Answers to Prayers

In my spiritually immature mind I sometimes try to figure out why God answers some prayers immediately and others seem to go unanswered. A few months ago, at my husband's graduation, the camera slipped out of my hands minutes before he walked across the stage to receive his MBA diploma. And of course it broke. I was devastated and immediately prayed "Heavenly Father, I know you can fix this camera and I am begging you to please fix it so I can take pictures of this." I honestly believed that after my pleading I was going to take a picture and I would see something other than squiggly lines indicating it was broken. But I didn't. It was heartbreaking to me. I followed up my prayer thinking "OK, that's OK, I know you have answered other prayers and I know at least that you heard me." I do wish it had been fixed though. It was such a big moment for my husband and our family, a culmination of 3 years of hard work and diligence and I hardly have it documented.

Fast forward a few weeks after that. We were driving through Georgia on our move to Florida and it began to rain. We were on the freeway going 75mph and although the rain didn't seem like much I felt like it was starting to puddle a little on the road and I had the thought to slow down which I shared with my husband. As I began to slow down a car passed us on our left. Within seconds this car hydroplaned, began spinning circles in the middle of the highway, and hit the left side rail. The trunk flew open and the car jumped several feet into the air landing down hard on the road. Had I not slowed, this car would have spun right into our car. My husband called 911. I was in shock. It was the worst accident I have ever seen and we were seconds from being involved and seriously hurt. The thought of my two children in the back seat getting hurt brought me to tears and we had to take the next exit so that my husband could drive and I could stop shaking and crying. I then remembered the prayer we had so simply given hours earlier "Heavenly Father, we are thankful for all we have and for the safety we have had so far on our trip. Please bless us with safety again as we drive today." It went something like that at least. I KNEW without a doubt that God had answered our prayers.

If I had to pick, I would much rather have the prayer of safety answered than my silly broken camera. No matter what the outcome, I believe that we must show our faith by praying to God continually. I believe there is reason behind how our Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Whether or not we "see" an answer to our prayers, I know he hears us when we pray to Him because we are his children and he loves us. I hope to have the same magnitude of faith someday as the prophet Nephi did when he said--

"Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen."

--2 Nephi 4:35--