A Spiritual Giant

As I make my own personal progress I have been reflecting a great deal on who I want to become, how I want to be seen and observed. Thinking on how to accomplish these things I often reflect on where I came from. I have felt inspired to write these experiences and stories as I think of significant events in my life that have made me. . . me!

Now, I come from a long line of story telling people and have been warned continually by my mother that no one cares to hear our stories as much as we think they do :) And I have often heard my brother say, "You have two ears and one mouth. You should do twice as much listening as you do talking." But I wanted to record these stories as they were small yet significant moments in my life.


When I was in my youth I would often seek council from my father when I felt troubled by something. My dad was a busy man being a father to four children, a partner in his accounting firm, and a dedicated member of our ward and stake always willing to help those in need at a moment's notice. I found the best time to talk to him would be in the evenings before he or I would go to bed. One night I went to his room and he was praying. I came back 30 minutes later and he was still on his knees.

Later that week I was still bothered by something going on at school. So I went to his room again to tell him about it. I found him there on his knees, praying. I came back an hour later this time thinking that would be sufficient time to say a prayer and her was still there!

I thought, "Wow! My dad is a spiritual giant! Maybe all I need to do for help with this problem is to pray." So I did that. I prayed and after five minutes I felt I was done. I decided to keep going and going and when I started expressing thanks for each blade of grass and hair on my head I decided I needed to close the prayer.

When my mom came home from work the next day I asked her what dad prays about for hours every night. I told her that I had tried very hard and couldn't seem to pray longer than 10 minutes. Mom told me that dad suffers from Narcolepsy and it is very likely that he was asleep before the prayer began.

:)

Even if he really was sleeping it was observing him in the action of prayer that was so significant. It stuck with me and 15 years later I still think about my dad on his knees for hours. And sometimes I think there may have been nights when he didn't fall asleep. And that he actually prayed for hours. My dad's example to me helped me get through many hard times in my high school life. And I am glad he got on his knees to pray even when he likely knew he'd fall asleep there. :) I hope to tell him some day soon that the small action of prayer made a huge impact on the rest of my life.