We had an experience in our family that has really made me think of how much our Savior and our friend loves us.
When Emily was a little girl she was very afraid of bugs, especially spiders. Many times we would have to kill any bugs or spiders that she found in her bedroom before she would even go back into her room.
The end of August of this year the house she was living in became infested with bed bugs. She would call in a panic and up date us as to where the bugs had spread. One time she called in tears and said there one only one room left between her and the bed bugs. This problem came at a time when she was already stressed getting ready to start a new semester at school.
The girls in the house began to prepare for an exterminator to come in. They had to wash all their bedding and clothing and put everything but their furniture into garbage bags. The day that the exterminator came and they couldn’t go into the house until after 7:00 at night. She spent from after work at 5:00 until 8:00 sitting in her car reading. When she finally went into the house she was tired, the house was dark, the furniture in her room and in the house was turned upside down, and there was no one home. It was more than she could handle. She called in tears, so I talked her into going to our son Joe and his wife Krystle’s house. Joe and Krystle were at a movie but they told her where the extra key was. It was dark and she couldn’t find the latch to their back gate so she used the light from her cell phone. As she shone the light, there right by her hand was in her words “the biggest cat spider she had ever seen”. That put her right over the edge. I couldn’t calm her down over the phone but made arrangements for her to go to our other son Matt’s house. Matt gave her a blessing, which calmed her and she spent the night.
The next day after she got off work, she came home and as she walked in the door I gave her a big hug and just held her for a moment. Then she said the most astounding thing. She said. “Thanks for letting me come home. My roommates parents won’t let them come home until after the bed bugs are gone.”
I have thought about that comment. We sometimes have bed bugs in our lives. They could be sins that we have committed. They could be difficulties brought on by our own poor choices. They could be hurts that have been inflicted on us by others. Or they could be health, financial, family, spiritual, emotional, or physical problems that seem to be a part of life.
Never at any time has our Savior said, “When the bed bugs are gone you can come unto me. Just the opposite, in Matthew 11: 28-29 He says “Come unto me all ye that labour or are heavy leaden and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall found rest unto your souls.”
Even when we are overcome with bed bugs of sin, he doesn’t turn us away. In D&C 101: 9 says “… notwithstanding their sins, my bowels are filled with compassion towards them. I will not utterly cast them off; and in the day of wrath I will remember mercy.” Of course we will need to repent, like the girls had to wash there bedding, but then our Savior’s atonement takes over, much like the exterminator coming into the house.
Sometimes when we are in the midst of these problems and afflictions our faith fails and we wonder; “does the Savior really care about me and what I am going through?” I had a time when I felt like that. During that time I opened my scriptures to a random page and found this scripture. To me as I read this scripture it was as if the Lord was speaking to me. It’s in D&C 38:7-9 it reads: “But behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me.”
This scripture brought to me great comfort and I knew that no matter what I was going through, my Savior and my friend was there. I know that we can always, through our prayers come home to our Savior no matter what our problems or our sins may be.
