Daily Hand of the Lord Jar

 

So, almost a whole month ago, I saw a link on Facebook to a talk by Henry B. Eyring called “O Remember, Remember.” It talked briefly about how he has made a habit over the years to write down instances of when he has seen the hand of the Lord in his daily life and how that has helped open his eyes to more spiritual experiences that he didn’t recognize before. I thought the idea of every day writing down my experiences would be a good exercise. I was originally going to do this by myself, having already an almost weekly example to write down, I thought of how much more my eyes would be opened if I started looking for them daily. But then I felt prompted to include my siblings in this as a way to help train all of us to open our eyes to things around us.

So, I put a band on a jar and we keep a selection of markers and pad of paper close by and after scripture study every night, we take a moment for each of us to write something down. Then we folded the papers up and put them in the jar, with the idea that when it was full, we’d open them all up and share them as a group, looking back over all of these wonderful experiences we had and sharing together from all of our perspectives. Well, last night, for Family Home Evening, we opened them all. We started by singing the hymn “Count Your Blessings” and saying a prayer, and TB read a story from the New Era about a girl who received comfort from the Lord at an opportune time. Then we each took turns reading each other’s papers, discovering what others had felt blessed by and also remembering how we each felt when we wrote our own.

I definitely recommend this activity for anyone else, especially those with young children in the house. It was such a rewarding experience to hear what they each thought about and what happened to them that was special on those days. Everybody was different, with different priorities, but the feelings were there, and as we came back to the present through the list, you could see the responses for all of them becoming more thoughtful and understanding of the task. I am constantly surprised and so incredibly grateful for the spiritual strength I feel in my siblings and how their example and influence has helped me grow closer to my Heavenly Father.

They don’t always have to be spiritual experiences either – or at least, something that we strictly think of as spiritual. A lot of them were listing good things that happened that made them happy. Many more were started with the phrase, “I am thankful for…” and that really encapsulates the whole point of it. A lot of times we pass things by or take things for granted. When you don’t recognize even the small things you are blessed by, it can be hard to identify when a bigger, more direct spiritual experience is happening/has happened. It starts with recognizing even those small things that happen as coming from the Lord, leading to seeing how involved He is and the impact He has on our lives.

After that, I read the entire talk that Elder Eyring gave just so they could see where this idea came from and how to continue with this task and keep recognizing the Lord’s hand in our daily lives, better and better. Looking back over my own papers, there were many things that I failed to put on this blog. I’ll be keeping these in a box, keeping them organized and together, so that someday, we can have them and the kids can look them over and remember how much the Lord has done for them through their own words and their own eyes recognizing them.