Everyday Miracles

In this episode, I talk about miracles—why they matter, how we can prepare for them, and how to recognize them in our everyday lives. For years, my granddaughter has asked me for a miracle story at bedtime. At first, I didn’t always have a story to tell her and I brushed it off… but her persistence encouraged me to start paying closer attention. What miracles have I experienced? What miracles are happening all around me? And how can we learn to expect miracles in our everyday life?

I am drawn to the way Jesus moved through each day with purpose, always prepared to serve, bless, and perform miracles. I talk 3 principles that help us invite miracles into our lives: 

• being specific in what we’re praying for, 
• preparing our hearts by aligning with God, and 
• moving forward in faith as if the miracle is already happening. 

I also share why our morning routine matters more than we realize—how it can align our perspective, fuel our spirit, and open our eyes to God’s hand in our day.

Quote:
“Only your unbelief will keep God from blessing you with miracles to move the mountains in your life.”
—President Russell M. Nelson

Journal Prompts:

1. What miracle do I need that I haven’t asked for yet?
2. Who can I invite to join me and strengthen both of our faith?
3. If I received my miracle, what would be my next step to move forward?

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Transcript

0:00

Good morning! Welcome to the Shine On Podcast. I am creating these podcasts as if you were sitting on my couch and we were just having a conversation together. So this podcast is early in the morning. I woke up with some thoughts about miracles and I want to share them today. My little granddaughter, my oldest granddaughter, she's 11 right now, since she was little she would always ask me for a miracle story. Every night when I tuck her in bed, she would say,"Mimi, do you have a miracle story?" And it kind of got annoying a little bit because I was like,"I'm so tired. I don't even have a miracle story." But it just settled into my heart and I thought, how can I not tell her about miracles in my life when this little girl's asking for it? And so my perspective started changing about miracles. I thought, if I can't even think of one for myself, Jesus has lots of miracle stories. I can share a miracle story of Jesus. So I started paying attention to miracles. Miracles in the scriptures, miracles in my life, miracles in other people's lives. One of my favorite places to get miracle stories is reading missionary letters. There are so many different sources of people testifying of miracles. General conference talks. It's so many places and I started becoming more aware of it. So today I want to talk about the example that we have of Jesus and His miracles that He performed. Some of my favorite stories are when He fed 5,000 people. Five loaves and two fishes. I think about that very often when I feed large crowds of people and I doubt if I have enough food. And I love to reflect on Jesus' miracle that He blessed it and it was enough. And I have never run out of food and nobody's gone hungry in my home. That's a small little miracle that I know is true. I love Jesus' story of calming the sea and walking on the water to His disciples in their boat. And I love the stories of Him raising the dead, when He raised the daughter of Jarius or Lazarus from the dead. All of these are amazing miracle stories of Jesus. My perspective has been really focused lately about my morning and how my morning sets up the rest of my day. And so I was thinking, how did Jesus start His day? We know that He went about His day looking for opportunities to serve people, to perform miracles, and to glorify His Father. When I've been thinking about this and applying it to my morning, it has changed the things that I want to do in the morning to align my will with my Father, to prepare my mind, my body, and my spirit so that I am prepared to serve others. As I've been aligning these things, I've noticed that I can expect and seek miracles in my own life. Are there opportunities to help somebody that becomes a miracle in their life? Are there things that I need in my life? That I need to seek more or prepare more for, to invite a miracle into my life. One of my first experiences with a miracle was in high school and I have an older brother and their second child was born premature and he had weak lungs and he needed to be on oxygen. He was a miracle baby, that he survived being premature, but we watched this little boy grow and he was always attached to an oxygen tank and he could never explore further than the cord would go from his oxygen tank. The first time I remember being invited to participate in a miracle was when my brother, and his wife had decided that they should pray for a miracle that this little boy's lungs could be healed enough that he would not need to be on oxygen. And so they invited all of our family to fast and pray on a specific Sunday. And at the end of the Sunday, we all got together and had a family prayer. That was the first time I had been aware of a miracle and seeing it and participating in and feeling like my faith mattered in the whole experience. So I reflected on that and I have come up with three things that I feel like happened to prepare for that moment. First of all was my brother and his wife knew specifically what miracle they were asking for. We were praying that his lungs would be healed enough that he would not need oxygen. The second thing was the element of being pure and worthy to ask for a miracle, to be obedient and to align our will with the Lord's will. And that even if we feel weak in our faith, we can invite others into the experience and it strengthens our faith and it strengthens their faith. The third thing is that after we seek and pray for a miracle, you have to act in faith. In the example of my nephew and his oxygen tank, they literally took the oxygen tube off of him that day and they moved forward as if the miracle had already happened. That was a great example to me of how you have to act in faith after you've been seeking a miracle. So that was an example when I was younger. Jump forward quite a few years, I was in a situation where my fourth baby was born and she was sick pretty much from the first day she was born. Her lungs were weak and, she did not need to be on oxygen, but she had a rough start in the first 18 months of her life. She'd had RSV three times, been in the hospital, she'd had asthma problems. She'd had so many ear infections that she got tubes. And that stage of my life, I was just really tired and exhausted. There was one particular night that she was sick again. She was about 18 months old, and I remember holding her in the front room. Everybody was asleep and I started thinking about what if I asked for this child to be healed and that we could move forward, and that she would be healed enough that she would not have, the problems that she was struggling with to breathe. And I asked my husband that night to come in the front room and give her a blessing. From that moment on, she did not require any asthma treatments. Her body was healed to a level that she could grow and, live a very healthy life. She wasn't catching all the sicknesses that went around anymore and things really improved for her. Again, it was those same three principles I think that applied to being specific in the miracle that I'm asking for, to prepare ourselves with purity and worthiness and inviting others in their faith to help strengthen our faith. And thirdly, that you move forward and act as if this miracle is happening, that it has happened and you're living it. So I have learned that we can develop the attribute of believing God's power will bless us with the miracles that we need. The Bible Dictionary defines a miracle as"extraordinary event that surpasses natural or human capacities and is attributed to the direct intervention of God, often serving as a sign of his power and purpose." Believing in miracles requires us to step back and see a broader perspective of the little things. I know I really struggle when I'm in the middle of something to see if this is a miracle or if any progress is being made. But when I get a larger viewpoint, I can see things in the past that have been leading up to this and that there is hope for something brighter in the future. Often I'm in the middle of something that I just can't see how it will turn out. So in my podcast, I like to share some journal prompts to reinforce these ideas and to help you think more personally about your own situation. So these journal prompts go like this: What miracle do I need that I have not asked for yet? Who can I invite to participate with me and strengthen both of our faith? And the third question, if I received my miracle, what would be my next step to move forward? So just as Jesus did, we can prepare ourselves each day to be awake and alert to the miracles around us. The practice I have found to be the most powerful source is to wake up believing there is something amazing about to happen. Within the first hour of being awake, I intentionally feed my mind, body, and spirit with uplifting and nourishing fuel. I recently heard this statement that says,"in the morning when I wake up, I ask God to get in my head before I do." I believe it really does matter what we think, feel, and do in the morning that sets the tone for the rest of the day, and it aligns our perspective to see more of God's influence in our life. President Nelson said,"only your unbelief will keep God from blessing you with miracles to move the mountains in your life." I hope that this has reminded you of the miracles in your life and that you will share your experiences with others. The people around you need to hear how miracles have changed your life. From your example, it can change theirs too. This is how we continue to shine the light of Christ for others.