As a young boy growing up in Arizona, I will always remember Labor Day of 1972. This was when a tropical storm from the Gulf of Baja hit the Phoenix area and hit it hard. In the morning, I remember looking out to see a tuft of clouds off to the south that looked like a hand. But, by the time evening had arrived Phoenix and much of Arizona was engulfed in a horrific storm with torrential flooding, near hurricane force winds and even tornado warnings — something very uncommon for the Sonoran Desert. By the time it was over, placid gullies had turned into raging rivers as roads and bridges were washed out throughout much of the state, lives had been lost and lessons learned about where to build and not build homes.
Today we find ourselves in a similar situation. It was only a month ago when the COVID-19 situation looked like a small storm off to the horizon. Today we find ourselves engulfed in another storm — this one now of personal, economic, health and business uncertainty. Lives are being lost, fortunes are being upended, and life is at a crawl in America and throughout the world; something even two months ago would have seemed unthinkable.
The greatest storm, however, may be inside each of us. I certainly felt that as my dad explained what tornadoes sounded like. The thought of having to hunker inside a bathtub surrounded by mattresses, wondering if we’d come out alive, drove fear into my little boy heart. Today the thoughts of “what to do now” are different, but the fear is just as real. It’s very easy for that little boy heart to once again slip into panic mode and ask, “How can this be happening to us? When will this end? What will life be like when it’s over? Who among my loved ones will be affected by it?”
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught in the Lectures on Faith, “Where doubt and uncertainty are, there faith is not, nor can it be, for doubt and faith do not exist in the same person at the same time.”(Lectures on Faith 6:12) The emotion of fear is immobilizing, self-defeating, self-fulfilling and crowds out faith. No wonder Satan delights in amplifying our fears.
There is a way, however, to genuinely put fear on hold while actively – and even proactively –practicing deep and abiding faith in God. In our family we call it “Grammy’s prayer.” My mom, who our kids called Grammy, was a woman of great faith. While not a Latter-day Saint, you could still warm your hands with the fire of her trust in God. She saw when I was young that I worried too much, and trusted God too little. One night, at my bedside in my early teen years, she taught a lesson that has stuck through a lifetime.
“Bob”, she said, “far too often we approach God pleading for help or rescue. In our hearts we cry out, ‘Please, Father, save me,’ or ‘Please God, get me out of this mess.’ We may ask, ‘Why God does this have to happen?’’ As she shared this, I could certainly relate to this type or prayer. It was how I prayed all the time. But then she wisely looked at me and said, “What we need to learn to do, instead, is change these prayers of pleading into prayers of real gratitude.”
I stumbled at that suggestion and asked her what that meant. She explained, “When we want to cry out for help and assistance, when we want to give full voice to our worries and fears and throw them at the feet of our Father, if we will choose, instead, to pray, ‘Father, I thank Thee that you’ve already got this. You know the end from the beginning and have already made ample provision for deliverance. You know how it will all turn out, and I thank Thee for giving the patience, grace and power needed to pull through it. I thank Thee Father for knowing exactly what I need right now, and in the future — and having it all under control – for Thou art never late.”
She then kissed me on the forehead and said goodnight. On my way to sleep I thought about what she had just shared. I knew her life hadn’t been easy growing up with polio, experiencing the divorce of her parents and her first marriage, being a child during the depression, and a young mother during WWII. Yet her faith was solid – even the type that yielded miracles.
Years later the secret of her faith was understood by my own experiences. As President Spencer W. Kimball taught, “Faith precedes the miracle”, and indeed it does. Relating to that, there is a grand truth my mom understood: “Gratitude Feeds Faith”. When we actively practice (and even force ourselves to use) this type of grateful communication with our Father in Heaven, we are feeding our trust in Him, empowering us in the moment – and further creating the faith needed for the miracles that are forthcoming.
Grammy’s prayer has become a staple in our family, as we navigate through the storms of life. Does it yield immediate blessings? Not necessarily. But it does bring genuine peace, and it will yield miracles in His time, and in His way.
Just like the Tropical storm that hit Phoenix came to an end, this too will come to an end. The clouds will lift, the wind will cease, and the raging rivers will once again become placid gullies. We don’t know how long this will last, but we do know that we’re all in this together. We also know what this makes of us will be, in the end, what matters most.
In the newly released April 2020 Ensign President Nelson teaches, “We do not need to let our fears displace our faith. We can combat those fears by strengthening our faith. Why do we need such resilient faith? Because difficult days are ahead…How you deal with life’s trials is part of the development of your faith.” He then reassures us, “Anchored in pure doctrine, you will be able to step forward with faith and dogged persistence and cheerfully do all that lies in your power to fulfill the purposes of the Lord.”
Grammy’s prayer is a catalyst in this process of combatting fears and strengthening faith. Gratitude really does feed faith, and faith really does create the miracles we need now and always. Gratitude also empowers us to “cheerfully do all that lies in [our] power to fulfill the purposes of the Lord.” These are our days. “Let us cheerfully [and gratefully] do all things that lie in our power, and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for His arm to be revealed” (Doctrine & Covenants 123:17).
Denae B HuberApril 26, 2020
Beautiful truths - thank you for this inspiring reminder.