Sunday, March 18, 2018

By divine design

Jill taught Relief Society today (and brought some of the most delicious chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever eaten in my life... holy cow they were AMAZING) on the talk “by divine design.” So many people shared their experiences of things in their life that could be considered coincidences, but were actually very clearly seeing the Lord’s hand guide their lives. I didn’t share any comments because other people were so willing to share theirs and I love hearing from other people, but of the many experiences that came to my mind, one was the clear winner of my thoughts.

I kept thinking about when I was a freshman at BYU. I was rooming with a very nice girl who had very nice friends and I’d enjoyed hanging out with them those few days before school started, but I could tell that they just weren’t my type. They reminded me of my private school friends, spending a lot of money and focused on having nice things, and I knew I would never fully feel comfortable being myself around them. On the first day of class, I was walking up that path from Helaman halls to campus but wasn’t sure if I was headed in the right direction and was feeling hesitant that I would be able to find my way to class (American heritage) since it was on the opposite side of campus. I saw a girl walking confidently in front of me and felt prompted that I should ask her for directions/help. Amazingly, she was going to my exact same class and knew the way (I forget how though!) and so we walked together. Class ended up being in a giant auditorium with at least 300 people. Amazingly too, she was also in my science class that I had right after. We walked and talked and she was so nice. Most amazing of all? She was in my ward! She lived in my building on the floor above me! And she had a great group of friends. She was very down to earth which was a huge blessing to me. Each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, she would come to my dorm room and pick out my clothes (I wore a uniform in high school and had a lot of trouble adjusting to picking out what I should wear each day to class), and we would walked to American heritage together. The next year, we roomed together in Liberty square (a very fun and down to earth apartment complex... not at all the super nice and high end apartment complex the other group of friends lived in and tried to get me to live in with them). Well, that was where I met Chris, which changed my BYU experience (and entire eternity) even more. My roommates were all friends with his roommates and we had SO much fun that semester. Really, the rest is history, but it’s amazing to think back to that first morning walking the path up to campus and acting on a prompting to ask for directions. Because Sarah was put in my path and I know it was not a coincidence. I would have never in a million years guessed how that one tiny little experience could have changed my entire life so dramatically for the better.
And bonus: sarah is just a really great friend to have.

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