Ava and Prayer...

A couple of weeks ago, Ava gave her first talk in primary. The topic was "I can pray to Heavenly Father and He will answer my prayers." When I asked her what she wanted to say, she thought about it for a moment and then responded, "Remember when we lost my shoe and Heavenly Father helped us find it? That's what I want to say."

Yes, this was a memorable experience. We went camping at the beach back in August. I took the kids on a bit of a hike along the bluffs and down a very steep trail leading to the beach. When we arrived at the waters edge, the waves were crashing hard on an entirely rocky coast. When the water came up, so did the kids' feet and inevitably their flip-flops would slide right off and drift into the sea. This happened a few times and I was always able to retrieve them...until the last time. Ava's shoe was just gone. No trace left behind. We searched, we scanned the incoming waves, the outgoing waves, the rocks from here to there, and nothing. The ocean had claimed for itself a blue and white striped sandal. I was a little panicked. The walk home would be nothing short of torture for me. Ava was already crying. She would have to ride on my back up the steep incline and the half mile back to the campsite. And then, though it was time to cook dinner, we'd be off to the store to find some kind of replacement (we brought no other shoes). I know, I know. I sound like a bit of a pansy but any extra work added to the amount of energy needed to keep 3 kids happy while camping was just not something I was up for. The dread was setting in and in my last ditch effort to save us from this dilemma, I offered a quiet, yet earnest prayer. And then we looked one last time. Shining in the distance, resting on a large flat rock, quite far up on the shoreline and a bit removed from the tossing waves, there shown Ava's shoe. It was as if it had been plucked out of the thieving sea and brought to rest serenely on this ordinary rock. My heart leapt, tears came to my eyes. My prayer had been answered! In my moment of doom and gloom I had forgotten to include my children in my original prayer...but there was no way I was going to completely miss this life lesson. I quickly gathered my children and together we voiced a heartfelt prayer of gratitude and relief. They have not forgotten this and I doubt they will. As for me, I think I need reminders like this every once in a while and hopefully I too will not soon forget!