When I was freshman at BYU, I was living with my Aunt Geneal and Uncle Deverl in Orem. I was driving a little old Honda and it was a persnickety thing. When it decided to act up, it went home so my parents could get it fixed and I generally drove my mom’s station wagon on those weeks. The brakes on the station wagon were a lot touchier than those on the Honda, so try as I might, I always ended up jerking to a halt rather than slowing down nicely. I happened to be driving that station wagon one day in mid-winter when things were extremely icy, and the roads were treacherous. At that point in time, BYU owned twenty snowplows, but Provo city only owned three. That meant the campus roads were kept pretty snow free, but off campus was another story. One morning I was headed to campus. I was driving cautiously, knowing that I was on a stretch of road that was always particularly icy. As I traveled down the road, I felt the car begin to slide. I slowly depressed the breaks, but since the brakes were super touchy and there was no such thing as antilock brakes in those days, the brakes locked and suddenly I was sliding down the road. The car turned completely around as I slid and in the rearview mirror, I could see that I was headed directly for a UPS truck that was parked by the side of the road. I knew things were completely out of my control at that point, so I just sat there and waited for the impact. But the impact never came. One second I was sliding, and the next, the car had stopped. When I say stopped, I don’t mean it slowed down and gradually came to a stop. I mean that one second I was sliding and the next the car was at a complete standstill. There was literally only about a foot between me and that UPS truck. With my heart pounding, I realized that my morning prayer for safety had been answered. I have no doubt in my mind that without a little divine help, I would have hit that truck.
A few years later, the Honda was long gone, and I was driving a dependable Subaru wagon. Its only caveats were its tendency to overheat in very hot weather and the fact that it was an oil guzzler. Other than that, it was a great vehicle. One Sunday evening, I was headed back to my apartment after eating dinner at my parents’ house. Just as I was approaching the point of the mountain, my car lost power and I quickly steered to the shoulder where the car stopped and would not start again. It was just getting dark, I was wearing a black dress, and I was quite a long way from both the exit behind me and the one in front. So I sat in my car, said a prayer for safety, and then got out and started walking. I had only gone about a car’s length when another car pulled over. Now in general, that’s not a great situation to be in, right? It’s getting dark, a young girl is alone on the freeway, a stranger sees her and pulls over. Sounds like a great situation for a kidnapping or something, right? But despite all my knowledge about how not to become a victim of a heinous crime, I knew absolutely without a doubt that I could trust the people in that car and so I got in. The Spirit told me I could trust them, and I believed. Back in those days, cell phones were a rarity and the ones that did exist were the size, shape and weight of a brick. What are the odds that the couple who pulled over would have one? And that the man would be a BYU employee? And that despite their hard rule never to pick up strangers by the side of the road, when they saw me, they knew that they were supposed to stop and help me? When you factor in the Lord’s tender mercies, it all makes sense. They called my dad and he must have broken every speed limit between home and my location because he made it there in record time. After conversing with my helpers, my Dad felt safe letting them give me a ride back to Provo. Seriously. Once again, a prayer for safety had been answered.
About a year after we moved to our current home, I was still attending book club in my old ward. I had good friends there and didn’t really feel connected in our new ward yet, so I looked forward to that once a month gathering with my cronies. On one book club day, I spent the entire day feeling like I should not go to book club that night. I didn’t know why because I’d read the book and was really looking forward to going. It just didn’t seem to make sense. I argued with that feeling all day, rationalizing that I really wanted to go and just couldn’t see any reason not to. But by the time dinner rolled around, I finally conceded the battle and decided to stay home. By bedtime, I actually found myself feeling very glad I had not gone, although I still didn’t know why. The next day, I saw on the news that there had been one particular stretch of road that had become dangerously coated with black ice in spite of the clear weather and dry roads surrounding it. In between 9 p.m. and midnight, there were six car crashes in that one spot. On book club nights, I would drive that exact stretch of road between 9 and 10 p.m. Although I have no way of knowing exactly what would have happened had I gone to book club, I know for a fact that I would have been in a dangerous situation at exactly the wrong time. I can’t express how humbled and grateful I was that the Lord would keep me safe, even when I tried to deny the impression I received.
We had another one of those experiences yesterday. This time it was Nathan’s experience, but it supports my own experiences concerning praying for safety and having a prayer answered. Although he often lingers after school, yesterday Nathan was headed straight home so he would have time to get some homework done before his call time for the school musical. As he hit the foyer of the high school on his way to the parking lot, he suddenly had a thought that he needed to go back to the choir room. He said it was a strange thought because he knew he didn’t need to go there, but he listened and went anyway. Before he ever got back to the choir room, his phone rang, and a friend told him that his car had been hit in the school parking lot. The accident ended up damaging six cars, Nathan’s being one of four parked cars involved. Three cars were totaled and while our little Aveo ended up having only bumper damage, the impact was hard enough that it was moved completely out of its parking space. As Nathan looked at the timeline of the accident, his return to the choir room and the phone call, he realized that if he had not gone back, he would have been in the parking lot, walking to or getting into his car at the time it was hit. And had he been in the vicinity but not yet in the car, he most definitely would have been in harm’s way. He believes, and I concur, that he was the recipient of some divine inspiration.
With all these experiences resonating in my heart and mind, if I don’t pray for the safety of my family and myself every day, I spend the day weighed down by an impending sense of doom. And so I pray for the same thing every single day, but I do it with sincerity and the knowledge that the Lord has heard my prayers and blessed me and my family on multiple locations. And I have an immense sense of gratitude for those occasions when my prayers have been answered and I have seen his hand in my life. I know that those prayers will not change the outcome should the Lord deem otherwise, but I trust him. I know that he hears me, and I know that he answers. And I know that my repetitions are not vain, but sincere.
