Divine Encouters: Finding Strength Through Trials and Prayer

In this live presentation segment, Stephanie shares how a rushed 2022 ClariFix procedure meant to ease runny nose unexpectedly triggered worsening migraines and later cluster headaches, ultimately leading to her retirement. Nearly three years into chronic pain and loneliness, she describes memorizing “The Living Christ” despite brain fog and finding both spiritual and physical healing through focusing on the Savior. During a tearful prayer walk pleading for purpose, companionship, and strength to continue, she receives a timely call from a former colleague seeking help for her daughter’s debilitating anxiety and body-image fears. Stephanie offers what she learned from her own migraine journey, including discussing vitamin B3 (niacin) with a doctor as a possible calming support, and the experience becomes a personal reminder that Christ sees, hears, and answers prayers.

Thanks for listening!  I'm on Instagram as deardaughtersofgod.  Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=1iyjqx0cq4kbk&utm_content=qr66nqv 

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:00

Coming up on Dear Daughters of God. Oh, there's something.

Stephanie 0:05

Oh, there's something. Sorry. Okay. Okay. She's gonna do a dance. Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 0:21

Hello, it's Stephanie. Did you like my little dance? Yes, sometimes when I forget something or when I'm excited, I break into dance. And that's what happened in that moment because what you were seeing was a presentation, a live presentation, and that's what this next episode is. It's one little tiny segment from that live presentation of a story that you've never heard before. And so I'm going to give you just a little background, and I should thank Rozanne Marsh and Stacy Harmer for inviting me to come and give this presentation for Vibrant Living. now, the background is I had really rushed into a simple in-office procedure in an effort to try to relieve myself from this sinus pressure. It was a few years ago. This is in '22. from the sinus pressure that I was having here. it was very strong sinus pressure, and it'd been there for, a couple of years. And I'd had a couple of other symptoms that I couldn't figure out, and I thought this, simple procedure called ClariFix for runny nose, which is another symptom I had, might help the sinus pressure. I was also having other symptoms like, repeated flu-like symptoms and spasms in the back of my neck. At the time, I didn't know they were asymptomatic symptoms for migraine. And what happened was in this little freezing procedure of ClariFix, my body reacted to it, starting the next day after the procedure with migraine headaches, which gradually got worse, and then something I'd never experienced, and that was cluster headaches. And that led to my retirement as executive director of Excelsior Academies. I'm gonna be telling a story three years into this health crisis. And as you listen to it, I hope you'll think of a time in your life is God s- there? Does He see me? Does He hear me? Will He help me? And keep that in mind as you listen to this story. I think you'll enjoy it. Thanks for tuning in. Oh, if you like these stories, would you please like and subscribe to the Dear Daughters of God channel? I'd be so grateful. Thank you. See you soon.

Stephanie 2:30

Stephanie, just like she is now, she was the, like this vibrant, darling, funny, hilarious... We served together, and we just- Yeah, we did. Oh, did I, we, I fell in love with her. We were just- Oh, thank you besties- Thank you in a neighborhood where we were raising our kids. So that was so much fun. We love them. And then we were, we end up being neighbors again after many years, and You have four children, I think? Yes, I have four children and 11 grandchildren, and I actually have more than four children, 'cause I have now seven children because children-in-law. Okay. Yes. You count everybody. Started with four. Four. Got three more. Hoping for another one. Yeah. She has an absolutely amazing family, and two of them are here. and her husband. We, anyway, we just adore the Eccles. Thank you. Stephanie is also, she was a school counselor. She was trained as a counselor, and then an administrator with at Legacy- And just did amazing things. Yeah. Then retired as that, retired from there because she had some health issues, and I think she's probably gonna share a little bit about that journey. Yeah. So anyway- Yeah love Stephanie. So grateful that you're here- Thank you and we'd love to hear from you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm looking forward to all of us, having some time to get to know each other through this lesson. Okay? A significant person in my life asked me recently what I learned in the last year, and the first thing that came to my mind was, oh, I learned the living Christ. Matter of fact, I memorized the living Christ, in January, last January, of '25, and it just came to my mind, the picture of the Living Christ and the words, "Memorize this." So I thought that was gonna be very difficult because I was having migraines at the time, three to five days a week. With migraines, I was having brain fog. Brain fog is a confusion. You're not su- quite sure, what, what did I just do, and what am I supposed to do next? So this was gonna be a challenge to memorize. After starting to memorize it, it just hit me, like, a month in. You're an educator, for goodness sakes. Bring physical actions into your memorization. So I was like, "Oh, yeah. Okay." So I'm gonna share a short segment of The Living Christ, and I'll use those physical actions because they helped me memorize it. and- And it healed me physically, and it healed me spiritually. And what I didn't know was that I needed to be healed spiritually. I thought I was okay there. But now after having memorized The Living Christ, I realize that we all need to be healed spiritually as we continue on in our faith and getting to know and be like our savior, Jesus Christ. So I wanna tell you the lessons I've learned through my own stories from learning The Living Christ. Believe it or not, the first lesson goes clear back until I w- to when I was a teenager I was 16 years old, and at the time, I was a junior and attending high school, but I was also attending the University of Utah. So I'd only be at high school until 11:30 in the morning, starting when I was 14. And then I would leave at 11:30, and I'd go dance at the U, and I'd dance with their ballet company, and I would tour. So I was gone from school quite a bit. I'll take it from here. Now we're going to move forward until, my retirement date was July 1st, 2022. Now it's winter of '25, like January, and it's been almost three years of me having migraines along with cluster headache pain off and on. The severity's come down, but the, regularity has not. And, I'm honestly just worn out from this much pain this long. I was a changed person after three years of pain. I'm lonely because m- my physical ability or existence made it hard to be out and about, and I was a people person. I was used to working with all these people that I adored, and they always needed me, and I felt needed, and I lo- I wanted to be needed. And although I was doing Dear Daughters of God, a podcast is p- pretty much a lonely job. You don't have a live audience. You have no idea what people think of it unless someone calls you and tells you or f- in some other way. And I, it was a Saturday and I was having another migraine, and I was just, terribly sad. And I went outside and I took on dark glasses and I cried as I walked, and my dark glasses helped cover that. I would cry a little bit and I'd pray a little bit. I'd stop the crying and I'd just start praying, and this is what I was praying for. Dear Heavenly Father, help me to understand, my purpose. bring me companionship. Help me, continue on because it's not stopping, and yet I'm receiving blessings that I'll be healed. I'm getting fuzzy-minded. Help me, Lord. Help me, Lord. And I get a call as I'm outside. At 1:00 on a Saturday afternoon, strange to get a call. I look, and it is Wendy. And Wendy was a professional educator with me. She was a director, and a director is a principal of a charter school. And I look, and I'm thrilled that it's Wendy, but surprised because Wendy's children are much younger. They're all very much in the needy stage of life, and this is a Saturday. And when you're a director, your life is taken, and Saturdays are precious. So I thought, "Wow, I can't believe she's calling, but wow." I pick up, "Wendy, hi." She goes, "Oh, Stephanie, thank goodness you picked up." I said, "Yeah, yeah. W- how are you? W- is everything okay?" She goes, no. My daughter, Ashley, you know she's in high school now." And I said, "Yes." "She's having so much trouble, and I had the feeling, because I'm at my wit's end, that I was to call you, that you would help me." And she has no idea what I've been doing. And I said, "Yes, tell me. what's wrong with Ashley?" she's a part of this social dance club at the high school, and their competition team is just beginning to start, and she's gotten it in her mind that she's not good enough, and her body, it's not right. She thinks she's too fat. She's not fat, Stephanie." And I'm, "Oh, yes, "And even though she knows these things, and she's going to a therapist. I have her in therapy, and they're working on cognitive behavioral therapy, and they're learning about thought d- dis- distortions, how there are distorted thoughts. and she's understanding that. But when it comes to her going into the social dance class, she has this, anxiety attack. She can't go in, and she's a good student, and she's starting to flunk out. And her partner's in great distress because he has no one to dance with. her captain is ready to just pull my hair out because my daughter won't go to class. and Ashley wants to be there, but she can't get herself to go in through the room." And I said, "Oh my goodness, that's terrible." And as I'm listening to this story, I cannot believe how similar Ashley's experience was to my experience when I was a ballerina I also felt I was not good enough, although logically that did not make sense. I was sure of it. I also felt that my body was not right, although I was thin, too thin. I was sure I was heavy. And I did, I even dreamed of scenarios that might happen so I wouldn't have to go rehearse with the company because I had so much stress in getting there. So I could relate to Ashley and thought, "Heavenly Father, thank you for hearing my prayers. I know just what she's feeling." So because she was working with a therapist on distorted thoughts, I thought, "Okay, we have that covered." And she was already on a medication. I said, "I'm aware of a supplement that can help her." And I became aware of it because I was, of migraines, and it's called niacin, which is the same as vitamin B3, niacin. And I had tried it in hopes of healing from migraines in high doses. And through trying it and then reading a lot about it, found that it has this lovely side effect of calming you. And you don't need the super high dose, but boy, if you have that, you could almost go, just go right to sleep. Now, it didn't heal my migraines. It didn't, it wasn't my answer. But I did learn it helped my anxiety, which is another symptom of migraines. And I did learn now that there was another form of niacin in NMN and a lower dose, and if I took it that way, then I didn't have the terrible stomach ache. I just have a sensitive stomach. Some people don't have any problem at all. I just had a sensitive stomach and couldn't take it. And then I found a lower dose in this other form. And I said, "All right, this is what I know. It's called niacin, and it's vitamin B3, and you can get it in these different forms." And I explained it to her, and I said, and as long as it's all right with her doctor, she should take it one hour before the class begins and just try it. But I think it's going to calm her just enough that she can walk in that room, along with this other support she's getting. And Wendy said, "I'm okay, great." And Wendy takes it from there, and she works with her doctor. And indeed, this is a game changer for Ashley, and she gets to class. But you know what? My miracle was I was seen in that moment outside of the church parking lot as I was crying myself to the blitherings. I was needed, I was useful, I had a companion, and I just helped a child. and that's what I was trained to do I thought I could keep going. You see me, you hear me. I could keep going And it's this part of the living Christ that reminds me of that story. As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had so profound an influence upon all who've lived or will yet live upon the earth. And in that moment, my Savior, Jesus Christ, the God of this world, had a profound influence on my life, and I was reminded that He knew me. He saw me. He heard me. He would be with me

Stephanie Eccles 13:56

Thank you for bearing with me through this emotion Now what about you? What about in your life? Think of a time when the Savior answered your prayer and answered it quickly What were you pleading for? How did he respond? And how did that experience strengthen your faith?

Stephanie Eccles-1 14:28

It's been a joy to be with you. Thank you for sharing your lives with me as I say farewell I'll end with remember, because of Him, it is enough