Lately, when the kids ask why dad is gone all day Sunday or when he can't be to something because of an important church meeting or interview, I try to teach the kids that dad is needed elsewhere to help someone get a temple recommend, or return to the temple, or begin the repentance process or just counsel someone and that we, as a family, are blessed because of his service and dedication to the Lord. I've been trying to teach them that we may not ever see the hidden blessings our family receives daily, not because we don't acknowledge them, but merely because we don't know of them. That maybe coming home from Midway in a blinding snow blizzard our car is silently and safely guided home, when otherwise we wouldn't have been kept safe...we may never know all the blessings that are bestowed upon our family, but I KNOW they are there and I've felt a great need the last few weeks to testify to our children that they are and so I did, many times. So, last Tuesday night, after hooking up our new computer, the lights and every outlet in the office stopped working and when flipping the breaker switch downstairs still didn't turn anything in that room back on, we knew we needed to call an electrician. Wednesday morning I felt impressed to first call Garrett's cousin Ruth whose husband, Lonnie, is a general contractor...I felt he could direct us to someone who could help. Lonnie was so helpful and called his guy who lives in Tremonton and then told me he would probably direct me to someone local. CJ called and he had me check a few things around the house, then he asked where I lived so he could hook us up with someone close by. As I explained how to get to our house, he laughed and said "my wife has a hair appointment at Mild to Wild, just down the street and she has been asking me to go with her all morning...I'll just drop her off and come figure out what's wrong." What?? I knew this wasn't just chance...I knew it was a tender mercy from my Heavenly Father. He showed up, looked over the office and then went to the breaker box downstairs. He noticed a few things but nothing too telling. Then he took off the panel to the breaker box and said "Whoa", then he was quiet...I asked if everything was ok and he looked at me and said "I think you've been watched over many times in this home." I asked what he was seeing, then asked me to take a look at the ten or so wires that were burned inside the box...not just barely burned, but had been on fire for a few hours or so right in the breaker box and then he said that usually when one of these wires burns, the whole house burns to the ground pretty quickly...I was emotional and said kind of questioning "I think we've been blessed?"...he immediately corrected me and said "I KNOW you've been blessed!"
I took a picture of the wires to have a reminder of our family's miracle. I looked up miracles in the bible dictionary and it says "They are called signs, as being visible tokens of an invisible power; because they are the acts of One who is almighty; they are simply works, or the natural results of the Messiah's presence among men." Our family has witnessed our own miracle. CJ balanced the load coming into the box which wasn't done properly and we learned that plugging in a space heater for 4 hours to thaw frozen pipes in the upstairs bathroom wasn't the smartest thing to do. The pipes thawed, but that had probably caused the burns in the breaker box.
It made sense to me that for the past few weeks I've been talking to the kids about hidden blessings, because then I was able to testify to them that I knew our Heavenly Father had watched over us and protected our home...this had been a hidden blessing, but now were were able to SEE. I'm overwhelmed to think that our home could have burned down, but more overwhelmed with the protection we received. I told the kids that angels, maybe loved ones that have passed through the veil, are around and above our home...Wyatt laughed like crazy when I said this, but I want them to know this is true and that their mom knows it's true.
