More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story

Divine Guidance in Life's Highs and Lows with Rachel

• Lily • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Ever feel those tiny, signature moments of divine intervention in your life but don't know what to do with them? Our guest, Rachel, has found a way to capture these fleeting instances of God's love and guidance. She weaves stories of her faith, from the joy of experiencing God's subtle touch to the solace she finds in Christ during darker times, like when she experienced a miscarriage. 

Throughout the highs and the lows, Rachel’s testimony underscores the undeniable reality of Jesus Christ's presence in her life. 

Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)

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Lily:

Hello everyone and welcome to. More Than Coincidence, remembering Jesus Christ in your Story as the author and finisher of our faith, our Savior writes personal experiences into each of our lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace upon reflection. This podcast is dedicated to sharing these anchoring memories from everyone's unique stories in order to collectively remember and testify of the reality of Jesus Christ and His presence in our lives. I'm your host, lily, and I'm very excited to share these experiences together. Alright, good evening everybody. Today we have Rachel on the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Rachel:

Thank you, yeah, I'm excited to be here.

Lily:

Awesome. Will you just give us a little bit about yourself?

Rachel:

Yeah, I mean just quick introduction. I was born in Oregon two parents from California and Oregon and then when I was about five moved. Our whole family moved to Utah and so I consider Utah my home. I grew up in Clinton. Utah, had a great childhood, great growing up, great youth. Then I went to BYU for school and served a mission in Knoxville, tennessee. Great experience, loved it and, yeah, just typical things that I tend to enjoy. I love being active, love playing sports and I really enjoy raising my kids. I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old and one on the way.

Rachel:

Awesome, that's life right now.

Lily:

That's so exciting. Yeah, babies are crazy, but we love them.

Rachel:

We do. Yes, they take us on several adventures, right.

Lily:

But so what stories or memories do you have that you reflect on, that prick your heart and remembrance of our Savior Jesus Christ?

Rachel:

Yeah, I mean, in pondering and reflecting upon this, I feel like Heavenly Father's style of working with me and teaching me are more in small moments than in really big, grandiose experiences. I was even just talking to my brother the other day and just talking about spiritual promptings and as I reflected, I realized I never really got massive spiritual promptings, even about big things like who I should marry or do I even go on a mission Right, where do I go to school? I feel like Heavenly Father's guiding me in the whole process, along the whole way, and so when I go to ask him, it's more just to yeah, go for it, you're on the right path, keep it up and the plan you've made is right. Or sometimes even just little changes of hey, maybe adjust this or you feel a little uneasy, spend some time thinking about this, right. So I feel like it's more of those kinds of experiences in my life that I reflect on and remember that help instead of these big, massive experiences. I think one of the big things that's helped me just in general, generally speaking at first here is literally, in my honest, this pushing myself is when I think about okay, have I seen God and where does Jesus Christ show up lately in my story. Have I actually seen him?

Rachel:

And some of the first things that come to my mind are the multitude of times I've written in my journal, or even just like a spiritual notebook, or even just notes on my phone, of I'm feeling the spirit right now.

Rachel:

Or hey, I'm in this state conference and someone's talking about Joseph Smith and I feel the spirit witness that this is true, very cool, yeah, it's been really neat. And so I've gone back to look, you know, on journals, or I've always kept kind of a spiritual notebook while I'm in church or other meetings, right, and I just take the time. If I'm really feeling the spirit, I just write it down. And most of the time it's just I'm feeling spirit strong right now. Or I just received another witness or another confirmation that the Book of Mormon's true, and so it's just more memory of I've written those things a lot and so just the amount of times that I've written. It just comes to my mind, even though I can't remember a specific experience. I don't even know why that prompting came when it came right, it's not tied to anything, but I just make sure that I write it down, which has been really neat to reflect on.

Lily:

So it's the confirmation over and over again of this feels familiar. Yeah, like I felt this before.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Lily:

Just the repetition, over and over and over again. Exactly.

Rachel:

It's a little reminders, right, or yeah, I just feel really calm about this, I feel really peaceful about this.

Lily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

And it may not be a very specific prompting, but just yeah, the general, this feels good, this feels right. I feel happy, you know, and I feel you know, even just in my journal, of little experiences of hey, I've been pondering this lately and I feel like God's involved, you know.

Lily:

That's so cool. Oh, and I like how you brought up the general feeling right, because I feel like sometimes when we think about the Holy Ghost, we usually kind of think of Him in the context of Him giving us answers or Him testifying of something. But I think sometimes the spirit also comes to us just to help us feel good, totally Just to, I don't know. It is just a good feeling, right, and I think that that is how we can recognize it by that.

Rachel:

Yeah, absolutely, and I think that it's been those moments in my life and I'm really grateful I started that at a young age, when I was a teenager, of just writing down yeah, I feel good right now, right, and so those have been neat to look back and reflect on through all ages of my life and all different. You know, whatever stage I'm in, I typically have something like that written in some kind of journal or notebook. Very cool, yeah. So I think that's generally how I feel when I ponder back and wonder, okay, when has my heart been pricked? I just remember those moments. But to get maybe a little bit more specific, I feel like there have been moments that, or maybe just a little bit. Yeah, a little bit more specific might be the right word, not that they were much bigger or more you know, maybe some of them were a little bit more life altering than just the daily confirmations. But, yeah, I wouldn't necessarily qualify them as bigger as maybe more specific.

Rachel:

Okay, there's one that I love to look back on. It's one of my favorite memories and I think it's because it was one of the first big ones and I feel like it was the perfect place for my testimony to really start and I mean, I'm biased, but I feel like it's the best place for anyone's testimony to start and it was the first time that I really felt God's love for me personally, directly for me, right, and I just remember. I mean, again, it wasn't a very super big, memorable experience. I don't remember what happened around it, but I do remember kneeling next to my bed, like I can visualize my childhood bed.

Lily:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rachel:

Right and the height that it was compared to my body right.

Rachel:

It's like those little memories right growing up but, yeah, just kneeling and praying and saying, dear heavenly father, and then just pausing and like realizing what I said heavenly father, and I was blessed with a wonderful dad growing up who I knew loved me and I had felt that love, and so it was an easy connection to realize, whoa, he really is my father and of course we've sung. I'm a child of God, you know, right. And I knew, of course, oh, I'm his daughter, right, I'm a daughter of my heavenly parents, right. But in that moment it just it went from my head to my heart and I suddenly realized he loves me as a father loves a child, and I'm his child and I, just when that realization struck, I just felt like I was just getting a big hug from my heavenly father and I just had this longing To be with him and see him and just give him and my savior a hug.

Lily:

And it's almost as if the veil kind of parted for a second. Yeah and you were able to kind of remember, you know, what used to be right, yeah, right.

Rachel:

That relationship, that yeah, is eternal.

Lily:

Because it was real. It's a real relationship. Yeah, we just forget about it when we have the veil over our eyes, right?

Rachel:

Yes, it's that seeking to try and find it again and remember it Because we had it before, yes, and what a blessing that, though, we have the Holy Ghosts that can allow Us to have those kinds of experiences, right to testify of them and, just yeah, to really feel like it parts the veil, and so that's one of those precious moments that I I appreciate. Looking back on that, I know, oh yeah, there's definitely God out there and he loves me very cool all the time, regardless of what I do you know other experiences as I as reflecting.

Rachel:

A lot of them came from my youth, and While I've had a lot of experiences recently, I think some of these core ones that I just cherish and hold close Came from my youth, because they were some of my first.

Rachel:

There's some of those first Realizations of how the gospel works, right, yeah, and so one of them is Just simply, I remember having a moment of Realizing every time I read the scriptures I feel good and Every time I follow commandments I'm happy, and it was kind of that realization of this this is good, you know, by your fight, the fruits You'll know them right, it's kind of that understanding of I know that's true, and so I just feel like Jesus was there kind of guiding those thoughts.

Rachel:

I mean, so many things had to be put in place. I feel like I had to have a good example of scripture study to be able to, you know, start doing that on my own and and that he's been in, you know, for that process, that moment of realization to come, and but I just, yeah, again, I don't remember the experiences around it, I just remember having that thought and it clicking of oh, the gospel makes me happy and I like the way that it makes me feel and that I'm living my life and, and whenever I go to the scriptures, I feel better, right.

Lily:

And even if you don't get an answer or anything or are looking for specifics, it's just the reading of the scriptures.

Rachel:

They're just opening it up. Yeah, yeah, I remember. I do actually remember one specific experience of having just a hard day.

Rachel:

I don't even know what it was about right, you know teenage Times every day, so hard day for a teenager yes, really, though rough times, but I remember one of those particular hard moments coming home and sitting at my the desk in my room and opening my scriptures, saying I just remember longing to be in my scriptures and so, finally opening them and just feeling relief of like, oh, this is, this is where I want to be, this feels better, right, and and so, again, that's a moment that I look back on, knowing, like, the scriptures have power.

Rachel:

They have power to, you know, heal our hearts in the middle of the day, and that's a way that Jesus works with us. It's through the scriptures, and so, once we're in there, he can, he can guide us right, he can tell us what he, you know, by the words on the page. He can maybe give us an answer or just, you know, put us in a mental spot to give us the right feeling, right, exactly. So that's been, yeah, another cherished moment that I look back on Um, one of the others as well is on my mission. I was trying to figure out when to come home. I had the option to come home one transfer early and start school, or come home at my scheduled time and do school a whole, yeah, several months later, right yeah.

Rachel:

And so trying to figure that out and just receiving a priest's blessing, just getting peace and confirmation from that, I had the opportunity my mission president allowed me to call my parents and have like a good long discussion with them to try and figure it out. That was back before.

Lily:

I was going to say it was really easy right, yeah. We didn't have those nice uh opportunity to zoom and right, be face to face.

Rachel:

It was pretty rare to be able to actually chat with your parents besides anything letter or email, and so, yeah, really trying to figure it out, and I ended up coming home on transfer early and starting school and pretty quickly after started dating my husband now husband um, we'd known each other growing up and so we were good friends and it was just interesting, as we were chatting and getting further along in our courting, that he just told me I had been praying, praying for you pretty much, you know, to meet you and have Heavenly Father put you in my life, and we just kind of put up that timing of that was the time I was trying to figure out when to come home for my mission. Right about that time you were saying those prayers, right, and so it's cool to see how God intervened right then right and, you know, gave me the prompting and him the direction right, so that eventually we could meet and reconnect again.

Lily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

And eventually be married. So that was another neat experience where I can just see his hand and, speaking of a mission that I mean I just know there were so many experiences I would end the day and just think, wow, he led that day right, like he. Somehow he aligned everything so we can meet that perfect person and be where we needed to be and say the thing we needed to say, right, and I just remember that was that was really a theme of my whole mission was knowing that, okay, jesus is guiding and right with us, right and the Lord's in charge. So I think the last, my last kind of more specific experience, would be it's kind of a recent one.

Rachel:

Last Christmas I experienced my first miscarriage and I remember when I, when it happened, like feeling, like having conflicting ideas of what I should be feeling, yeah, and in my head I did feel really sad, but in my head I thought I should be absolutely miserable and so heartbroken and but there was just this unexplainable peace that was throughout everything. And so, while I've had the, of course, the sad emotions that naturally come with a miscarriage, there was just this, really an unexplainable peace, Like I just didn't, almost didn't expect it. I expected it to be way harder than it actually ended up being, because I had the Lord with me right he carried you.

Rachel:

He carried me right, it wasn't an all hope is lost situation, and so it's nice to have kind of one of those experiences be recent, right, Something I can reflect on of you know, no matter what happens, the Lord's in charge and he will keep things at peace. And I am now pregnant again, and further along in my pregnancy, you know, and things have been really going smoothly, which is exciting. But there there's a little bit of hesitation after I've experienced, you know, miscarriage prior to this I had two right before this and with those two there's just a little bit of anxiety that comes with this pregnancy. And even just the other day my husband reminded me no, remember, I mean, the Lord takes care of you, no matter what happens, right, Miscarriage or not, like the Lord's in charge still, and you'll have that peace still, you know, the first time or the third time, and so it's okay, you know, and that that is something that's that I can reflect on and know, like you know, my savior really is there, he was there and he always will be.

Rachel:

So it's nice to need to have kind of a recent, specific experience to reflect on. So, yeah, with all of that being said, those are some of the more specific moments that I've had, but in general, it's nice to be able to know that he's there and everything right, and it's nice to be able to remember that you know I don't need to have these massive experiences or God doesn't give me just one opportunity in my life, right.

Lily:

Exactly To see his hands right.

Rachel:

Yeah, which I'm so grateful for. I would feel like pressured, I'd miss it right, I was gonna say I was like I miss it?

Lily:

oh, no, yeah exactly.

Rachel:

And so I'm glad that I don't have just this one big experience and that's it right, and that he works through everything and that, no matter what experience I look back on my life I mean hindsight wise it's easy to look back and see him, of course right and as opposed to when you're in the middle of it. But I really feel like I can look back on anything in my life and see him there. I can. Any memory or experience in my life I can look back and remember him because he didn't Right right.

Lily:

Well, and I think that's the whole point, I really was taking it back. Just a couple months ago, before I had the idea to do this podcast, I was just reading the baptismal covenants and it literally says twice in the bread and the water, to always remember him. And I was so struck and I thought, oh my gosh, do I remember him, are we really remembering him? And I did notice that it was in the highs and the lows. When I didn't remember him is when it was. The lows were more in my mind dark, sad, anxious, anxious, more negative. And then the positives they were good, but I don't. I really don't feel like they were. It's hard to explain. There's a different feeling when you're remembering him and you're going through great times than when you're just, when you're feeling good, but you're, but you're not. I it's, I don't know. I feel like that's really hard to explain. I don't know if you've experienced that.

Rachel:

Yeah, I feel like I know what you're saying of. Yeah, there's just this higher elevated feeling when you're remembering him through even the good times. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I absolutely agree. I remember one time praying asking I can't believe. Why do? Why do we say meals on or prayers on meals?

Lily:

My husband is religious about that. Yeah, he really will. He really wants kids to do that and they do it all the time.

Rachel:

And I wondered like where did that start?

Rachel:

Like that's not something specific in the scriptures, is it Right? And so I kind of got looking into it and I remembered us praying and this is not doctrine at all, but like personal revelation for myself. But I just felt like the Lord told me it's one of the ways you remember me and I was like that is so true. I mean, I think we have most people in automatic three meals a day, right, and so three easy times that you're praying, you know, in addition to any other time, and it's a formal prayer, right, right, where a lot of the time we have like a prayer in our heart, right. But to sit down and do a formal prayer, what a great easy way to remember him, just even on a daily basis.

Lily:

Correct. That's very cool. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to be here, and do you, if there's no other stories that you want to share or anything, any other thoughts that just came to your mind? Would you mind giving us a testimony, really quick.

Rachel:

Yeah, absolutely yeah. I don't think there's much more I want to add. So, yeah, I'll jump into my testimony. I love this gospel, I feel like it's. I don't must consider it a passion of mine, I just absolutely love it and crave it and it's just everything good in my life and I'm so grateful to have that knowledge that you know we have a loving Heavenly Father, we have a Savior, and who love us, who speak to us through the Holy Ghost, who are constantly guiding and directing our lives and involved and that's something I absolutely know is true. And through many of these experiences that you know that I've just shared, and I know that one of the ways that we can really draw close to them is through covenants. I absolutely love the temple and I definitely have a temple or a testimony of just covenants bringing us closer to them. And, yeah, they're, they're involved. I absolutely know they're involved, they love us, and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Lily:

Well, thank you, rachel, for taking the time to be here, and we've actually said a lot of things that I I just just the way that you phrased it was just something I hadn't heard before. So I know I've learned something and I really hope that other you know, like you said, other people listening will be able to feel the spirit as I felt it tonight.

Rachel:

So thank you for your time and I appreciate it.

Lily:

Thanks for coming.

Rachel:

Yeah, thank you, appreciate it.

Lily:

Thanks again for tuning into more than coincidence, remembering Jesus Christ in your story. Please follow us on social media or share us with a friend. If you have an experience you'd like to share, feel free to reach out to more than coincidencerememberhimatgmailcom. I can't wait to hear all of the amazing memories you all have of our Savior. See you next time.