Mine Eyes Are Upon You

I was 16 years old & struggling.

One night I tearfully prayed for help. I also asked about something very specific.

The next night, I humbly asked my dad for a blessing.

From my journal: “I briefly, very briefly, told my dad I needed spiritual help. …dad laid his hands on my head. I was pleading he’d know what to say. He did. …It was completely amazing! Dad had no idea that happened [about the night before]. None! There is no way he could have known! This is from God!”

The blessing addressed exactly what had been on my heart.

“My dad was inspired. …The blessing was what I needed to hear. …Now I just need the strength … to heed my blessing. I pray I won’t forget it.”

I couldn’t help but think of that experience as I read about William McLellin, who said he “went before the Lord in secret, & on my knees asked him to reveal the answer to 5 questions through his Prophet.”

He approached Joseph Smith, asked for a revelation, & waited to see if he’d hear answers to his 5 questions Joseph knew nothing about. 

D&C 66 answered all 5 of his questions!

Even long after William left the church, he wrote of that experience: “I now testify in the fear of God, that every question which I had thus lodged in the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth, were answered to my full and entire satisfaction. I desired it for a testimony of Joseph’s inspiration. And I to this day consider it to me an evidence which I cannot refute.”

I also cannot refute the evidence that my good dad, through the power of God, gave me the exact answer I desired.

Answers aren’t always so obvious. Or come so quickly. But no answer comes unless we ask. 

When Nephi’s brothers questioned whether God could REALLY instruct Nephi to build a ship, he said,

“And now, if the Lord has such great power, & has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?” (1 Ne 17:51)

God is God! How is it He cannot instruct me? How is it He cannot instruct you?

He can. He will.

“Behold & hearken, O [YOUR NAME HERE], whose prayers I have heard, & whose hearts I know, & whose desires have come up before me. Behold & lo, mine eyes are upon you” (D&C 67:1-2)