Our family is in a bit of a tight spot here this summer as my husband's job went away semi-suddenly. He's been with the same company for nearly a decade, and we've been so blessed during that time. Now he's job hunting, but there is a lot of uncertainty about what this will mean for our family in the coming months.
Needless to say, with a new baby and the job situation, things are stressful for us.
So, our day to serve in the new Philadelphia Temple open house finally came last weekend. I was signed up to serve Friday night, which meant leaving my husband to fend for, feed and get our five kids settled in our downtown hotel all on his own. Let me just say that given the conditions of the downtown area where the temple is located, this was a BIG ASK.
Anyway, my shift was from 5-10pm, and the last time I had eaten was 2pm, so midway though my volunteer time I started to get hungry.
While I was standing there waiting for another group to come through my thoughts turned to food. I found myself wishing I could have a hamburger for dinner...and wishing I could tell my husband to pick one up for me before he came to pick me up (which would be well after 10pm that night.)
I couldn't text my husband though, because our cell phones and purses were being kept in the meeting house next door. So, without thinking about the impropriety of my request, I said a prayer in my head, "Heavenly Father, please ask Steve to pick up a hamburger for me before he picks me up from my shift tonight."
I caught myself and thought...um, that seems like an inappropriate request to ask God for a hamburger! What am I thinking? But I had already thought the prayer! So, again in my head, I tried to soften the request with, "A salad would be ok too...but a Burger would really hit the spot." Man, I thought, God must think I have some nerve!
When my husband picked me up, he told me how difficult it was with all the children and the circumstances at the hotel...then trying to secure dinner for them all.
I asked, "You didn't happen to pick up any food for me, did you?"
Of course, his answer was yes.
It wasn't until we made it to the hotel that I discovered he had indeed bought me a hamburger!!! (Which is not at all a usual request for me!)
He said he was all set to pick up Panera for the kids. He had even taken their orders. But when he walked downstairs to get dinner, he walked by a burger joint and he suddenly thought, "Hmmmm, a burger sounds good." He scrapped his plans and bought hamburgers for dinner instead.
I don't know why the Lord saw fit to get me a burger that evening. I am well-aware that the most powerful-being in the Universe does not need, nor should be expected to fulfill such a silly request...and yet He did and He does....all. the. time. Because He can. And because He loves us.
Because of the physical demands and changes of having a baby and the stress of not having a job, I have felt spiritually distant lately. But through this experience, I felt the Lord reaching out to me, pulling me back in, and showing me, once again, that there is nothing He can't do...no request too great or too small...and that if I will just lean on Him a little more, He can help me with anything.
The temple is beautiful. Life is beautiful...and strange sometimes.
And that burger was DELICIOUS!
(Burger Fi brands their name on their burgers as you can see. We had never even heard of Burger Fi, but even re-heated, this burger was smashingly good. So for our ward Linger Longer this week, Steve made his own branded Temple burgers!)
