Yesterday was my first attempt at church attendance with 5 children and no one to help me prep for the event. It ran so smooth, right up until the point where we got into the van. Strange how necessary it is to have keys if you want a vehicle to get you anywhere.
Mad dash around the house, the diaper bag, pockets, nowhere. I searched high and low in places that they off course were not. Too my mind came an article from the Ensign (August 2009). A recently returned missionary lost a set of keys to a work vehicle and he searched everywhere to find them. He decided to pray and ask the Lord to help him locate the keys. Upon the completion of his prayer the thought comes to mind to check under the truck. Strangely, he had already checked there but decides to check again. Voila, KEYS!
With this mans experience in mind I pray to ask the Lord to help me find my keys so that I can go to church. The thought comes to mind to check the diaper bag again. I check it again, Isaak checks the diaper bag, I check again and no keys. At this point I start looking for the spare. I can't find it so I call Kjel and while I'm talking with him on the phone I find the spare. Hooray we are going to go to church and we might make it before the closing hymn!
Church goes as expected, me telling children to sit up, sit quiet, sit still, just sit PLEASE! I lived through nursing at church and Kjel kept baby with him during RS so I was just hanging out alone. It was an incredible sacrament service and incredible lessons learned through talks and lessons. Truly I am edified.
It's time to go home and time to find keys again. I step into the nursery room to have Erica hold baby while I search through the diaper bag to find my spare. Here's the clincher on this. I reach my hand into my diaper bag and immediately find my keys. Remember those keys that I searched all over for, the keys that I dug through what I was certain was every crevice of the bag to find. Remember the prayer and the thought check the bag. Those are the keys that appear after one sweep of the diaper bag.
My mind is flooded with lessons gained from this ONE experience.
I'm thinking next time I'll listen and follow more closely what has been revealed.