Recognizing the Lord's Hand in Our Lives through Analogy

This past week in Sunday School we listened to a rendition of "The Lord is My Shepherd" (Psalm 23). As we listened, I remembered an article I read years ago in an old book of my grandma's entitled "The Basque Sheepherder and the Shepherd Psalm" by James K. Wallace*. The author was a Basque sheepherder from Nevada who goes into detail about each line of the Psalm and what it means to a shepherd.

What struck me as we listed was how David (the author of the Psalm) was able to see the Lord's hand in his daily life, not just in scriptures and ancient prophecies. He was able to draw analogies between his work/training to his relationship to the Lord.

I love the idea of looking for the Lord in all that you do, because I think we all learn better when things can be applied to our daily actions. Here are a few examples that have come up in our family recently:

1. Apostasy and Restoration. Andrew asked us the other day what "Catholic" meant. I explained that it was another religion, then he asked if it was "a good religion." I explained that there are many great people who are Catholic and that my dad was even raised Catholic. As I started to explain about how lots of churches have bits of truth, he responded, "Yeah! It's like the blocks! In Primary they built a church out of blocks then knocked it down to show how all the pieces broke apart after Jesus died" [apostasy]. Even Emma (age 4) remembered the object lesson and chimed in with a few details about how the church was broken and needed to be put back together [restoration].

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Both kids love to build with blocks, so it was an easy way for them to not only understand about the Apostasy and Restoration, but to be able to retell it to us later.

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2. Lord's Personalized Care for Us. Because of my training as a speech therapist, I always like stories about communication and struggles with communication. I am fascinated by two stories of stuttering (or "slowness of speech") in the scriptures. Both Moses and Enoch describe themselves as being slow of speech and ask the Lord to help them in their ministries. Although they both suffer from the same basic ailment, the Lord provides individualized solutions for each of them. Moses is granted a spokesperson, while Enoch is given the words to say.

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I know from personal experience how important it is to take into consideration a client's situation, personality, family support, and abilities when teaching communication skills, and I love to see how the Lord demonstrates that as well. It helps me apply that to my own life, and recognize that the Lord will help me, bless me, and challenge me in ways different from those around me.

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I think even the Lord recognized how important it is for us to see His hand in our lives daily, because he frequently taught using parables that his disciples could apply to their common situations (gardening, fishing, caring for children or animals, etc.). And I always find the talks in church or Conference most memorable when they include stories from the speaker's personal lives to help draw analogies and teach principles.

What are some ways that your education, experiences, or training have helped you see the Lord's hand in your lives in a different way than you otherwise would have?