Little Reminders

After a morning of disasters and blessings (missed flight+other people delayed by broken train=James gets on a severely oversold flight as a standby,) I got home in time to grab a quick shower and head back to class. I gathered my things, threw a load of laundry in the washer, then walked out to the car only to realize that I didn't have my keys. I ran back upstairs to grab them, but they were nowhere to be found. How could I lost them in only thirty minutes? I even remembered putting them in my pants pocket after I got dressed. I searched high, low, in the washer, in the garbage, everywhere, all the while muttering prayers under my breath that I would find them.

After twenty minutes I was in tears, convinced that they had been hidden from me, just like the Nephites' precious things and weapons of war during their time of greatest wickedness. I was beside myself with ridiculous panic and absolute despondency. (Quick note: I got up at 2:30 my time after a rather sleepless night. Fatigue=drama.) I decided to try one last time to stop, kneel, and offer myself up in desperate prayer for those keys. I stayed down a few minutes pondering my actions of the last half hour, going through in my mind where they were and hoping that I would have a sudden vision of an absurd hiding place that only the clever man could have found. Well, I determined that they had to be downstairs between the laundry room door and the car, but I did one more quick walk-through to make sure before I headed down. Alas, they were not there—I even opened the running washer and dug through it, hoping I had missed them the other two times. I knew they were down there, I just knew it, but I couldn't see them. So I turned over piled, I peeked in the garbage can, I moved around bottles, and THERE THEY WERE! Sitting on the shelf by the laundry detergent where I must have tossed them when I needed a free hand for dispensing the cleansing goo.

I've probably heard 479 different examples of "I prayed and found it" during a lifetime of primary exposure, but every now and again you need another remind to stop, pray, and listen. So, here's my reminder:

Stop. Pray. Listen.