A Little Story about Miracles

An Explanatory Story before the Miracles:

One Saturday in high school me and my family took a trip to the mall. My padre works in the mall administration so his ideal weekend doesn't involve being at the mall, I had never willingly walked into a mall by myself until I was 23, and my little brother was infatuated with Pokemon at the time (I mean, I think we all still are deep down). Needless to say, it was the chicas idea to drag us there. We walked into a store that sold everything leather...from wallets to those nasty leather pants that were hip in the early 90's. In the store my Dad kept insisting that I get a leather jacket. I didn't want to offend him so I told him, "Dad, I would never wear that in public and it would be a huge waste of your money." I obviously wasn't very tactful at that point in my adolescence.  Why am I telling you this?? Because impulsiveness kind of runs in my family. Sometimes we can be impulsive buyers, sometimes we (cough cough Brittany) can be impulsive when a friend picks on me walking home from the bus stop, and sometimes we can be impulsive when we decide to go to Myrtle Beach on a days notice.

http://www.details.com/style-advice/rules-of-style/200611/men-shouldnt-wear-leather-jackets

On to the Miracles

This last year I had my dream job as a Freshman Mentor, and had no plans of changing that. One day I was reading in The Book of Mormon about how Christ will help us to do things that we cannot do on our own. I felt the Spirit testify to me that Christ will guide me to succeeding in using economics to help those who lack the temporal means to provide for themselves and their families. I then started to (impulsively) think about why I'm waiting for this to happen. I'm tired of waiting until I'm graduated, until I have money, until _____. What's stopping me from contributing now?

I started to go through what was taking up my time and holding me back from getting out there and helping:

• School- Well, I need to get an education so I can help. 
• Church- First off I love church, and I can't do any of this without God.
• Friends- We all know that we need friends to stay connected with humanity.
• Work-.........

I needed a job, but it did take up a lot of time. I then got a very strong impression that I needed to quit my job as a Freshman Mentor. Uh......what? I first tried to talk myself out of it by concluding that I was just buying into my impulsive personality. But I kept getting the impression to quit my job and start looking for work in an area that will help me reach my career and life goals. Talk about scary.

The next day I sent an email to my boss telling him that I will no longer be working as a Freshman Mentor. I knew God had some plan, but I was scared out of my mind. The next week I ran into an old friend on campus. After catching up he told me that there was a job opening for an Internship Director at the Ballard Center for Creating Self-Reliance, it's a center on campus that helps students to make a social impact while still in school. Coincidence? I think not. I ended up getting hired for the job not a week after I quit Freshman Mentoring.

To further add to the miracle, I ended up taking an Econ class this Spring that focuses on why poor countries are poor and what explains the difference in growth rates among countries throughout the world. I've never been so fascinated by an Econ class in my life. My professor mentioned that she's looking for research assistants, so I talked with her and now I'm helping her conduct her research.

Moral of the Story

Basically, what I've got out of all of this is that God has a specific plan for each of us, and although at times it seems like we're never going to get there, as long as we listen to Him, He'll help us out. The whole listening part is where it's tricky though. It's not always easy, but we need to know who we are. I realize that I can be impulsive, but knowing this helps me to understand that God isn't going to change who I am, but He will work with my personality. He knows that inspiring youtube videos call me to action, so He interacts with me in ways that are perfect for me. That's what I love about God-He isn't some big boss who tries to form us into someone we're not. God is a loving Heavenly Father who knows our true potential and helps us to become our best selves, and we shouldn't settle for anything less.