Hi all! You know I am always excited to share a new
City Crafter Challenge Blog challenge with you all! This week we have such a FABULOUS challenge brought to us by our lovely hostess, Ros..." Let's Face the Music". The challenge is to include something to do with Music ... sheet music, a charm, an image perhaps ... even musical notes will be acceptable ...
So have fun - join us this week and "Let's face the music ..." You will want to jump on over to
City Crafter Challenge blog and be inspired by our Guest Designer,
Jill Sarginson , and all the fabulous DT! Our prize is brought to us by the EVER SO FABULOUS,
Pixie Dust Paperie...so you know it is worth playing for!
Now on a personal note I want to share with you why this layout is so important to me. It is a layout featuring my son's BEST BUDDY. He is going to be going to Sierra Leone Africa in a couple of weeks to serve as a missionary for our church. I am just soooooo proud of him. He has worked soooooo hard in order to be able to serve. He is leaving when most of his friends are about ready to come home, but this is so important to him that he is just so ready to serve. He gave his farewell talk in church yesterday and it just touched my heart so much. It was an answer to prayer, really. My son has been gone for a year and a half now. I am so grateful he is doing what he is doing and so proud of him for doing it, but I'm not going to lie...sometimes it is really hard on a mom to have your children be gone. For whatever reason I have been missing him to the extreme the last couple of weeks...to the point where my heart literally ached for him. A very real physical sensation. Well, when Payden (my son's best friend) gave his talk on Sunday he read a letter that my son had written to him. When Payden was reading this letter...it was no longer Payden's voice I heard, but my son's voice...expressing these thoughts to Payden. It was like having him right there with me for a moment and it was such a tender mercy from the Lord and soothed my heart. I would like to share the letter with you:
"Oh man i am so beyond proud and happy for you. Like every day you're in my prayers and also I just really want to share an experience with you that I had with you that I am going to remember for the rest of my life. granted we have had a lot of good times, but this experience has changed my life, as well as lives here in the spokane mission. In fact this experience is one of the reasons why I am on my mission. When we were 17 or maybe even 16 I cant quite remember; but there was a time that you got an answer from God that he was real and loved you, little did you know that I too got an answer to a prayer that I had offered two weeks previously. Two weeks before that time I had made the decision to find out for myself if the book of Mormon was true. In truth i had already offered this prayer during the day time next to the heater on the side of my house. I had a thought enter into my mind, that told me, Ty you already know its true, go forth and dont doubt it. I doubted, i thought it was my own thought, that it was not an answer to my prayer. That day I finished reading the whole book of Mormon( I didn't read it all in one day, I was already on Moroni 7), I then waited for everyone in my house to go to bed. It was about 1030 at night and I went out into the garage, and I had all the confidence in the world that this time God was going to answer me. I prayed with all my heart, and I waited, I prayed more, and I waited longer. I was then filled with unsurety, I was angry, I felt like I had not received an answer. 2 weeks later I was driving my best friend home, I noticed there was something wrong, he later went on to tell me, Ty i dont know if there is a god. I thought for a second fighting for the words to say. The spirit came over me, as I told you that I knew the church was true, and I wanted to make you a promise. I told you, Payden, I want you to go inside right now, get on your knees and ask God if He loves you, I said, payden sometimes God doesnt answer prayers right away, but I can promise you if you do this right now that he will answer you right away. You left my truck, and I drove home. The spirit came over me as I realized God had answered my own prayer, through a question of one of my best friends. I had learned that many times the answers to prayers do not come while we are on our knees waiting. I arrived home, without going back in my house, i got on my knees next to my truck, and I thanked God. I then poured out my soul, crying the whole time, that you would receive an answer. You did. You called me about 30 min to an hour later, crying on the other end and said, Ty, i received an answer, I began to cry again, and once again felt the spirit bear testimony that this was his true church, as i bore my testimony to you once again. There is very few times in my life where i have felt the spirit like I did then. And that's why I share it to you, because I think it is something special for both of us. And i have already shared it with investigators here, about my own conversion story. I love you payden, and I am so happy for you right now. Serve God with all your heart, might, mind and strength, and I will see you in three years, even stronger than the last time we talked."
I know Payden will be an AMAZING missionary and like I said before I am sooooo proud of him!!! I hope if you have a heart ache today that it will be softened.
Big HUGS, Cheryl
