One of our favorite things
to do is teach classes at BYU Campus Education Week. We
love meeting the great people who attend from all across
the country and even from distant lands.
One of our classes this year
was titled How to Become a “Miracle Family” through
Faith in Jesus Christ. We concluded the class with
Gary singing a new song Janice Kapp Perry and I wrote
called Miracles Will Come.1
The comments of class members
after the class touched our hearts so deeply that we decided
to write this article and share some of the ideas we presented,
hoping they might be inspiring to others.
Those of you who have heard
us present know that we do it together, from an outline
yet spontaneously, back and forth. We’ll try to recreate
that spontaneity in this article and hope you can feel
the Spirit in our effort. Writing it is never quite the
same as live and in the moment, but we’ll do our best.
This is a condensed version, so here we go.
JOY: When I was a little girl my Grandma
Saunders used to pull me up on her ample lap and tell
me about the miracles that happened in her life. These
faith-promoting stories had such a profound effect on
my life that I wanted to give that same blessing to our
grandchildren.
Many times she told me about
when she and my grandpa were trying out their new Model
T Ford for the first time. She was afraid to drive it
but Grandpa could hardly wait. It was a rainy day and
as they drove on the muddy dirt road they got stuck.
Grandpa asked her to drive while he got out and pushed.
She said, “No, absolutely
not. You drive and I will push us out.” She was
determined. As she pushed she accidentally turned her
ankle and caused the bone to pop out of the socket. It
was terribly painful. Grandpa got her home and he and
her brother gave her a priesthood blessing. She said,
“As they blessed my ankle to be healed I heard and felt
it pop back into place. However, when I stood on it,
it was still very painful.”
She went on, “The Lord had
put the bone back in place and I knew he could finish
the job and make the pain go away, too. I just had to
have faith.” She was scheduled to teach the young women
at church that evening and was determined to do it even
though she had to walk to the church. She said, “I was
not about to let Satan know that my ankle still hurt,
so I walked without a limp even though it hurt like sixty.”
In pain, she stood and taught
her lesson, acting as though all was normal. “Then,”
she said, “immediately after I finished the lesson the
pain went away completely and I walked home pain free.”
She emphasized, “The Lord can do anything if we have enough
faith in Him. We might have to wait a bit, but if we continue
in faith the blessing will come.”
At every opportunity I share
this, and other stories she and my dad told me, with our
grandchildren, just as I did with our children.
GARY: One of Joy’s
favorite ways to do this happens when we’re visiting them
(most of them live out-of-state, which we consider to
be one of life’s injustices). One particular set of grandchildren
likes to climb in bed with us early in the morning. There
are five of them in this little family. It gets very
crowded so I end up slipping out of the bed, leaving room
for them to be with Grandma.
JOY: He has his own
way of teaching them, which includes a good dose of teasing.
Well, one early morning when we were all snuggled in bed
I told them the experience that happened when their daddy,
John, was about 18 years old. (They love stories about
their daddy.) He and I were on our way to speak at a
stake Young Women fireside in Salt Lake City. I had been
invited to speak because of the songs that Janice Perry
and I had written on the Young Women Seven Values.2
My husband, Gary, always
sings on our programs, (I don’t because I want them to
like the songs — thank goodness the Lord blessed me with
a husband who can sing and enjoys doing it) but he was
out of town on business, so John, who also has a nice
voice, was chosen for the duty. He wasn’t happy about
it because he had other plans, but I prevailed.
It was a cold winter evening.
When we started down the hill from our house the snow
started falling. We live in Provo so we had a good forty
miles to travel. After a few minutes of driving toward
the freeway the snow became intense, almost blinding.
I was very scared and pulled over to the side of the road
and said to John, “There’s no way we can go in this storm.
It’s too dangerous. We’ll have to call them and tell
them we can’t come.”
To my surprise, John said,
“Mom, they’re counting on us. We have to go.”
I said, “We can’t drive in
this. We have to turn around and go home.”
He said, “We’re supposed
to be there, so let’s say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father
to help us get there.”
I thought he would have jumped
at the chance to get out of going, but instead he became
the strong one. It’s amazing how all those teachings come
to the surface when we least expect it.
I continued telling the story
to those little grandchildren and said, “We said a prayer,
and, with faith in our hearts, off we drove into the storm.
“Carefully we approached
the freeway with thick snow still falling. As soon as
we entered the freeway, the sky cleared and so did the
road and we traveled safely to and from the fireside.
It was a miracle. That night we thanked Heavenly Father
for blessing us.”
Just as I finished this story
our six-year-old granddaughter sat straight up in the
bed, looked at me and said in an ah-ha voice, “Grandma!
We belong to a miracle family!”
My whole being smiled at
her discovery. I agreed that indeed we did and said,
“You will one day have children of your own and they too
can be part of a miracle family as long as you keep the
commandments and have faith in Jesus Christ.”
GARY: Teaching our
children that they can experience miracles in their lives
is vitally important. They need to know that the promises
of the Lord are for them as well as for the people in
the scriptures. Nephi taught us:
The power of personal and
family scripture reading paves the way to having faith
in Jesus Christ, thus inviting the Spirit. Once the Spirit
is invited, miracles can happen. Sharing these personal
miracles with our family will give them another witness
of the loving concern Jesus has for each of us.
JOY: There is nothing
more powerful than a personal witness. It is through
the sharing of the stories of miracles in our own families
and family histories that our children grow in faith and
begin to realize that miracles continue to happen and
can happen to them personally. We need to make
the telling of these miracles a tradition in our families.
GARY:Every family
can be a miracle family. Look at your own life and remember
the times the Lord has caused a little miracle in answer
to your prayers. Then find ways to share it with your
family, at bedtime, family night, or special holiday.
Every Christmas Eve we have
a tradition of serving homemade clam chowder and telling
the story of a time when the Lord answered our prayers
in a miraculous way regarding clam chowder. It shows that
He cares about little things that may seem big to us at
the time.
This experience happened
when Joy was PTA (Parent Teachers Association) president
at our elementary school and was also a counselor in our
ward Relief Society presidency. It was a very busy time
for her. On this particular Monday she had been at the
state capitol building lobbying for save sidewalks for
the school our children attended. She was tired.
The next day was Relief Society
Homemaking Meeting (this was in those days when the women
met on a weekday morning and finished the meeting with
a luncheon) and it was her turn, along with a couple of
other sisters, to fix the meal. Since she has a great
recipe for clam chowder,3 that’s what she chose to make. She
also decided to do some carrot sticks to go with it. The
other sisters would bring rolls and dessert.
I had spent a hard day at
work and on the way home I thought about how much I was
looking forward to the good meal she would fix, followed
by a pleasant family home evening with our five children.
When I walked into the house I knew those two wishes were
probably not going to materialize. Chaos was in full
swing. She was throwing together a simple meal and at
the same time trying to get the kids to do their homework
so we could have family night. I joined the fray and we
got the meal and the homework done, then had one of the
shortest family nights in history.
When the kids were in bed
she began chopping the onions, celery and potatoes for
the clam chowder. I offered to help but she said she
could handle it and that I should to go ahead and work
on my project. I was building a TV from a kit (cheaper
than buying one).
JOY: While he was
upstairs in his attic study working on it, I added the
clams and the half and half cream to the cooked vegetables.
It was late by then and I was so very tired. I can remember
standing over that hot stove stirring the chowder, all
the while saying, “Don’t let it burn, don’t let it burn.”
It’s so easy to burn milk products. I nearly fell asleep
stirring, then all of a sudden noticed black flecks being
stirred up from the bottom of the pan. My heart sank,
“Oh, no. I burned it!”
I quickly changed pans, which
revealed the burned bottom in the pan. I put a big scoop
of the soup into a bowl and took it up to my husband to
try. Surely it would be okay. He loves clam chowder
and would tell me it was fine.
GARY: She set it down
and quickly walked out without saying a word. I was delighted.
I took a big bite and nearly gagged. It was awful. The
burn taste was so strong I couldn’t eat it. I went down
and found my wife leaning exhausted over the kitchen counter.
I took her in my arms and said, “Honey, you can’t serve
this. It tastes awful.”
She broke into tears and
sobbed on my shoulder as I held her. She was beside herself
knowing what to do about it. Ingredients for clam chowder
are expensive and we were on a very tight budget. We
could barely afford what we had already purchased. It
was about midnight and I knew she was too tired to be
burdened with this.
I said, “Honey, please go
to bed and we’ll figure it out later.” She said, “But
they’re counting on me to have this for the luncheon,
and I have to be over to the Church by 8:00 in the morning
to help set up and...”
“Please, honey, go to bed.
Things will work out.”
“But I haven’t even peeled
and cut the carrots yet.”
“Just go to bed.” We said
prayer and she went right to sleep.
By now it was nearly midnight
and I began to work on the problem. I looked in every
cookbook we had to see if there was anything that told
how to take the burnt taste out of milk products. Nothing.
I tried a late night call-in show to see if anyone knew.
Couldn’t get through. As I peeled and cut the carrots
I tried to think of what I could do. There was only one
thing left.
I went to my favorite chair
in the living room, knelt down by it and began to pray.
I apologized to the Lord for coming to Him with such a
small matter when people were dying and wars were being
fought. I said, “But this is really important for my
wife and she deserves this blessing, so would you please
just take the burnt taste out of the clam chowder?” I
apologized to Him again, thanked him, and closed the prayer,
then put the chowder in the refrigerator and went to bed.
At 6:00 am, Joy sat straight up in bed and said,
“Oh, no. I’ve got to do something about the clam chowder.”
I said, “Honey, just get
up and go taste it.” I had not tasted it since she had
brought it to me the night before.
She went into the kitchen,
got it out of the fridge, warmed a small bowl of it and
took a bite. She said incredulously, “It’s perfect!
And there are no black flecks anywhere. What did you
do?”
I told her about the prayer
and we both knew that the Lord had intervened. He took
the burnt taste out of the chowder and in the process
took away all the black flecks. It was a miracle. We
thanked him with all our hearts. And the Relief Society
sisters loved it.
This is why every Christmas
Eve we serve clam chowder and tell this story. It’s our
way of helping our children and grandchildren know that
Jesus Christ loves us and that through faith in Him, miracles
will come.
JOY: Moroni taught:
“My beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say
unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister
unto the children of men.” (Moroni. 7: 29)
That night the Lord heard
and answered my husband’s humble prayer and gave us a
miracle, and we want our children and grandchildren to
know about it, and to pass it on to their posterity.
To our delight, the Christmas Eve clam chowder tradition
continues on in their homes.
GARY: Does the sharing
of these stories have an affect on our children? It has
been significant in building our own faith and just recently
we realized how much it has meant to our grandchildren.
JOY:A few months ago
when I called our son in Oklahoma our 14 year-old granddaughter,
Jade, answered the phone and said, “Oh, Grandma, I’m so
glad you called. I have to tell you what happened.”
She said she was riding on
the school bus when a friend of hers told her that her
horse had fallen and during the fall a stick was driven
up into the horse. The doctor said an infection had set
in and nothing was working to cure it. They all knew
the horse would probably die. Jade’s friend was very
distraught about it, as was she. Jade loves horses and
cares deeply about her friends.
She said to me, “Grandma,
I sat there wishing with all my heart that there was something
I could do about it. Then all of a sudden I remembered
‘I belong to a miracle family.’ There is something
I can do.”
She continued, “I then said
a silent prayer and asked Heavenly Father to bless my
friend’s horse so it wouldn’t die. The next day my friend
told me that an amazing thing happened to her horse. It
suddenly got well and was doing fine now.
Then Jade said, “And I knew
why, Grandma. Heavenly Father did it. He still makes
miracles happen if we have faith.”
Can you imagine the joy I
felt at that moment. It’s all worth it! They’re getting
it!
GARY: Some may be
thinking that you don’t have any miracle stories to tell.
I don’t think you can be a member of this Church without
having some miracles. Problem is, sometimes we don’t
recognize them, or we fail to record them and forget them.
Think back and try to remember
any experience you’ve had when the Lord answered your
prayers, even tiny little incidents like praying and finding
your keys or other experiences. My cousin told of her
experience just last week when she lost her keys. She
searched and searched, but to no avail. Her husband said,
“Have you prayed to find them?” At that suggestion she
went into their bedroom, knelt down by the bed to say
the prayer and as she went down on her knees she saw her
keys under the edge of the dresser. Even just the willingness
to pray revealed the keys. It’s one of those little miracles
worth sharing.
If you need examples, then
share the miracles that have happened to others. They
can be very inspiring to yourself and your children and
can be a foundation for building your faith. One such
example can be found in the Relief Society/Priesthood
lesson book Teachings of Presidents of the Church:
Heber J. Grant 2002, p. 47-48.
President Grant’s story is
one that teaches that we may not always get the blessing
we seek, but another one will come to help us through
whatever happens. It tells about his wife dying and the
blessing that came to his little daughter at that time.
It’s a very inspiring story.
JOY: If you’re thinking,
“I wish I were a member of a miracle family.” The good
news is, you are! Every member of the Church,
as a result of baptism and taking the name of Christ upon
themselves, is a member of this preeminent “miracle family.”
The miracles of Christ recorded
in the scriptures bear witness of His miraculous powers.
We are His family, so these stories are our heritage.
Share these stories with your children and bear testimony
of the power of Christ in your own life. My grandma used
these stories many times. Remind them of what the Lord
said in latter-day scripture:
