Witnesses of God's Love

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. -Mosiah 4:9-

Many witnesses in heaven and in earth testify of God's existence. What evidences of God and his love have you experienced?

My Wife

Wow. Big subject. One of the big ones is my wife. I know that sounds cliche, especially in light of my misdeeds, but I am very blessed to have found her. She is by far the best thing that has ever happened to me. We have had some rough times together, and I have have brought some even rougher times, but she has always been there, encouraging and uplifting me, so that I feel like I can go on. She is non-judgmental when I make mistakes and is supportive of me fixing them. Recently, as she has started her own recovery, she has also developed some new characteristics: a greater self-confidence and self-awareness that adds volumes to her personality and makes me that much more happy that I have her in my life.

Three Boys

I also have been blessed with three little terrors, I mean boys. They are handfuls, each in their own way, but they are also precious little spirits, with whom the Lord has blessed me. I am continually amazed at how unique each one is and how much potential they each have, if I can just not mess it up. I see a little of myself in each of them, as well as some of their mom. As they grow, I am sure they will bring much hardship and grief, but they will also bring many blessings and much inspiration.

Good Employment/Good Home

A good job, so that my wife can stay at home with the kids. This is a big one. Are we rich? No, but we make enough to get by. The interesting thing, it that I didn't do a whole lot of Job searching to get said employment. We lived in Logan, where I was finishing schooling. My wife and I both started in Cedar City at SUU, where we earned our bachelor's degrees. Afterwords, what with the economy in shambles, we decided that further schooling couldn't hurt. As such, we headed to Logan and Utah State University. After two years of hard work (and much lying about my addiction, but that is a post for another day), I finished my Master's Degree. We had loved the people of Logan, but could not stand the winters. This motivation turned us to look for other options and we quickly settled on my hometown: Blanding, UT. Population: 3000ish.

After much prayer, it felt right. Although, I must admit that for much of the prayer, I was not as close to the Lord as I should have been and relied much more on my wife's revelations. Again, I won't go into how this was when I started PASG, etc. That is another post. At the end of the two years, we began to get ready for the move. I put in my notice at work and began training my replacement. We also started packing. If you will notice, there was still no job in the works. We had a little in savings and I planned to do some freelancing to help hold us over, until I could find regular employment. Oh, and we were going to live with my parents (again, not a post for today).

As we were packing, I got a call from my mom, where she mentioned that they had an IT position posted at work and that I should send in my resume. I polished it up (read: re-wrote the whole thing, with the help of a great library book) and sent it in. On our last day in Logan, while we were loading the UHaul, I got a call and had my first phone interview. I was not sure how well it went, but felt okay about it. The next morning, we loaded our little family into our Jetta and the UHaul and made the 8 1/2 hour drive (longer with the moving van) to San Juan County and our families future.

That Monday, while still moving in with my parents, I got my second phone interview. They asked me to do an in person interview on Wednesday, and by Thursday I was hired. Which was good, because moving had taken a lot more of our savings than we had expected and we would not have lasted as well as we had hoped. Another boon that came with the job was full coverage health insurance. We now had financial stability and the means to provide for our health. What a blessing that was.

Good Cars

Energizer bunny car. They just last and last and last. Part of this is due to my father's and my skills with mechanics (yet more blessings), but much of it is the Lord. We bought a '96 VW Jetta just before getting married (another story not for here), which had 145k miles on it at the time. Today, she has almost 260k. I have rebuilt the engine (though it ended up unnecessary) and replaced the transmission, along with many other repairs, but she has lasted. Now, eight years later, she is relegated to the role of around town car, but she has been amazingly cheap to drive and a blessing on our finances.

Uplifting Friends

Great friends. Even if many of them are far away, we do have some good friends, who are inspirations and support. One couple, in particular, we wish could move closer, but we do enjoy the time we get wit them, despite the distance. Friends can be helpful.

Knowledge and Support

The Togetherness Project. My wife found this one a little over a month ago and it is a great support for her as she works through her trauma. Along with that, are many other things that are helping her to work through problems she may not have even realized were there. Or at least what the root cause was.

Supportive Family

Some of the family is oblivious, or doesn't understand the far reaching problem that my addiction is, but some are very helpful. A special thanks to my mother-in-law and her significant other, who have offered full, non-judging support when finding out how much their son-in-law has hurt their daughter. Such support is comforting, strengthening and uplifting.

I could probably go on, but I am running out of time here. Yep. In my life, there have been many evidences of God's love, even if during my darker times I had a hard time always seeing them.

~Sean~