The Tempest.

I was reading a couple of days ago in Acts 28. Paul was aboard a ship that was caught in a severe tempest for many days. The men lost hope that they could be saved. They worried and fasted. At one point, Paul got up and exhorted them to "be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship" and he recounted how an angel had visited and reassured him. He then said again, "sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me."

They continued on, and the passengers continued fasting in spite of Paul's counsel. After 14 days, "Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you." They ate, and were cheered, and they were able to get to land and were cared for hospitably by its inhabitants. God's promises were realized.

I have been a little stressed lately. Or maybe a lot stressed. At least once a day I stare blankly at the computer with a giant knot in my stomach. I am currently agonizing over decisions we need to make about med school and moving. I would probably be fasting if I weren't nursing Caleb. I keep going over and over the options in my mind to try to make some sense of them so that I can figure out which one is best, but trying to figure out what is the very best can be paralyzing sometimes. It's impossible to know for sure.

I am realizing that the time is coming when I need to give up the agonizing and enjoy the blessings that Heavenly Father is giving me. Our circumstances are far from tempestuous--they are everything we have been hoping for up to this point. Once I've done my best and sought the Spirit's guidance, I need to stop fretting, be of good cheer, and trust in the assurances I receive from Heavenly Father. And if I'm living the Gospel, I can always know, like Paul did, that even if the boat is lost, the people in it with me will be cared for, and that is really what is important.