"Agnes Caldwell and her family traveled with the Willie handcart company and suffered terrible hardships with the others. When the rescue wagons came, they took on all the infirm and those who could walk no farther, but the able-bodied still had to press forward on foot. Nine-year-old Agnes and some of the other children decided to try to keep up with the wagons in hopes of being offered a ride. Sure enough, after a time one of the drivers asked her if she'd like to ride with him, an invitation she gratefully accepted. As she tells the story:
"At this he reached over, taking my hand, clucking to his horses to make me run, with legs that seemed to me could run no farther. On we went, to what to me seemed miles. What went through my head at that time was the he was the meanest man that ever lived or that I had ever hear of. Just as what seemed the breaking point, he stopped. Taking a blanket, he wrapped me up and lay me in the bottom of the wagon, warm and comfortable. Here I had time to change my mind, as I surely did knowing full well by doing this he saved me from freezing when taken into the wagon."
"I have thought of this story many times when I find myself or my friends in what I would call "running-beside-the-wagon" moments. I have wondered if, at such times, when we have given all we have to give, relying on the promise that the Lord will lift us up, when we are questioning why he doesn't pull us into the wagon, when we are about to collapse from the sheet exhaustion of it all--what if we stopped and listened to the Spirit? Perhaps we might hear him saying, "Wait. Wait just a little longer. You don't know what I'm trying to save here." Maybe the message would even be, "You don't know who I'm trying to save here. You don't know whose life might be eternally affected by your willingness to hang on for one more moment, to keep taking step after step. I promise I won't leave you to drop. I know what you can bear, and your trials will not exceed your capacity." I have to trust that the Lord knows what he is doing with my life, even in those hard moments when I can't possibly see what he has in mind."
8 comments:
That is a neat story. Let me know if you find anything else out about the book. I need a good read.
Thanks for holding on Kira :)
Hope the kids are feeling better!
Very sweet, Kira. I love the message.
Kira, I am so happy to have read this. I just emailed it to my sister in GA who is so sick right now and just cannot do one more chemo treatment. She only has 3 left but she is so broken down. Thanks for this quote. I cry each time I read it.
Hey Kira, I love that story...true that!!
Great story...you'll have to post if you get your hands on the full book :)
Kira, you are wonderful. Okay, I'm feeling guilty again because I've got a letter to you guys on my PC in the basement and I sent it once and some hoodlum stole it out of the mail along with the book and I'm just a slacker or something and I never sent it again. I think I have a mail phobia or something - I have such a hard time actually getting things to the mailbox.
Please send me an e-mail and I'll e-mail the letter to you, because that way I know it'll get done ASAP, and I can stop feeling like a loser.
shelley.koch@gmail.com
Thank you so much Kira for that. I needed to read that. It's hard to hold on sometimes, really most of the time. It's hard to have that unwavering faith, but I have felt the Savior pull me into the wagon over the past week as he has sent me my baby Kierah. There are GREAT blessings awaiting us. Hang in there, you are my example. Lots of love.
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