No Coincidences

Tag: god

  • Temple Miracle

    Temple Miracle

    I don’t recall a good temple miracle story for myself.  I love the temple.  I feel peace in the temple.  The truth is, I’ve felt like I have a difficult time after the temple.  The idea that you can take the temple with you and feel peace in the world after leaving, I’ve personally not experienced that.  My experience has been more that as soon as I leave the temple Satan doubles and triples his efforts to bring strife and impatience into my heart.  I feel the world engulf me when I leave that peaceful home.  Of course, those are probably my own shortcomings.

    So, if you asked me my best “temple story”- a story where I felt overwhelming peace, or received a profound answer to prayer, or something drastic in my life changed after a visit, I wouldn’t immediately have an answer.  That’s not to say those things haven’t happened.  I believe if we don’t write down the miracles we experience we seldomly remember them.  What a sad thing to forget miracles.

    Salt Lake Temple

    Which leads me to writing this, to be sure I don’t forget this subtle, but profound and important miracle.

    Recently Beth and I went to the Mesa temple open house.  It was an extraordinary experience.  It was my first time doing a tour of a temple.  I’ve obviously been in the temple many times, but never taken a tour.  Also, it’s been a while since I’ve been to the temple.  Since Covid, I’ve only been to the temple once, for my sister’s wedding, aside from this recent open house visit.

    Touring the temple was amazing.  Every picture inside the temple was spectacular.  I had a hard time not pausing to stare at every picture of Jesus Christ I encountered.  I would have held up the tour if I had done so, but I love staring at any depiction of Christ and trying to fathom who He is.

    The beauty in every detail of the temple is awe-inspiring.  It is a place of pure peace.  I kept tears at bay as I walked through the halls and eternally significant rooms as I realized how much I had missed that place. 

    This leads to my miracle.  It’s small, almost unnoticeable, but significant.

    Beth and I had been having some difficulty the few days, maybe week, leading up to this open house visit.  Normal marriage stuff.  Strife, snippy comments, unkindness, our house hadn’t been a super peaceful and happy place.  I say this with the vulnerability of knowing we (as people, society, etc.) don’t often admit these things, but it’s important to understand what happened after the temple.

    There was something I realized I needed to say to Beth earlier that day, but it was difficult to say because it’s extremely difficult for me to be “touchy-feely” or “lovey-dovey.”  Wasn’t how I was raised. So there was something I needed to say but it was going to be difficult.  Then, after the temple, it came out so naturally and easily.  I believe the temple brought it comfortably out of me. Maybe because being in the temple had reminded me of the covenants I made there with Beth.

    On our drive home from the temple I told Beth this:

    “Things have been hard the past few days but that’s marriage.  It’s not always going to be great.  It’s going to be difficult and we know that.  But I need to remind you, and I need you to know, I’m not going anywhere.  I’m never going anywhere.  And neither are you.  We are here for each other no matter what, no matter how hard it gets.  We made covenants to each other and I plan on keeping mine and I know you plan on keeping yours.  And throughout any challenge we’ll become closer, and more united, and stronger for those challenges.”

    This led to a conversation about the covenants we made and how important our faith is to us, and to our relationship.  I know Beth and I will always be together because I know what our relationship is centered on.  Our relationship is centered on Jesus Christ and a covenant we made with each other that included Him.  Without that rock, without that stable foundation, the world is just too shaky and full of turmoil.  But I know we will grow through any challenge because we made eternal covenants and we plan on sticking to them.

    Where Beth and I were sealed for eternity

    I believe being in the temple in some subconscious way reminded me of the covenants we’d made and made it so easy to have that deep, emotional, and important discussion.

    I’m grateful for the temple and the covenants I’ve made there.  Life and marriage is difficult enough.  With the option of walking away, too many do.  The temple is God’s house and I know that to be true.  I know it is a beacon in a dark world.  I know it is where peace can be found.  I know it is where eternal covenants and a welding link can be established.  I am eternally grateful for that home. I am grateful for the miracle it provided me that day. I am grateful for the miracle the temple is in my life every single day, whether I visit it or not, due to the covenants made there.

    San Diego Temple
  • Do I Learn from Ivy?

    Do I Learn from Ivy?

    Sometimes I find myself praying for God to change Ivy.  Not big changes, stuff like, “help her to not be grumpy,” “make her sleep well,” “help her to be happy.”

    Then something hit me that I of course knew but needed to come face to face with. Ivy is just going through her motions.  It’s more important for me to learn to control mine. 

    Ivy can be grumpy, mean, crying, not sleeping, screaming, and causing all other sorts of havoc.  That’s not what matters.  What matters is my patience, my learning, my growth.

    I’ll say it again, Ivy’s going through her motions, and I’m learning to control mine.

    There will come a point when she will be responsible for her actions and will be accountable for her behavior.  How can I expect her to be great at controlling her behavior as she gets older if I haven’t mastered my own behavior yet?  She will learn from my (and Beth’s) example.  It makes me think of the Macklemore song called Growing Up where he says,

    “I’ll be patient, one more month

    You’ll wrap your fingers round my thumb

    Times are changing, I know

    But who am I if I’m the person you become

    If I’m still growing up”

    (Side note, as writing this I almostttt lost my patience as I pulled a piece of paper out of Ivy’s mouth and kept her from deleting everything I just typed.  The joys of fatherhood 😊)

    Back to my point, Ivy does what she does and is what she is, innocent and perfect.  I’m the one that needs to change.

    So, when I find myself mistakenly saying, “Heavenly Father, please comfort Ivy and make her know she is safe and watched over so she can sleep tonight,” instead I say, “Heavenly Father, give me the strength, energy, and patience, that even if Ivy doesn’t sleep a wink tonight, I can help her know she is watched over, I can make her feel comforted, and I can have complete patience with her as she helps me to grow.”

    I am eternally grateful for fatherhood and all it is teaching me.

  • 100th Post

    100th Post

    100 posts!  I thought it warranted a special post.  You never know when you start something like a blog if you’ll actually stick to it.  Here I am a year and a half and 100 posts later, with hundreds still to go.

    I figured as part of my first 100 posts I could mention the top 5 most read:

    1. Facing Death
    2. RIP Coach
    3. Ivy James Quackenbush 12/4/20
    4. Don Leedy-Resting in Paradise
    5. An Angel

    It’s interesting what this list shows.  Life and death.

    It was scary starting a blog.  It’s basically a public diary.  I’m excited for Ivy to read it one day.  Thank you to everyone who has read and supported.  The primary motivation in writing and sharing these posts has always been to share my faith story and hopefully help others in some tiny way.  If my story or my thoughts have helped one person think about life or come closer to Jesus Christ, then a million hours (close to how much time I’ve put into this) is worth it.

    I re-read my first post to prepare for writing this.  In reading that, I was kind of surprised by how open and vulnerable I made that.  It inspired me to share another more personal post.

    As I read that very first post I was reminded why I decided to write this.  I had my own very unique journey back to God and I hoped it could help someone, whether that be back to God or to God for the first time.  During those years where I removed God completely from my life, I feared every day I was away from Him that I’d never be able to return.  I know there are so many people out there that feel the same way.  There are also people that have never known God, prayer, repentance, all these things some of us take for granted.  These are abstract concepts to many, I know. 

    I want to share that I believe God is for everyone.  As the world screams at us, “You have your screens, your technology, your books, universities, learning, society with its conveyer belt of packaged food, water always, peace, prosperity.  Watch Netflix!  Relax!  All is well (2 Nephi 28:21).  Set aside thoughts of life, death, and purpose.  You have your purpose, live and let live.”  The world is telling us that despite the chaos around us, everything is fine, and we don’t need God.  I testify that all is well IF we have God.

    I want to tell everyone, there is more than what the world screams at us is important.  There is much, much more.  I want to tell everyone who will listen, God is for you.  If you’ve ever known Him, if you’ve never known Him, if you consider Him a complete foreign concept, if you consider Him a myth, He is for you and He is there for you.  You can come to Him, and when you do, your life changes. 

    That’s what sticks with me most when I think about those years away from God.  I removed Him, but He was never gone.  We can’t remove our Father.  This makes us accountable; it can be a frightening concept if we fear Him.  We don’t need to fear Him.  He is only there out of love.  He will never leave us.

    I bear my testimony of the most important things:  God is our Father, and He does love us.  Jesus Christ did something unimaginable.  Would you die for your child?  Would you suffer the punishment for the sins of your child?  Probably.  Would you die for the person torturing you?  Christ did.  He suffered for all of us, really suffered and felt.  I have been blessed to have the Holy Ghost be a part of my life when I’ve made good choices, since it was conferred upon me when I was 9 years old.  Joseph Smith did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  He translated the Book of Mormon from ancient records.  The temples that are now dotting the earth are God’s temples. The temples are clean and holy.  I can be with my family forever because of what Christ did for me in Gethsemane and on the cross.

    I know this to be true.  This knowledge brings purpose and understanding to my life.  It doesn’t make trials go away but it makes them understandable. 

    I wish everyone would consider the great plan of salvation, The Plan of Happiness.  But we are distracted. 

    I have been so blessed by God and I ask Him constantly what I’ve done to be afforded so much.  The least I can do is share it with others, and I am glad to do so.

    I leave this testimony for my daughter, and my family, and all those I care about to read- forever.  I leave it in the name of my Redeemer, my Savior, my King, Jesus Christ.

    Amen.

    LDS Church introduces new symbol emphasizing the centrality of the Savior | KUTV
  • The Power of Repetition

    The Power of Repetition

    If you were born after the year ~1987 and I just write the words:

    “We just got a letter.”

    “We just got a letter.”

    What happens in your mind?

    How about:

    “DARE to keep off drugs…”

    You know that painful feeling of getting a song stuck in your head?

    Ivy has started watching Blues Clues.  Don’t know how I feel about Josh as he’s not Steve.  The first thing I noticed with this new show was:

    “We just got annnn email! We just got annnn email!”  If you’ve heard it you understand the multiple n’s.

    I was just at my desk staring out the window and I couldn’t get that doggon song out of my head.  Then, I thought of better days and started singing in my mind, “We just got a letter…” and it came to me just like that.  I could hear it; I could feel it.

    It made me think about the power of repetition.  Can you believe if I hear, “we just got a letter” 20 years later, I STILL sing that exact song?  Why is that?  Repetition.  I must have heard it 100, 1000 times growing up, and I don’t even recall being a HUGE Blues Clues watcher.  (I say that in the context of how Blues Clues took over the world in the 90s).

    As I often do, I applied this to a gospel principle.  Why is it SO important that we pray and study the scriptures daily?  Repetition.  I could read the Old Testament every day for the rest of my life and still learn from it.  Nothing sticks with us humans unless we do it over…and over…and over… and over.

    That is the way we learn and grow: repetition.  Now if someone could work on a really catchy Book of Mormon jingle, I could get that book memorized.

  • You are Loved, You are Worthy

    You are Loved, You are Worthy

    “When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.”

    Think about that statement for a moment. 

    I heard this quote in a recent meditation I did.  The meditation guided this visual exercise:  Picture yourself as a child, truly picture it.  Picture yourself as a baby.  Picture yourself on someone’s lap.  Picture yourself being held, comforted, and played with.  Picture yourself laughing joyfully as someone makes a funny face at you.  Picture yourself young and innocent. 

    You don’t have to earn worthiness; you don’t have to earn love.  You are loved because you are.

    The next time you don’t feel worthy, picture yourself as a child.  You are worthy.

    This exercise led me to an even more powerful thought.  One that speaks not only to our worthiness here, but to our birthright and our eternal potential. 

    Consider Adam for a moment, the first man. When he came to this earth, we are told he was as a child. Adam came to earth meek and humble, a child-like individual. He had forgotten who he was. Who he was in reality was Michael the archangel, the chief angel. Adam was Michael, the angel second in authority. His authority was only exceeded by Jesus Christ Himself (and God, of course). In Hebrew the name Michael means “Who is like God.” This Michael came to earth with his mind wiped clean, with no recollection of his prior authority, no memory of his prior self.

    What about us?  What don’t we remember about ourselves?

    The next time you are insecure, unsure, or afraid, remember that you are a child of divine inheritance.  You are a prince or princess of the most High God.  Consider that for a moment.

    Not only are you loved and worthy of love, you are loved by the God of the universe.  You are in line to inherit all He has to offer (D&C 84:38).  Remember that, and don’t forget it.  Hold to it.

    We are as children here.  We don’t remember our past.  For all we know, we were spiritual giants.  We are spiritual giants.  We can be spiritual giants.  Embrace that identity.  Remember who you might be.  Remember who it is you have been tutored by.  The God of Heaven and Earth.  When we embrace this way of thinking and embrace this possibility, the difficult things of this earth become so inconsequential.  Our true potential is greatness.  May we never forget it.