Act immediately!!!

Have you ever had a prompted or a thought jump right into the conversation that is either taking place vocally or in your mind? That prompting or thought interrupts and stays for a moment to see what you will do then, it leaves as you brush it off. You continue with what you are saying or thinking and then, that prompting interrupts again. You think about it for a second and then you brush it off again. The third time it comes it is so bold and now your heart is racing, anxiety starts and you just know that you need to act or suffer a heart attack or something…

Well, that happened to me tonight. We were on our away home from attending the temple with our amazing youth in our ward.

OH…let me interrupt for as second to share a thought…

(Sorry…it is so blurry)

This year, our youth have set a goal to attend the temple in behalf of 600 individuals that have passed on and are waiting for their work to be accomplished here on earth.  We have been attending a different temple each month-hoping to attend all the LDS temples in the state of Utah. Tonight, we had the privilege and blessing of attending the Manti LDS Temple. The temple workers invited us to eat in their cafeteria prior to performing baptisms for 120 individuals. It was an incredible experience and we are so grateful for the opportunity to attend the temple.

So…now back to the story.

We took pictures (in the dark) and then headed back home. Prior to leaving Provo, we had had a prayer that asked for protection to and from our temple trip. I didn’t think much of praying before we left to head back to Provo until we had been in the car for about 10 or 15 minutes. We were crazily singing songs, laughing and chatting up a storm with those in our car. Don’t worry, Whit was driving…I still cannot see that well. The thought of saying a prayer for protection entered my mind as I was talking. I brushed if off reminding myself that we already prayed. A few moments later, the thought came back and I continued with talking, singing and such...brushed it off again because we had already prayed for protection at the very beginning of our trip.  OK…the third time, the thought was so strong that my heart started beating faster and I could feel this anxious uneasiness start to feel my entire body. I opened up my mouth and blurted out that we needed to say a prayer. Immediately, I started to pray that all will be well with our group of youth and leaders and that those driving the cars would make wise choices. It was a simple prayer but definitely one that the Spirit testified needed to happen.

Moments later, as we are traveling at high speed (we were going the speed limit but it was still pretty fast) when in the middle of the road was this huge deer-standing still looking at us. Whit was able to maneuver her SUV and slow down to avoid hitting the deer. As we started to discuss what just took place and I shared the promptings that I had been having, I was grateful to have acted upon them and the Spirit was able to give me three chances to listen. If we would have it the deer, at the rate that we were traveling, we would have had some serious injuries. As I ponder the events of the evening, my heart and mind come to a sense of urgency where I need to have more courage to act on the promptings and thoughts that I have and to act immediately. I do not want to think of how I would have felt if something would have happened.

My heart is full tonight of gratitude of (finally) listening to the Spirit where my sweet little friends were protected and no harm came upon anyone of us. My goal this week is to ACT IMMEDIATELY!!!

~Michelle