The Earring

 I was a frantic senior in college, living on smiles and frozen burritos. A dear friend, Alisa, had recently returned from China and brought back some souvenirs. She gave me a pair of earrings that I immediately liked and wore often. One morning, shortly after she had given them to me, I lost one. I was very disappointed, and said a small prayer. I didn’t kneel, or even close my eyes, but in my mind I said, “Father in Heaven, please help me find that earring.” I searched the music building, but to no avail. I then went about my day, working hard, trying to use my time wisely and efficiently, and keeping my eyes open for a little dangly earring. At the end of the day I returned home, probably around 7:30 pm, and realized my cupboards were bare. I made a quick trip to the grocery store. As I was walking toward the produce aisle, a fellow music major, El, stopped me, “Is this your earring?” she asked. In her hand was the earring from Alisa’s China trip. “How did you find that?” I asked earnestly. The story that followed was shocking; my earring had passed through four different hands that day to find it’s way to me at 8:00 that night.    


This is a simple tale, but through it I learned great lessons. I felt God’s love. I realized a Great Being in the heavens cared about a simple girl from Idaho. My faith increased and my heart filled with gratitude. I have since offered up many prayers that are only in my thoughts, but directed to God, and I truly feel that He listens. 

I have thought of the experience and wondered, “Why wasn’t I the one who found the earring? I’m sure I could have been led to it while I was searching.” But that is not what I was supposed to learn. It is often through another that the Lord answers our prayers. And some things are completely out of our control. We have to let them go, move on, and trust that life isn’t against us. All things are working together for our good. We have seen and unseen angels caring for our needs and desires and a loving Father in Heaven who wants us to be happy.   


“… and men are, that they might have joy.” 2 Nephi 2:25


“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 

 
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; For our light afflictions, which but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4