We Need to Pray

Our family of seven had been living near Frankfurt, Germany for
over two years. We enjoyed the beautiful, nearby countryside and did
lots of traveling with our well used VW bus. On one occasion, my wife
was completing some assignments at home and sent me to the stake center
in Frankfurt with our five children.

The stake young men and women were
sponsoring a car wash to raise money for youth conference. After our
vehicle had been washed, I headed for home with our boistrious bunch.

When I had gotten only two blocks away from the stake center, I
suddenly realized that our washed floor mats for the VW were still
hanging on a rack back at the stake center. As I started back to
retrieve the mats thru heavy downtown German traffic, my independent
thinking ten year old son, Scott, said that he could run back and get
the mats. He said he could go quicker than I could drive the distance and that if I would
wait at the side of the road, he would get the mats for me. It sounded
like a good idea and so we waited while he ran.

After about ten minutes, he had not returned and I began to worry.
We drove back to the stake center and there were the floor mats, still
on the rack. I took the mats and asked if anyone there had seen my son
since we left and they indicated that they had not. Very concerned by
this time, I began driving up and down adjacent streets looking for a
lost boy.

Another tense ten minutes went by when suddenly our oldest
child, 13 year old Suzy, said that we need to pull over. I did so thinking she had
seen Scott, but this was not her reason. "We need to pray Dad," she
said. At that moment I realized how wise her counsel was and we
immediately plead for divine intervention.

Our simple prayer completed, we began searching once more and around the very next corner we spotted
one lost little boy. Scott had a frightened, bewildered look on his
face as we approached but not wanting to appear foolish he said, "Dad,
where have you been?"

We all gratefully exchanged hugs and I was about to depart for home
when Suzy again remarked, "We need to pray Dad and thank Heavenly
Father for helping us to find Scott," We did so and I was again reminded by my daughter to look to God, not only in supplication but in
thanksgiving as well.

Today, Suzy is married with children of her own. Scott (pictured with his family) serves as an
Officer for the U.S. Navy. Despite the years that have
transpired, the admonition to us all thru the trials of life is the
same, "We need to pray."