the parents. My MIDI students were playing a duet and another ensemble. We were to be the climax of the program. I was very familiar with their tendency to forget their music, so I had several copies made (which I used on a regular basis during lessons). But this was a concert; I had emailed parents to remember, and the morning of the concert we had a dress rehearsal concert for the students at school with one person forgetting her music... and was reminded.

Anyway, here we were, the concert was about to start and I had this odd feeling that I needed to run to my room and get my extra music. I saw that two of my students did not have music. "Where's your music?" I asked.

"We have it memorized, " they answered in chorus. No worry about them. If they said they had it memorized, they did.

I did not want to run to my room because there was no one in the room that appeared to be in charge except me. You see, all three music teachers were in their rooms rehearsing with the students. There had been a man with a seizure or heart attack or something and I had been the lone person to clear the way for the ambulance and check to see if there were adequate medical volunteers who had it under control. After the fact, I found out that no administrator would be present and the counselor, who was roaming the halls was the person in charge. She had no clue what was going on because she wasn't in the cafeteria. But I had been the one who was known by the parents, so I was the one doing all the upfront work while she called Klein police to report. By the time the ambulance left, I had been the one to notify the teachers that we were ready and lead the students on stage... I still had this panicked feeling that I needed to run and get my music, but...I reasoned, it is so late, I can't go now; I won't get back before they start.

The concert started and I still had this urgent feeling to get the music. It was so urgent, that I was pretty sure it was a prompting and not just worrying. I was up front, and could have slipped out to get it, but it would have been very noticeable...so I surveyed my students and used my form of whisper and sign language to check to see if they all had their music. They all had their music, so I guessed my feeling was just my super worrying.

When my part of the program started, all the students got seated behind their consoles and opened up their music, when one student came to me and said,  "This is not my music. I brought my music, but this is not my music. I don't know where it is." I asked a student to run to my room with one of the music teachers while I stalled on the microphone. They got back after I had described MIDI, who the students were, a little bit about the pieces, and that we were waiting for the music. When the music came, it was one page of the right music and the rest were wrong, so I had to move students on different consoles and have him share a console with another student having music in order to finish the concert.

The duets were OK, but not as clear cut as it would have been had he played his part in the octave he was supposed to. Everything else went well, but it was not the climax to the program I had wanted. A bit was taken away as we paused for the 'technical' issues. Worst of all, I knew in my heart that I had not followed the prompting that had come so many times from the Holy Ghost. I came home, knelt, and prayed for forgiveness. Those promptings are my lifeline. I had taken them for granted. I felt so bad that I had closed the door on a Divine gift, thinking I knew better.

After the fact, we found that his binder was the same as a music teacher's binder. She had got up to perform, picking up his binder and leaving hers. She was holding it the whole time. Too little, too late.

I heard another sister share her similar experience today. She had been in a long line at an outdoor barbecue place. The line was moving slowly. There was some outdoor furniture near the line and a huge opened, heavy, metal umbrella. She had felt a prompting to move the umbrella several times, but she had reasoned that she would lose her place in line or that there was no observable reason to move it, so she did nothing. In tears, she recalled a young boy beneath it as the wind pulled it up, closing it, as it collapsed, falling directly down on the boy. She, too, felt that she had betrayed the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Do not take that gift for granted. Do what you feel you must do, no matter what else you can reason away. You might not know if it was you or the Holy Ghost, but do it anyway. The more you follow those promptings, the more promptings you will get and the more you will know and recognize they are from the Holy Ghost.

Another answer to a prayer

I've been trying to teach decimals for the last few days without any aids or curriculum...all the while, knowing I had a box somewhere in the garage with decimal games, aids, and flash cards. I had been searching the boxes in the garage for 3 days with no avail. Finally, I decided it was worth a prayer...and I did. I went to the garage to search some places I hadn't been before, but passed a box I had been through and had a feeling I should go through that box. I knew there was nothing in the box, so I went ahead and emptied out a few other boxes, not finding anything. When walking by the same box again, the thought to search it came again. Well, I'm not that dumb. I decided that if I had been urged to look into the box twice, I should--even though I knew it was not in there. So I reluctantly pulled the box off the stack so I could go through it and lo and behold, the box underneath had the decimal games and flashcards. I still have two more things to find, but I am so grateful for the answer to my prayer.

The Gift of Time

I am grateful for Saturday mornings and a husband that lets me have them.

For as long as I can remember—at least as a child, Saturday meant sleeping in. The weekdays were busy. Late nights, early mornings. No naps. No rest. And for me, no idle time. Recreation, vacations, down time never existed.  So Saturday was my cherished treasure.

It was taken away with the responsibilities of married life and children. In fact, my body craved sleep so much during that time, that even when I was awake I often tried to lie down, but with children, that never lasted long. My children never napped long (as in their age) and I had so many that even when some were napping I was working to catch up on other matters or caring for another child. If someone was up for any reason in the night, so was I.  I was so sleep-deprived I often bordered on psychotic behavior, but I knew no respite. We couldn't afford someone to relieve me and daycare was never an option. Even when the children were older, we couldn't afford another car so I was up with seminary and late into the night picking children up or helping them with homework. When work outside the home entered the picture, my sleep was still deprived, but my husband took over much of the early morning seminary routes so I didn't have to get up earlier to get ready for work.

And now, when I enter the ’empty nest’ season in life, my body wakes at the normal time, but I am content to quickly fall back to sleep. When I reawaken, (my husband long gone) I lie for hours, just thinking. Memories trickle in and out of a near-wakened state as I reflect about days past, the day ahead, my problems, and things that make me happy. When I have pondered long, I often drift off to that sacred slumber again. It is pure heaven to not have to be anywhere at a certain time and have the luxury of uninterrupted time to do nothing...but think.  I treasure my Saturday mornings and am thankful that I have them again.

Even though this is a gratitude post, it occurs to me that husbands reading this need to help their wives to get the sleep and alone time they need to regain the person they are. I am grateful for the husbands of my daughters and daughter-in-law that already do this.

Fast Sunday notes

President Ezra Taft Benson said that people who are “captained by Christ will be consumed in Christ. … Enter their homes, and the pictures on their walls, the books on their shelves, the music in the air, their words and acts reveal them as Christians” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1985, 6; or Ensign, Nov. 1985, 6–7).

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

King James Version (KJV)

6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Note to self: write the story of the obscene phone call.