A Scripture and An Unexpected Blessing

Matthew 6:33 

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

When I was a freshman at BYU, I had a great professor for my first Book of Mormon class.  One of our homework assignments due each class period was to take one of the scriptures in the reading assignment and write a two-page experience related to that concept.  I have kept those and treasure the experiences I had recorded there.  I think it is a great format and I have often thought I should do that, especially with my “most important” scriptures.  However, this experience is centered on how this specific scripture helped me make a right decision and then blessed me in an unexpected way.

Background:  I got pregnant with Jessica in my last year of graduate school at BYU. She was actually born two weeks after I finished my course work and then a week later, I was called into a very busy YW calling in the Oquirrh Shadow 39^th Ward in West Jordan.  Gary was traveling for work over 80% of the time.  As a result, I made no progress on my thesis during that first year.

When Jessica was about 11 months old, we moved from that home into another one in the Vista Lake subdivision also in West Jordan but several miles from our previous home.  Of course, that meant a new ward and new callings!  Although I was sad to leave my young women, I was looking forward to maybe teaching Primary and having a calling with “less” time demands so that I could have time to work on my thesis. 

I was so confident in that plan that I signed up for classes for the spring/summer terms so that I could begin working on my thesis.  I took one class in spring term on campus and then another class in the summer term at the Salt Lake City BYU extension.

The story:  Even as I was unpacking in our new home, the scripture from Matthew 6:33 began floating around in my head.  “Seek ye first the kingdom of God...”  This was not one of the normal scriptures that I used in my every day living, although it was and is a very familiar passage of scripture.  It was there so frequently that it caused me to reflect and see if there was any major “sins” in my life that I hadn’t taken care of.  Was I doing something counter to “seeking the kingdom of God?”  No answers came, but the scripture was often in my mind—as I was doing my dishes or playing with Jessica or whenever.

A few weeks after we moved in, I was called as the young adult advisor of the Relief Society Board—not teaching Primary like I had planned, but a calling with even less time commitment.  My plan seemed to be working.  I started my spring term class and began the beginning work on my thesis.  And yet, this scripture continued to “appear” in my mind.  “Seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”  These thoughts only intensified over the following month and at the beginning of June, I was called to serve in the Relief Society presidency—the first time that I had served in a RS presidency. I was 29 years old at that time.

And life became VERY busy.  Due to the nature of our ward which had many families moving into new houses and the fact that two of the four presidency members worked full-time, the Relief Society president and I did much of the day to day things.  I still attended my classes but work on my thesis halted completely.  There was just not time to do it all.

One Sunday near the end of the summer term, I realized that I had only one day that week which was possible for me to go to BYU to work on a final project for my infant development class which was due on Thursday night.  Although I had some general thoughts of what my project would be, I had been unable to work on it because of other demands of life and my calling.  Gary was out of town at this time, but he was getting back on Thursday morning and said that he could help me type my paper at his office, rather than me doing it on our small manual typewriter.  I made arrangements for someone to watch Jessica all day on Tuesday so that I could go to BYU to research my topic and begin writing my rough draft.  It wasn’t the ideal way to write a term paper, but it was doable.

Late Monday night, I got a phone call from Sister Paula Cox who was the Relief Society President (an amazing lady).  We chatted briefly and then she asked me what I was doing the next day.  I mentioned that I had made arrangements to spend the day at BYU to work on a final project for my class.  I asked her why and she mentioned that there was a welfare need the next day, but she would take care of it.  We chatted some more and then we hung up.  Immediately this scripture came to my mind and I knew that I was to spend the day helping Sister Cox with the welfare need.  I called her back and we made the arrangements needed to meet in the morning.  So, Jessica went to my friend’s and I went and helped.  I had a strong feeling of doing the right thing at the right time…and really the story could have ended then.  Lesson learned:  Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

But now for the rest of the story:

Tuesday night, I realized I only had about four hours free in the late afternoon/evening to work on this final project down at BYU.  I was able to find a teenager to babysit Jessica and on Wednesday I headed down to BYU.  Literally, as I was driving over the Point of the Mountain on I-15, a new idea for my project came into my mind.  Within about five minutes, the entire outline including ideas to use neighborhood children in my project came.  When I arrived at the library, I wrote down the outline and then began searching for the needed sources and information for the paper.  At the time, the library was using the card catalog system and for the first and only time in my life as a student, every book, magazine, and journal that I wanted was available on the shelves.  I was able to make the notes I needed and return home and write the paper that night, get my neighborhood children to draw pictures in the morning, and get the paper typed at Gary’s office in the afternoon to turn it on that Thursday night.

No surprise—that paper got an A+.  Of course, it did.  I didn’t really write it.

This scripture was given by Jesus in speaking to his Apostles.  His instructions were telling them to not worry about their food and clothing, because God knows they have need of these “things.”  But for me, in that week in August, I knew that I had been blessed with “these things” in the form of a final project paper which were given to me.  What a sweet and unexpected gift!