Category: God’s Hand

Willy played Herriman High School tonight. It was maybe a closer game than they anticipated, but Willy had a great game: 16 points, lots of boards, some assists, and a ton of battling. It was fun to watch. The team played quite well together.

I slept well last night. It took a little to get to bed, but I don’t remember waking up during the night. I was thrilled since the previous two nights were restless. Despite a good sleep, I felt a little something in the top of my lungs today. I long for it to be gone. My blood sugar must have dropped a bit cause I started to blur significantly about 10:30a. I had to go find some food before I normally do. I’ve been fine since, but still a little weird blurry. I’m grateful for the progress the Lord has blessed me with. I am exercising faith and patience as I wait for a full recovery… maybe tomorrow. 🙂

Work went pretty. I was able to participate in a pretty fun architectural discussion regarding the Tethr integration. It led to more questions than answers, but it was refreshing to be in a meeting with senior experienced people trying to solve a difficult problem.

Abby left for USU this morning. I’m excited for her, but we miss her every time she leaves. As an athlete at USU, Abby is subject to Covid testing whenever they feel it’s necessary. Today she had to get tested. If you test positive, you have to sit out for a couple weeks. I was a little nervous for Abby because I’ve been sick. She tested negative! I consider that a blessing from the Lord.

Walker had a basketball game at 9p tonight. He performed well. He’s getting pretty tall (~6′) and his hair is going really curly. He’s very skilled in basketball fundamentals and he’s disciplined to do things right. It makes him a huge asset to the team; you always know he’s going to get the right position and box out (for example). His team killed the other team. It was fun to see them do well.

After a long Christmas break, I went back to work today. Getting up when it was cold and dark was a challenge, but I did it and spent some good time in the Book of Mormon before 8a. I’ll get better at this.

My first meeting was with Michael Dabriel. He’s on my team and works from the UK. Since we last spoke his whole family got Covid and his granddad passed away. We had a long discussion about dealing with all that. I got a chance to share my faith and view on death. I hope it helped him. Maybe it will spark an interest in Michael to reach out to God. Only time will tell.

We got to watch Chloe’s JV basketball game at Westlake at 5:15p. She played well. Richard Spiker sat by us most of the time.

Paula and I attended the 7:40p endowment session at the Jordan River Temple. It was nice to be back. It was quiet and peaceful. I need to work at making attending weekly at habit again.

After a week with us, Molly had to go back home. It was sad. She is a beautiful person in so many ways and wonderful to have around. She has worked extremely hard to do well in her hair school program and the Lord is blessing her. She’s known for being one of the best. She has such a bright future. It’s fun to watch.

Health wise, today was my best day yet. I believe all the fasting for my vision to be restored helped to improve it and my energy was higher than its ever been.

I spent a few hours studying my scriptures and finished it off by going up Israel Canyon and praying while looking at the mountains across the lake. While praying, I felt the Holy Ghost witness to me the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me. It went on for a few minutes; it was wonderful. I asked if there were things I still needed to repent of and nothing came to mind. It was fun to drive on the snowy roads too.

I spent more time this afternoon on my React Task app. It’s been very rewarding to exercise that learning muscle. It’s become a 2022 goal.

Thank you Lord for the best day yet. I hope tomorrow will be even better. Back to work.

Our ward meeting time changed to 10:30a today. Having the extra 1.5hrs in the morning to help get the family ready was so great. It was a little tender mercy; 9a church in 2021 was a real struggle.

It was also fast Sunday today. I decided to fast that my vision be restored. I was a little nervous if I’d be able to make it the entire day considering my health issues recently. Fasting became my way to exercise faith and make a sacrifice for a needed blessing. My Sunday meetings were great. I felt a few moments of weakness, but was able to push through. I also invited my siblings and Paula’s siblings to fast for me. I believe the combined faith helped. My vision seems to be improving. I even had a couple of moments of perfectly clear vision. It was wonderful and gives me hope that my vision will soon be fully restored.

My Sunday meetings were peaceful, uplifting, and though provoking. I’m grateful to be able to meet in person and be edified by the thoughts of others. The church and it’s members are a real blessing to me and my family.

We made a turkey dinner today. It was lovely and delicious. A lot of the kids helped prepare the meal and it was enjoyed by all. Emma and Danny Swan recently moved to Utah for school and joined us for dinner. We ate and played games. It was a lot of fun. Now we’re all getting to bed early as school starts in the morning.

We had a pretty good snow storm come through this evening. We were blessed by the Lord to enjoy safety in our travels. Molly and Shelby arrived home safely from St. George at about 11:30p. Earlier in the day Chloe arrived safely from Cedar City, and Willy’s Bball team and our family arrived home from Draper after traveling through the storm. God is good!

How has God touched our family today?

We bought tickets for the movie Sing 2 a week or so ago. Today finally came along and the kids could hardly wait until our 4:50p show time. When we got there we realized our show time was really 3:50p. We were devastated. Fortunately, there was a 4:30p showing that had the entire front row vacant. The hand of God left us the front row so we could slide in a few minutes late.

The movie was really good. I was moved a number of times. The music was perfect. The kids loved it. Now we wait until we can buy it for home.

I met Garin Hess for lunch today. He wanted to talk about entrepreneurship and my future work. He expressed his confidence that I’m very marketable and there are several good paths I could take. One path is to validate a business idea and pitch it to investors. That way, I can start a business without having to have a bunch of money upfront. He thinks I’m the kind of guy that could do that. Another option is to go find a product focused job. The market is hot in Utah and he’s confident there are lots of opportunities out there. Ultimately, as a friend, he thinks I should start to plan an exit from InMoment. I think that is wise.

Before lunch, I visited with the eye doctor. Everything looked good from his point of view. I’ve been concerned because since having Covid my vision has been slightly blurry around the outside. He thinks it may be a Covid side affect. We both hope it goes away soon. While we were discussing my experience thus far, I realized that my level of compassion for those that have been suffering and have suffered from Covid has increased in a huge way. My heart breaks for anyone that is suffering.

Later today, I’ve spoken to Paula about lunch with Garin. She feels like I need to be responsible and provide for the family, but need to find a solution that allows me to be a part of the kids’ lives. Working tons of hours isn’t an option. Maybe the timing for starting a new company is not now.

Last night was my second night in a row of good sleep. What a blessing!!! I’m exercising faith good sleep night three is only moments away.

My vision has been somewhat blurry for days. Paula introduced me to so positive affirmations that should help. As I patiently wait for healing, the affirmations have been good for my ears to hear in general: “I see love and joy” and “I love and approve of my life right now.”

When I took Walker to get his retainers (he got his braces off today after 3yrs), we stopped at Ridley’s grocery store in Eagle Mountain. As we walked up to the store, Christmas music could be heard from exterior speakers. It was nice to hear and I felt the Spirit of the Lord. That warm feeling in the heart helped me feel the Love of the Lord. I’ve been longing for that. It was a beautiful moment. I am getting better; just need to be patient and faithful.

I’ve been struggling with a nasty illness since the afternoon of Saturday, 27 November 2021. Yesterday (Tuesday), I was on my second day of feeling quite well. I had a thought to go to my doctor, Miles Layton, to get his official opinion and help to accelerate my healing. My rapid covid and flu tests came back negative, but my x-rays showed Covid Pneumonia. I was really excited for a few minutes and then set back. I did a breathing treatment in the office and got 4 prescriptions. That breathing treatment provided to be bad for me. It put something in my lungs that has made it harder to breath. It’s as if the pipe was made smaller. So, I tried to sleep last night and I initially slept for about an hour, but then I couldn’t sleep. In fact, I was given energy not to; that was a pleasant difference. At one point, during the night I started coughing so bad, I couldn’t breath. I had to use the inhaler as an emergency measure. I thought I was going to have to take drastic measures. Fortunately, I was able to calm down. I layed in bed and begged heavenly father and Jesus for help. I told them I was putting this issue on the alter before them and I needed healing angles to fix me. I was then exhausted and started to slip away. I was then awakened by a swirling entity in my body. It moved through my chest and up through my head, and then it left. A relief swept over me. I could then ly in any position and get some sleep. I layed on my side and feel asleep for a bit. I woke and was refreshed and a voice said, “see. now get up and give your wife a hug.” So, I did. She was on the couch in the other room. I layed back down for a few more minutes and then got up to start my day at 6a. As I was making a vitalight drink, the question came to my mind, “are you going to do the other medications the doctor gave you?” and and immediate response in my mind was “HIS WAY WILL KILL YOU.” That was clear to me. I had already experienced something close to it. So, I’m putting all of this in the hands of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I threw away the medications and am back to strategies from before yesterday.

Update 2 January 2022. I’ve thought a lot out about the thought I had: “His way will kill you.” I ended up pulling the medication out of the garbage. I never used the antibiotic or steroids. I did use the cough suppressant for a week or so and I needed the puffer on two different occasions. A friend asked me how I felt when I had that thought. He asked if I felt peace, joy, or was calm; the fruits of the Spirit. Upon reflection, I think I felt mostly fear. It got me thinking that maybe I was deceived by the Adversary with that thought. I’m not sure still to this day. Maybe clarity will come one day. I don’t regret, however, the course I took.