Bike Riding and Life

Yesterday, I was riding my electric bike and thinking about how amazing it was that a person who can barely walk fifty feet at a time can ride five miles on the trails. I feel so blessed to be able to go out riding with my husband and enjoy our beautiful scenery. I told him that it was like I was riding tandem with a giant. He smiled. 

When we got home, I thought more about my experience riding an electric bike and realized that it is like my whole life. I put in a little energy which is all I have. Even though I'm doing my best, it isn't even close to being enough to enable me to do the things and progress down the trail like I want to. 

Since our Savior knows how much we all need help, He paid for our mistakes, enabling us to have His power in our lives. With His power to help me, I can change, grow, and progress down the path to eternal life with Heavenly Father and my family. It is so wonderful!

 

Coping with Loss During the Pandemic

Yesterday, I read an article called "Grieving This Season of Loss"* and watched this video. Though I know that our Heavenly Father and our Savior can give us the strength and comfort we need to make it through these times of fear and restrictions, what I haven't considered is that we are all grieving, even me! 

I've always thought of grieving as what we do when someone we love dies, but grieving includes far more. It is loss. It is the disappointment that my neighborhood high school seniors are feeling when all their celebratory activities have been canceled.  It is the postponed vacations and health care, and all the weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays without family around us. It is the loss of normal social contact and the loss of the freedom to come and go as we please. 

Going Beyond my Abilities

In 2015, I had an experience that I'll always remember. I was serving as a volunteer answering feedback on the web site for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One day I received a request for help that I knew I had to answer. A man in his late 80's wanted assistance finding an article, "Journey to the Temple", in the December 1970 New Era Church magazine. It was about the experience he and his wife, now gone, had of driving their two small children across the vast Australian outback following just a dirt track, so that they could be sealed in the New Zealand Temple. 

I could see how much this older man wanted to read again about this special experience he shared with his wife and children so many years before. I also knew that the issues of the old Improvement Era were not available on the Church site. There were some archives somewhere, but I didn't know how to find them. I also felt that this man would not be able to follow some complicated navigation to find the article himself. 

I had a strong feeling that I must find this article for this older man, but how could I do this with my limited computer savvy? I prayed and began typing and clicking on my computer. Soon his article miraculously appeared before me. I quickly sent him the link before it disappeared. He was so grateful, and I was so amazed! I never was able to find that site again. I realized at that moment that the Lord would help me do whatever things He wanted done. It didn't matter that it was far beyond my abilities; all I needed to do was try.