Faith in God's Timing

Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, "Faith in God includes faith in His timing."

Our newest grand-daughter, Vivienne, has been the latest object of our family faith in recent weeks. Her mother and father, Heidi and Jake, are exercising extraordinary faith in God's timing right now. Heidi, in her candid expressions on their blog will admit waiting in faith upon the timing of God just flat out "sucks" sometimes. Vivi is now at 31 weeks and making slow but steady progress. We celebrate every new day with her and we continue to pray for good timing.

So it is for all of us, if we are as honest as Heidi. So much of the rhythms of our lives seem to contradict what we would choose for ourselves. Life could be so much more convenient if things unfolded the way we intended on our own terms. But many things happen to disrupt our flow.

Think about what life would be like if we lived a third-world country where we were under constant threat of death by decapitation at the hands of some random radical terrorist. I can't imagine living under those conditions, yet many do, and certainly they would choose something different if they could.

We live in a day when assaults on freedom of religion abound. When the living Apostles raise a warning voice, as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland did this week, and when legislatures craft new legislation designed to make any and all forms of bigotry against religion illegal, we know the Constitution's guarantees for freedom of religion are being eroded.

There are those who live lengthy lives into their nineties, and their quality of life slowly erodes until the end. Day by day their ability to do even the simplest tasks is compromised. Their faith in God is challenged as they wonder aloud, "How much longer, Lord?"

Observing the wickedness of these last days, many ask how much longer the Lord can delay His Second Coming. Is there something in the timing of the Lord that needs to be corrected, we wonder?

The marvelous atonement of Christ covers all these contingencies. This month's lessons for the youth in Sunday School are devoted to the topic of the atonement. It is hard for young people, and even adults, to realize, accept and believe there is nothing His suffering did not contemplate. Sometimes, we feel our suffering is somehow warranted because we know our lives are less than perfect and we reason our suffering must be the just desserts the universe is meting out to us for our dereliction. It is so sad for me to witness people who deny the power of Christ to heal "even this" in their lives, but I understand their doubts. The sure antidote is living long enough to develop the faith in His timing.

Until we are confronted with the realities of evil in our lives and think about having to rely upon the merits of Christ's perfection, seldom does our faith in His timing come into effect. What if our relatives who strayed from the path in mortality really can accept the gospel, seek the ordinances, and have the chance to put themselves on an equal footing with others who were faithful?

We heard yet another testimony from a visiting Area Seventy, Elder Lynn Summerhays at a recent stake conference, that faithful parents can exercise sufficient faith in the Lord's timing that their children will someday return to them. Parents cannot compromise the moral agency of their wayward children by compelling their observance of gospel principles, but they can influence their children through their own faithful and consistent choices. Where else, Elder Summerhays asked, will they go? They will go home to their faithful parents and the warmth of the fire of their faith when every other option expires. Is that not an example of having faith not only in the atonement, but also in the timing of the atonement? I believe that is what Elder Maxwell was telling us.

As I think about Heidi and Jake, I believe I understand the longing of their hearts when it comes to better timing. They would have chosen a full-term pregnancy without any complications at delivery, and a swift exit from the hospital with a healthy baby in arms and a one-time journey home to begin raising their little third-born daughter.

When it comes to me, I would have chosen a successful completion to my working life with enough retirement money to choose something more useful, perhaps, than extending my working life as I take the long ride into the sunset. Timing was everything, and the timing of a world-wide economic meltdown was very inconvenient.

Sometimes callings to serve in the Church seem to come at a time that is anything but convenient. I have often been amazed to see the demands put upon young couples who are establishing themselves in careers, working diligently in the Church and answering the demands of all their children that seem all-consuming.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

The timing in all these circumstances routinely requires super faith, it seems. I loved President Gordon B. Hinckley's infectious optimism:

It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.
It all works out. Don’t worry.
I say that to myself every morning.
It will all work out.
Put your trust in God,
and move forward with faith
and confidence in the future.
The Lord will not forsake us.
He will not forsake us.
If we will put our trust in Him,
if we will pray to Him,
if we will live worthy of His blessings,
He will hear our prayers.

From the funeral program for Marjorie Pay Hinckley, April 10, 2004; see also “Latter-day Counsel,” Ensign, October 2000, 73.

Anneliese Audrey Goates

Thursday morning brought to a close a bittersweet chapter in the lives of our son Jake and wife Heidi, along with their young daughter Jillian. I made reference several weeks ago to their challenges in a previous blog post entitled, "When Sore Trials Come Upon You".

Heidi was pregnant with their second child and they went for a routine ultrasound to determine the sex of the baby. Instead, as part of the ultrasound exam they had received a chilling diagnosis about their daughter intrauterine - she would be an anencephaly baby. They were thrown into a vortex of uncertainty, sorrow, anger and instant grieving, even though the baby hadn't been born yet. Her birth would also mean a simultaneous funeral if she made it full-term.

Patiently, riding a roller coaster of emotions that took them into spiritual heights and plunged them into the darkest abyss, they waded through the ensuing weeks never knowing what the final outcome might look like.

On Thursday morning we received a text message that Heidi's waters had broken and they were on the way to the hospital nine weeks ahead of her due date. At Jake's request, we all dropped to our knees as a family that morning, knowing the outcome of this impending early delivery would bring additional complications, but petitioning Heavenly Father they might have the privilege of holding a live infant long enough for her to be given a name and a father's blessing by Jake.

As we drove the hour to Salt Lake, little Anneliese made her unscheduled appearance. Jake's text said simply, "She's here." She was alive and struggling for life, but ALIVE! I texted back, "MIRACLE!" It was a miracle we had humbly sought together as a united family on their behalf. "She's a little fighter," Jake texted. "She's trying to wait long enough for you to get here so she can meet you." Forty-five minutes later, now tied up in rush hour traffic along Foothill Blvd. in Salt Lake, we received another text, "She's gone."

We had "lived" her life with her vicariously in the car en route to the hospital through our tears, but Jake and Heidi had the exhilaration of holding her for those precious 45 minutes. We arrived shortly after she had expired. Anneliese is our 44th grandchild. She was a beautiful little doll, perfectly formed, still soft and pink with a petite little doll face resembling her sister and Mother. She weighed only 2.2 pounds and was 13 inches long.

In the delivery room as I held her lifeless little body and gazed upon her face, I felt I had always known her as the adult spirit she is. She came momentarily to earth to join their eternal family, and stayed only long enough to claim her mortal body then return home again. In the spirit world someday we will meet again, and in the resurrection her little body will come forth as it will go into the grave on Monday after her funeral. Heidi will hold her once again in her arms and have the blessing of seeing her physical body grow and blossom into its "proper and perfect frame". (See Alma 40:23).

Their hospital room that morning was full of light, hope and gratitude. What could obviously seem like a tragedy to some was experienced as awareness of the great plan of happiness. Some things we know as an intellectual verity. Other things we know because we have lived through them and embraced them for the gift of spiritual knowledge that transcends merely an intellectual possibility. And now they KNEW.

Jake sent out an e-mail this morning describing their experience in part:

Dear Family and Friends,

Our little angel's early arrival on Thursday has been a very sweet experience and a heaven-sent life we were fortunate enough to experience and welcome into our family. While gearing up for her arrival and departure we initially thought we wanted to keep this a very intimate occasion with only a graveside service and family lunch, but after meeting our little Anneliese, we feel we should celebrate the great blessing it has been for her to receive a physical body as part of our Heavenly Father's eternal plan of happiness.

We realize this is short notice, so please don't feel obligated, but we would like to invite each of you, and any others who may not be on this email who you feel should know, to attend her little celebration at our chapel at 10am on Monday January 27th. Heidi and I would like to share our experience of bringing this sweet spirit into the world. It would not have been possible without all of your support along the way and we'd be very ungrateful to not express our appreciation for your love. We are so grateful for the prayers, thoughts, emails, texts, cards, and letters as we've sought to grow our family over the years, especially during this pregnancy.

We love you all and consider ourselves blessed to have you in our lives. If you didn't see our posts on social media, we'd also like to share with you our blog, where Heidi began to share this journey, and will continue to do so.

We are comforted to know Anneliese is waiting on the other side of the veil for us to reunite with her again some day. We're so grateful for Jesus Christ and his victory over death that we might all live again beyond the grave, and for the restoration of his gospel and priesthood on the earth that seals families together forever. It is comforting to know we have been given the opportunity to hold her in our arms again some day, and we pray we might be better people each day of our lives until the great day of resurrection comes.

All our love,

Jake, Heidi, Jillian and Anneliese Goates