miracles and tender mercies

Hi!

So, I don't normally get super spiritual on here. I think it's pretty obvious I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm not really sure why I don't get spiritual on here super often, but when you think about it, I don't even get on the blog super often, so maybe it's all the same. Anyway, I just had some cool stuff happen, and I wanted to document it! And maybe you guys will like it, who knows?

So, it's kind of a long story, but it starts back a month or so ago in April. The week Alex and I found out that we were having a boy, we went to the trusty Nordstrom Rack. There were two reasons for this - 1. I had a gift card from Alex's sweet mom that she gave me for my birthday, and 2. We had gone there a few weeks before that and looked at baby clothes for fun, and we found this little tiny leather jacket that looked EXACTLY like the leather jacket Alex has. So we had promised ourselves that if we were having a boy, we would get the jacket. (Same jackets that are in the announcement picture!)

We got to Nordstrom Rack, found the jacket that was miraculously still there, and then of course I wanted to peruse the shoes. The shoes are pretty much the reason you should go to Nordstrom Rack, in my opinion. So, I found a pair of shoes I really liked, and we were on our way to the checkout when I decided I probably needed a necklace as well. I'm not great with jewelry, but it always makes me feel more put together, so I felt like as a 25 year old woman, I should own some good jewelry. I found a pretty necklace, talked Alex into it, and we went to the register. The cashier put the necklace in the shoe box, and we headed home.

FLASH FORWARD and we come to this past weekend. My mom and I were at Nordstrom Rack looking for shoes again. (This time for her.) She tried on some shoes that I had tried on the month before and really liked. This was the first trigger. On our way out, she ran over to the skin care stuff, and I noticed the jewelry. Suddenly it all came flooding back to me. The necklace. I bought a necklace! Where was it? WHERE WAS MY NECKLACE?! I felt slightly panicked. The worst part was I had a sneaking suspicion that it was most likely in the garbage. So then I felt really guilty. I mean, I PAID for that necklace. And I just left it? In the box? And then I threw it away? What a waste of money! What was wrong with me?

I got home and told Alex about it, feeling slightly tearful. He told me not to worry, and not to cry over spilled milk. I told him it wasn't spilled milk, it was a beautiful necklace that I had PAID for, and most likely thrown away!! He seemed perplexed by my intensity.

The one glimmer of hope I had was that we are notorious for forgetting to take our garbage can out to the street. You're probably thinking, gross! For three weeks?? Umm... yes. So my only hope was that I had thrown it out after the last time we took the garbage out. To be honest, I wanted to go home and go through the trash right away. But then I reminded myself that I was having a fun weekend with family and I should forget about the necklace.

I finally did go home on Sunday night (alone, because Alex had something early Monday morning down there, and I'm still in school). It was late when I got there, so it was dark outside, but I tried going through some of the trash anyway. I couldn't see anything. It was frustrating and gross, so I decided to just give up and take the trash to the curb where it belongs on a Sunday night.

But when I got inside, I couldn't stop thinking about it! (You are probably thinking I am being so dumb right now. It's just a necklace. I don't know guys, I was possessed or something.) I read my scriptures - Ether 12 - and it was all about faith. I'm usually a pretty faithful person I like to think. I do have faith that things will always work out the way they should, and I trust that the Lord will always take care of me. It was a good reminder for me to read that chapter, because I feel like I've been really caught up in all the changes of my life lately, and I haven't been relying on the strength that comes from faith as much as I usually do. So I decided to pray.

Back in high school I lost my iPod, and I couldn't find it anywhere, so one night I prayed about it and it was literally like I was yelling in my prayer, I was so frustrated! Ha! That night, I had a dream. In the dream, I reached down into the couch cushion and pulled out my iPod. The next morning, I told my sister about the dream, and she told me to go look for it. I didn't want to because I didn't want to be disappointed and feel silly, so she went and looked for me, and you know what? It was there. The dream was real. Last year, I was making cookies, and I was about halfway through the recipe when I realized it looked like I didn't have enough flour. It looked like I had a TINY amount of flour. So I prayed about it! I knew it was a silly thing to pray about, but I did it. Because that's how I do life. And you know what? I somehow had EXACTLY four cups of flour. The right amount.

So, I prayed again on Sunday night and said, "I know it's silly. It's just a necklace. But I know that if anyone can help me find it, You can. I trust you. I will wake up early and go outside and check the garbage again. I'm willing to do it. Please help me."

Monday morning, I woke up earlier than usual, got ready for school, and walked out to the garbage can. I pulled it back in to the parking lot, and started going through it. (I got some weird looks from passersby...) You guys, I'm not even kidding. I moved a couple bags, and then suddenly, OUT OF NOWHERE the Nordstrom Rack bag appeared. Inside was the shoe box, which I pulled the lid off of with trembling hands, and inside the box was THE NECKLACE.

Don't worry, I put my garbage can back on the street. It was time.

I know this is just a silly story, and I was being ridiculous the whole time, but Monday was a great day. Things just kept falling into place! Like I said, I don't share spiritual things a lot, but I just want you all to know that I know God really truly cares about us. He cares about us all the way down to the silly things we hope for and dream about, and the material things we throw away and then panic about later. He wants us to be happy. All we have to do is have faith and trust Him. And you know what? I think it's worth it.