I built Little Scripture Travelers for parents. I wanted to give them a way to help their children stay hopeful, find purpose and meaning, and think with an eternal mindset instead of a right-now mindset. Those are the things that help a person keep going, keep choosing the right, and keep faithful.
What I did not expect was that the scripture stories and family stories would do that work on me first.
When It Feels Like Heavenly Father Isn’t There
Here is the other thing I have learned. Life will stretch you until you feel like you are at a breaking point, and it can feel like Heavenly Father isn’t there. Then something happens. He sustains you, or He gives you just a little more hope.
This is the story of one of those mornings.
The Weight I Came Home To
Not long ago my wife and I went to Hawaii. I felt a lot of guilt about going. We didn’t have the money. We had gone into debt building Little Scripture Travelers. My mom was watching our girls, and she has gone her whole life without seeing Hawaii herself. But there were big family events on my wife’s side, and I had a thousand dollars in Delta flights from an award I had won at KLAS Research, where I was working at the time. So we went.
I had been praying over and over that Little Scripture Travelers would take off, and it wasn’t. I had been praying for a good new job so I could provide for my family and keep paying for the tools that keep Little Scripture Travelers running. For about two months I had been applying for SNAP, Medicaid, and unemployment, and I was turned down because I was honest and said I owned an LLC, even though it wasn’t making any money.
The trip was wonderful. Then we came home, and I was facing the hard situation I had put our family in.
A Car That Wouldn’t Even Try
Sunday morning we got up, got ready, and went out to the car. It wouldn’t even attempt to start. I thought, you have got to be kidding me.
What made it so defeating was that it hadn’t started the day before either. My brother-in-law had come over and helped us jump it. I drove it around and left it running for about half an hour. Now it was doing less than before.
I didn’t even think to pray. To be honest, I was having a hard time with prayer right then. I was still praying every day with my little girls. But most nights they are distracted and wiggly, and it rarely seems like prayer time means much to them.
Then my five-year-old, Mayble, spoke up.
“Dad, you have to pray. You remember. Heavenly Father will help it start.”
A while back my truck wouldn’t start after I picked Mayble up from preschool. We prayed, and it started. She remembered. I thought, oh man, I don’t know if it will work this time. Last time the engine was at least turning over. This time nothing happened when I turned the key.
I was doubting. But I must still have had some hope or faith left in me, because I said a prayer in my heart first. I asked Heavenly Father to please answer me and my little girls, so they could have this to spark their own little testimonies of prayer. That is how I gained mine as a boy. My mom taught me to pray and prayed with me every night, and I watched Heavenly Father answer. My faith has been built on that, one experience after another.
So my two sweet girls and I folded our arms and prayed. I walked around and turned the key, and the engine tried. I pressed the gas, and it started right up.
Tears filled my eyes.
Three Prayers, One Morning
Heavenly Father didn’t answer one prayer that morning. He answered three.
That small experience has sustained me. Heavenly Father is aware of me, of my desires, and of my desires for my little girls.
I wanted to know He saw what I was going through and how I was feeling.
I pray for this every day: that my daughters, even at three and five, will have experiences that help them gain a testimony of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and prayer. I had those experiences young, and they helped me stay on the right track.
It did.
Why He Sometimes Waits
Sometimes it seems like Heavenly Father isn’t there and isn’t answering. He may even let you struggle a little longer. I think about my own girls. I usually know what they are capable of, so sometimes I wait before I step in. Waiting makes them stronger, and it helps them believe in themselves. He knows what we can take.
I was building their faith. Then, on the morning I needed it, they built mine.
It Comes Full Circle
What I love about this story is what it shows about ordinary nights. Trying every day to nurture my daughters with scripture stories and family stories can feel useless in the moment, when they are distracted and I am tired. It isn’t. It is doing what I hoped it would do. It is building faith in them. Then it comes full circle, and they build faith in me when I need it.
I think that is one of the most powerful reasons Heavenly Father gave us families. Other than our Savior and His Atonement, the family is the greatest help He has given us for getting back to Him someday.
How the Old Stories Carried Me
It is interesting how Heavenly Father works. Over the past couple of months I have wondered whether I know how to follow His direction at all. Little Scripture Travelers has cost more than it has earned. I have worried that I made the wrong choice and put our little family in a bad place. I have had real doubts.
But writing these scripture stories kept reminding me how often Heavenly Father has led people to do hard, challenging things. I would call them adventures.
- Israel with Moses. Life got so much harder after they left Egypt that they wanted to go back and be slaves again.
- Abraham and Sarah, told to leave their home.
- Lehi and Nephi, leaving stability for the wilderness. The trips back to Jerusalem. The broken bow.
- Joseph Smith, with trial after trial, including hard financial situations.
- Brigham Young and the pioneers. I imagine there were nights he wondered whether he had made the right decision, after all they went through and all the people they lost.
Nothing was easy for any of them.
Those stories have helped me keep going. So have my family’s. My mom, who put up with so much and was still the happy, sweet, patient mom. My dad, who pushed through health problems my entire life. The stories my grandma has told me. I made Little Scripture Travelers for my two little girls, and for the families and kids of the future, so they can be resilient and prepared for the Second Coming. It turns out I needed it too.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t struggled in the quiet moments by myself. I have. I am not out of the weeds yet. I am still working toward a good job to provide for my family. But these stories give me hope and strength going forward. Even if the worst happened, even if we lost a home, many who followed Heavenly Father went through very hard things and ended triumphant.
What This Means for Your Family
What happened in our driveway is what we call a Family Story. Family Stories is the part of the app I built so families can record their own experiences, testimonies, and testimony builders, and come back to them later. It helps you stay conscious of your family’s history, so your kids can learn those stories and liken them to their own lives.
The Virtue Library holds the scripture stories, the Little Scripture Travelers stories, which you can help your children liken to their lives in the same way.
“For I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning.”
— 1 Nephi 19:23Together they help children build lives filled with hope, faith, charity, meaning, and eternal thinking. That is what makes a resilient child, and a resilient person.
And Mom, thank you for teaching me to pray, and for always being there. I couldn’t have a better mother.