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Sunday 23 September 2007

Inspiration

I had my weekend all planned. It included lots of writing and catching up on my BIAM word count. Now if you look at my sidebar, you will notice that the number hasn't gone up at all - not even a little bit. This is rather discouraging to me, but there is a reason.

Friday morning we were getting ready for the day when my husband stops what he is doing and says, "We need to go to Montana." There is a story behind this. My step-dad had a stroke in August. Because he was in the hospital so long and then needed my mom home to care for him, they both lost their jobs. Mom looked locally, but couldn't find anything. Through lots of prayer and inspiration, she finally did find a job, but it is in Arizona. Last week, they decided to take it and make the move this coming Wednesday. So here is my mom, trying to pack up the house and get everything ready to go, and doing most of the work by herself because my step-dad can't be much help right now.

So my husband wakes up Friday morning and says we need to go to Montana. He had to arrange get off work early, we had to wait for the kids to get home from school and arrange for our church responsibilities to be taken care of, but we finally left late in the afternoon and got to Mom's at midnight. Saturday was spent packing and organizing, then today we went to sacrament meeting with them and made the long drive home.

Certainly not what I was planning to do this weekend, and I don't think I will ever catch up on this particular BIAM. On the other hand, as tired as we are, the packing is almost done. She just has to take care of the last bits and pieces before the ward members come on Tuesday night to help load up the truck. She never could have done it by herself. What a blessing inspiration is. This whole experience has been wonderful to watch. It is especially amazing to watch the faith of my step-dad who has only been a member of the church for a little over a year. The great thing is, we were there for them, and I was able to see my mom before they leave for Arizona.

And even though I didn't work on my BIAM, I did write for a bit while we were driving and got halfway through a short story that has been swimming around in my brain. I think that the break from the BIAM and the chance to think without having to write, is actually going to help my story, as I take it in a whole new direction. This weekend just reminded me how much we rely on the Lord for everything. I can't imagine life without inspiration.

7 comments:

Cindy Beck, author said...

Stephanie,
You know what they say, "The Lord works in mysterious ways." It seems you got the help you needed on your BIAM, even though your word count isn't where you'd hoped.

Stephanie Humphreys said...

I'm hoping to remedy the word count problem, at least a little, this week.

Tristi Pinkston said...

Stephanie, don't worry about catching up. You did what was most important. Just do what you can from here on out -- and keep it fun!

Annette Lyon said...

Totallly agree in the inspiration thing--and I'm with Tristi on not punishing yourself for not getting more words in. It'll happen.

As for the invite--I don't have your email address. If you can send it to me, I'll pop an invite over to ya! Just annette@annettelyon.com

Cheers!

ali cross said...

Stephanie, what a sweet experience! Thank you for sharing that!

I'm sad that your folks have to move so far away, but so happy for them that your mom has found a job.

How wonderful to have a husband who is close enough to the Spirit to receive inspiration - and then have the courage to act on it. And you will be blessed for your act of generous service this weekend.

hugs Stephanie!

Autumn Ables said...

What an amazing daughter you are! I wish I could give a warm {hot} welcome to your mother as she enters my home state of Arizona. I'd say a beautiful lei would be nice but it would end up being a ring of cactus needles. :)

Stephanie, I feel like SO many other things have been presented, thrown or driving me AWAY from my writing project. I know how you feel. I'm beginning to realize that we have to put our bodies in the place it needs to be at the moment it needs to be there. If we didn't do that- how could the Lord bless us in our writing? We can't neglect the other gifts we are caretakers over.

Tonight a string of unexpected events happened. I suppose I was at the right place at the right time now that I think about it. I was able to share a little bit about the gospel with a complete stranger and invited him to look at lds.org


I think sometimes we are thrown away from what we think is important in order for the Lords work to be done in complete harmony. Our writing is apart of His work- we stand for goodness and seek to strengthen others through our writing.- But there are other things that have to be done as well for His work to move forward. And helping your mother was apart of that. I'm sure you want to be found doing our Father's work. ;)

Stephanie Humphreys said...

Thanks everyone for the encouragement on the BIAM. I haven't gotten very far, but it sure has got me thinking.

ajoy-My mother would love the warm welcome. She is going home, because she was born and raised in Phoenix. But a warm welcome is always welcome.

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