GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS
By Esther McLaws
Written 12/20/2012
When I was 17 years old I had an
experience that increased my faith. Two weeks before this experience happened
my Young Women leader gave a lesson on prayer. Part of her lesson was on how to
pray and that when we are praying we should ask for very specific things. She
told a story about someone who feel down while running and asked for the right
person to come along and it just happened to be the perfect person who could
help her. (That is sadly all the details I can remember from her lesson) But,
it was a huge part of my faith building experience, and I was able to practice
it and see it work.
I stayed out late with J.R. one
night and drove him home. We then sat and talked probably until about 1am or
something. I was sleepy and starting to fall asleep. So as an unwise teenager I
got in the car turned on the heater and started the 20 minute drive home from
Eagle Mountain to Lehi. About half way home I drifted off and ran into a pole
on the side of the road, being sleepy I didn’t realize it until after I started
to drive again and then realized I had a flat tire and I was in big trouble. It
was dark; it was still a ten to fifteen minuet drive to my house, my parents
were asleep, and I had their only vehicle. Remembering my young women’s lesson
I said a quick prayer that if someone were to stop to help me it would be the
right person. I looked for the car jack, I got out the spare tire. About five
cars passed me. Finally a man stopped. I wasn’t scared, just grateful that
someone was willing to help me out.
It was the perfect person. He has no
idea how much he helped me out that night and how his kindness has and will
always affect my testimony. Someday I hope God will bless him for it. It was an
older guy probably in his forty’s he was clearly not a practicing Mormon, but I
wasn’t scared of him. He helped me look for the jack which we couldn’t find
(later I found out it was kept in the hood of the car, of all places.) He told
me my spare tire was flat. He drove me all the way into Lehi to a gas station
with air (the one by the freeway) It was about a 20-30 min drive. He told me my
dad’s SUV was a 4 wheel drive and that I had broken off the 4 wheel drive part
that was on the wheel. He told me he was a mechanic and that he had the spare
part. If I came by his shop he would give it to me. He is one of the nicest man
I have met in my life. He told me that where he was from it was illegal to not
stop and help someone who had broken down (I doubt that is the law anywhere
anymore).
A week or so passed and my dad
searched everywhere for the part that broke off his truck. I think he found it
but they wanted $500-$1000 or something like that for the part. We went to the
guys shop in Provo and he gave it to my dad for free.
I can honestly testify that God
answers prayers, this is only one experience in my life that has proven to me
there is a God who loves and watches over us. I know he could have just let me
suffer through all that on my own and let me learn a very hard and scary
lesson. Instead he chose to have compassion on me and build my faith. I am
grateful every day for my life, for my God, and for this kind man who without
knowing it answered a prayer, and built my faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment