The Power of Prayer

     My testimony of the power of prayer has grown leaps and bounds over the past month.  As you may or may not know, my dear wife Lisa and I are expecting another addition to our family.  This child will be number 5 for us.  We feel honored and blessed that the Lord would allow yet another child to come to our family.  A few weeks, ago Lisa starting experiencing serious pain in her abdominal area.  One Friday evening she went to work (as a labor and delivery nurse) and by 3:00 am she was a patient.  She called me early that morning to let me know.  Because I had to work that day (Saturday) I picked up a baby sitter and went to work concerned about my sweetheart.

     When I got out of work that afternoon, I hurried home, picked up the kids and we went to see Lisa at the hospital.  My parents were able to meet us there and keep an eye on the kids while I went with Lisa for an ultrasound.  Everything with the baby was fine, but a cyst was found on one of Lisa's kidney's.  This is very painful and with her being pregnant there is little that can be done until the baby is born.  Lisa remained in the hospital for several days for observation and we did not know when she would finally come home.  I did my best to handle things on my own but after a few days basically being a single parent and the stress of my job became overwhelming.

     On Monday I was written up at work for not meeting my company’s predetermined goal.  I always do my best and was so frustrated because I was ranked at the bottom compared to the my team members.  That stress, the worry for Lisa, and everything else was more than I thought I would be able to handle.  Up to that point I had tried to handle everything myself, not even thinking about calling upon others to offer up service.  Usually, I do my best to handle my own matters and forget that there are others who are ready and willing to ease my burden.

     I was so blessed to have people in my midst who found out what was going and picked up where I needed help most.  Friends and members of our local congregation (ward) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints pitched in .  I received phone call after phone call, asking me  what I needed.  Immediately dinners were brought, people came to our home to watch the children and many prayers were offered in our behalf.  At this moment I was so grateful and overwhelmed with gratitude.  I continued to offer up my own prayers.  I asked the Lord to bless me in my job that I would be able to improve and that Lisa would be able to return home and recuperate.

   I testify that the Lord answers prayers!  I was able to bring the love of my life home from the hospital that Wednesday night while a young woman from church stayed with the kids.  Lisa is still in pain, but is feeling somewhat better.  She has been able to return to her normal activities with little disruption.  I continued to work hard and pray hard that I would be able to hit goal at work, if it was the Lord’s will that I do so.  The final numbers were in on Thursday of this week for last month’s goals.  Not only did the Lord see fit to help me hit goal for the first but with His help I finished at the top of my team.  In fact, there is a strong possibility that my ending numbers are a company record!  The team goal is 8% or less and I finished with less than 1%.  The Lord is listening and will answer our prayers.  It may not always be what we think is best, but our prayers will be answered!