18 Months of Challenges
To my children:
I have been pondering the challenges we’ve faced over the last
18 months as a family, but also, I am remembering the corresponding blessings we
enjoy. Gordon and Alison have had the unique challenge of raising two young boys
during a pandemic that has disrupted the normal development of children all over
the world, all while John faced continued problems with seizures. Eric and
Krystal have faced Eric’s life-threatening health issue that upended their
present day-to-day routine. Haley has moved to a part of the country that is
foreign to her with no nearby family support and has taken on an enormous
financial debt in the process.
Yet we are blessed.
Gordon and Alison have made prayerful decisions in guiding their children. John and Tommy appear to be
resilient to difficulties of being a child while wearing a mask. The pandemic
and hospitalizations resulting from COVID-19 are declining rapidly and we hope
normality will soon return. John is getting medication to help with his
seizures.
Eric was able to get life-saving surgery and Krystal has been
enormously loving and supportive throughout. I realize we are only part-way into
the recovery but he is clearly improving. The fact that a capable surgeon was
there in Dallas is a clear tender mercy from the Lord. We pray in faith that
more tender mercies are coming.
Haley decided to seek a Master of Social Work
degree at the University of Georgia after a prayerful search. She seems to be
adjusting well and we have faith that by following the promptings of the Lord,
she will be blessed in her career pursuit after the degree.
The problems we have
as a family are first-world problems. If we were living in Afghanistan now, we
would have far bigger problems than COVID-19, surgery recovery, and student
debt. And yet it feels like our family unity and faith are suffering during
these challenges. I want all of you to know that Felicia and I love you and long
for a chance for us to be together in happiness.
I was reading in D&C section
104 and came across this passage:
79 And it is my will that you shall humble
yourselves before me, and obtain this blessing by your diligence and humility
and the prayer of faith.
80 And inasmuch as you are diligent and humble, and
exercise the prayer of faith, behold, I will soften the hearts of those to whom
you are in debt, until I shall send means unto you for your deliverance.
Though the words are most directly applicable to debt, I think they universally apply
to recovery from any setback. The Lord will bless us more as we are diligent,
humble, and faithfully prayerful. Faith is what unites us as a family. I pray
that we will be grateful and not feel guilty for the privileges we enjoy and
that we will not be envious and resentful of others who may appear to have
greater privileges. I pray that we can personally work to bless those of lesser
privilege through our personal ministering. I pray that we can all participate
in General Conference and prayerfully seek inspiration about how the words of
living prophets can guide us as we use our agency in life choices.
Love, Dad