Answers from sitting on a toilet

I am supposed to speak tomorrow in church during our sacrament meeting.  I feel I cannot focus on anything until I have let this blog escape my brain.  Please tell me this is a normal occurrence among people who write in a "blog."

A couple months ago I was having a rotten, emotional day where the kids were screaming, house was dirty, and I felt the weight of thinking I needed to fix everyone else's problems when in reality I just wanted someone to come up to me and say, "How are you doing today?" and then sit and wait for a response.

I had friends stop by through out the day.  None of them noticed that I had tears almost welling up in my eyes as they sat there and told me how they were and their problems.  Normally, this is very welcome and I enjoy the trust that my friends have in confiding with me.  But, that day I needed to have someone listen to me.... Not even listen... Just ask how I was and mean it.

I remember standing in my kitchen, tears now streaming down my cheek and looking up as if I could see the heavens and say, "Can't someone just ask me how I am?"  I then pushed it aside and continued about my daily duties doing everything.

It was not an hour later that I received a text message from a friend.  "Hi, how are you doing?" it read.  I stared at it for longer than I should have astounded.  How did this friend know?  She herself had a house full of kids, lots going on and was able to stop and wonder how I was? Wow.  I sent back a quick message and didn't hear anything back for a day or so.  Which did not matter. I knew that someone in that minute was wondering how I was doing.

I later met with this friend and told her the story of what had transpired.  She sat there completely overwhelmed.  Her side of the story follows.

She had been madly cleaning their home as they were preparing to move, had sick kids, and company visiting her.  She escaped to the bathroom for a brief minute of solitude in the which she pulled out her phone and typed a long message to me... then deleted the majority of the message and simply wrote, "Hi, how are you doing?"  Quickly finished her business in bathroom and promptly forgot about her phone busying herself with other duties.

We both knew that we were directly affected by an answer to my prayers.  I needed to know at that moment that someone was thinking of me and wondering about me.  She was living her crazy life in still a manner that she was able to head the prompting of the spirit to know that I did not need a long book written to me, but that a simple question would suffice.

I know that we are not alone.  I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me and knows exactly what I need to be able to continue forward.  I know that he works through other people to accomplish this task.  I can only pray that I be used to help others when they are silently praying for an answer as my friend did that day.