We all get lost sometimes, the question is: are we worth finding? I share what I learned losing a pair of gloves.

Story Summary
Today I share the story of losing a very needed and appreciated pair of gloves at hardware store. I was devastated and enlisted the help of store associates to help me find the gloves. I searched all over for about 10 minutes.

3 Truths About Lost Souls
At the time of the lost gloves, I was preparing to teach a Sunday School lesson on Luke 15 which includes the parable of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal son.

As I walked out to my car that day a distinct impression came into my head: “You just spent 10 minutes looking for a $15 pair of gloves. Will you spend 10 minutes helping my lost sheep?”

1. We Each Have Tremendous Worth!

We are worth more than gloves or sheep! We are worth loving and searching for.
Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray.”
Religious leader M. Russell Ballard said, “Every soul is very precious to our Heavenly Father. We must never forget that through the atonement, the Lord Jesus Christ paid a great price for the redemption of each one of us. His suffering must not be in vain.”
2.  God loves us Perfectly!

I believe the parable of the prodigal son teaches us so much about God’s infinite love and mercy. We learn from this parable that:
God doesn’t want to control us or keep us from making foolish mistakes. He loves us and our agency, and so He watches.
When we take the slightest turn to come back, he runs to us!
Religious leader Jeffrey R. Holland said, “The tender image of this boy’s anxious, faithful father running to meet him and showing him with kisses is one of the most moving and compassionate scenes in all holy writ. It tells every child of God, wayward or otherwise, how much God wants us back in the protection of His arms.”
3. We Can All Rejoice Together!

At the end of each parable, there is a great rejoicing which takes place—a celebration.
Going back to my story of the lost glove. After searching with the store associates for 10 minutes, we found the gloves. I was so happy!

Conclusion Of Story
It was on the way out to the car (with my gloves on my hand) that God began teaching me those 3 critical lessons:

1.    We each have tremendous worth—more that gloves, sheep, or coins. We are each worth looking for and finding.

2.    Now, I loved my gloves because they kept my hands warm in the cold. But God loves each of us perfectly and wants us to come home. He loves us when we are lost, and He loves us when we are found.

3.    And when we find lost gloves, sheep, coins or prodigals, We can all Rejoice Together! Any time a soul repents, it is worth celebrating. I celebrated with the store associates when my gloves were found—and they were only worth $15. The worth of souls is worth celebrating eternally.

Invitation
My invitation to you today is to spend 10 minutes loving someone who needs a little love. Maybe that someone is you. Maybe that someone is a friend or a family member. God will inspire you to know who needs a little love. You can do this through a text, a phone call or maybe by dropping cookies on their doorstep.

Promise
I promise that whoever is lost is loved and noticed by God. And in His own time and way, not only will gloves, sheep and coins be found, but so will souls be wrapped in His eternal embrace.

You can find the full transcription of today's episode on my website: https://tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/3-truths-learned-from-lost-gloves

3 Truths Learned From Lost Gloves

Tamara K. Anderson shares 7 lessons learned on the 20 year anniversary of what should have been a fatal car accident.

On February 11, 2001, my husband and I were in what should have been a fatal car accident. I am so thankful I survived and have been blessed with 20 more years of life. 

Life Lessons From The Past 20 Years
The Cycle of Love and Service
Humility and Saying "Thy Will Be Done"/Trust God Completely
Life Continues on After Death
There is Power in Prayer
Don't fear the future--Trust God wants you to Grow!
Cherish Each Day as a gift!
Count Your Blessings and Praise God.
I also weave in several favorite verses from Psalm 118.

5 I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me.
6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.
24 This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.
29 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Transcript Of Today's Episode
https://tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/i-should-have-died-20-years-ago

Other Episodes About The Car Accident
https://www.tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/podcast-intro-and-my-story-of-hope

https://www.tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/gratitude-after-a-car-accident

#tamarakanderson #storiesofhopeinhardtimes #podcast #hope #God #hardtimes #accident #lifelessons #prayer #humility #trustGod #gratitude #praise #eachdayisagift

I Should Have Died 20 Years Ago, The Gift of Time & Life's Lessons

After several surgeries and losing part of her skull, Christine Jacobsen shares how feeling God's love helped her through the darkest part of her life.

We also discuss:

Why hugging is important
How she moved from "I don't want to die," to feeling peace and thinking, "I'm not afraid.
The reality of miracles
How God can carry us and be with us in our most intense suffering.
Why it is important to not get too busy to connect with God.
Remember God is in control.
One of my favorite things that Christine does is she has a little bag full of inspirational books she takes with her when she goes and visits those who are struggling or in the hospital. Then, she can read to them and help them feel God's love.

Some of the books Christine keeps in her bag are:

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young
Hope for Each Day by Billy Graham
Max Lucado's books
The Bible
#tamarakanderson #storiesofhopeinhardtimes #podcast #hope #God #hardtimes #subduralhematoma #faith #miracles #love #Godslove #healing

You can read the entire transcript of Christine's episode here: 

https://tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/christine-jacobsen-gods-love-can-get-you-through-anything

Christine Jacobsen: God's Love Can Get You Through Anything!

After experiencing the death of her son and father to suicide, Lark Galley had to learn to heal herself and her family. Listen as she shares her story, wit and wisdom and learns to breathe again.

Lark and I had some very frank and open conversations about mental health and how to help ourselves and others since the added stress of COVID has hit us. 

Episode Discussion Points
Shifting priorities to what matters most
Ideas of self-care in a stressful situation
How to connect with teens and young adults in your family
How writing helps us process life
Why Lark went into a deep depression after publishing her book and how her mentor Richard Paul Evans helped shift her perspective to look at the completion of the goal differently.
Why sharing the vulnerable parts of our lives helps others connect with us.
Everyone has a message to share—even as imperfect as we each are.
What gave Lark the courage to be vulnerable, open and willing to share her story completely even when she was so scared to do it.
How finding a bigger purpose sometimes helps us move through grief.
Key message to those struggling with suicidal ideations:
You are not a burden!
You matter! The message you have inside you matters! You can change the world by changing one person’s life. So hang in there!
There are so many lives you would impact traumatically if you choose to end your life early! “The impact you have is so big!”
Get help! Find someone to talk to about your emotions and feelings.
Find a reason to keep living.

Resources For Those Struggling With Suicide Or Caregivers
On Lark’s website she had a great interview with Dr. Paul Jenkins with some key information. https://larkdeangalley.com/larks-resources/
Lark’s Book, “Learning to Breathe Again: Choosing to Heal after Losing a Loved One to Suicide”
What’s the state of your mental wellness? Take a quick 5 minute test here.
http://33374.amarecontent.com
SafeUT app https://healthcare.utah.edu/uni/safe-ut/
Hope Squad https://hopesquad.com/
Golden Gate Movement: https://goldengatemovement.org/
NAMI: https://nami.org
Or Google “free suicide resources in [my state]”
Favorite Bible Verse
Revelation 21:4, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.”

My Favorite Quote Which Lark Shared
“Relationships are the spice that give flavor to our lives.”
 
You can read the entire transcript of this podcast here: https://tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/lark-galley-learning-to-breathe-after-suicide

Lark Galley: Learning to Breathe After Suicide

Tamara K. Anderson tells a story in her life about a time when she felt completely overwhelmed, the answer she received, and the 4 steps to problem solve any situation with God's help.

My Story Of Feeling Overwhelmed
In this episode I take you to a time in my life as a young mother when life was very overwhelming. I had 4 children ages: 7 years, 6 years, 2 1/2 years and 6 months. The challenge: only one of my children could communicate with me verbally. That is because my 6 year old Nathan and my 2 1/2 year old Jacob were on the autism spectrum. Nathan was challenging and wouldn't stay dressed, tantrumed because he couldn't communicate, and smeared his poop into the carpet every few days. 

Jacob was so smart and capable at escaping our home and running straight toward danger because he had no fear. Once we found him climbing the ladder onto a neighbors roof, running into the street or once he almost jumped into a neighbor's pool. 

My days were long and my nights were even longer since kiddos on the spectrum have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep (plus I had a sleeping baby). 

Exhausted as I was, I was devastated when a much anticipated family walk ended in disaster. It was the straw which broke the camel's back and I fell to my knees in prayer where I poured out my grief to God.

I promise I will now share with you a solution and then the resolution of the story.

4 Steps To Solve Life's Problems
Connect & Ask. This means to find a place to talk to God openly and honestly about our situations and challenges and then ask for help.
Listen & Record. This means take time to listen for ideas, inspiration and answers you will get and record them so you will remember to act on them.
Plan & Act. Sometimes we need to brainstorm or plan how we will break down how we will act on our impression. Then we can act on it.
Repeat. When we take action we will either find success or have a failure/learning lesson. If we succeed, we can repeat the process and ask God to teach us the next baby step in our life. If we fail, we go back and ask God to help us figure out the solution. 
Promise
Answers come. They came for me. That night as I prayed to God he answered, "Tamara, this is normal for you." This changed my perspective to realize He knew me personally. He knew my name. He knew my situation and He would help me figure out how to solve problems in my own "normal for me" way.

Seven years later our family decided to hike Delicate Arch in Arches National Park in Utah. This was a huge undertaking! My husband and I prayed and asked God for help. We listened and recorded our ideas and thoughts. Then we made a plan: We would write on a piece of paper what we were doing to communicate with Nathan and then give him an iPod and headphones to distract him. We then began the hike. 

My sweet family who couldn't even walk around the block together before then did the 3 mile, uphill hike to Delicate Arch. We did it together. It was a miracle.

We have since repeated this process and had many more successful hikes.

Invitation
Will you use these steps to problem solve in your life? I promise God is anxiously awaiting to connect and help you find your "normal for me" solution. He knows you. He knows your problem and He knows the solution if you will ask.

You can read the transcript to todays episode here: https://tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/4-surefire-steps-to-solve-lifes-problems

Resilience Talk Network