Finding Strength and Relief in Jesus Christ: Dana Earl

Years ago, I started writing down stories from my life, from when I had felt the Spirit or had felt the influence of the Savior in my life or had felt His relief at a time when I needed to feel Him. And I started writing these stories down because I wanted to give them to my children. But what happened in the process of doing this is that I began to see God’s hand in my life. I began to see through writing down these experiences that God had been there for me, that I had seen His hand, that I had had these wonderful experiences, and that I had evidence that He had cared for me and that I had known that He had been there. And I kind of visualized that they were becoming these little gifts that I could almost visualize putting in my pocket, that I could carry around with me. And so when I had a bad day or a bad month, I could pull that experience out and say, “I know. Because that experience I had was real, and I don’t doubt because I had that experience. And I have it, and it’s mine.”

And I think, I know, I’m convinced that Heavenly Father wants us to have experiences with Him. I believe that’s why we have scriptures—is so we have experiences with Him. And yeah, I’m a visual person, so my little pocket of experiences I carry with me. And each and every one of them, I can bring forth when I need them. And writing them down helped me so that I could recall them. And whenever I needed them, they were there.

So the reason that I want to capture these stories and keep them is for myself as a testimony of what I have experienced and for my children and my posterity but also to testify to my Heavenly Father that I saw Him, that I saw and knew. I feel like some of them are like a kiss on the forehead. That I felt it, that I knew. And I want to acknowledge that. And so I continue to write them so that I can acknowledge that I saw it or felt it.