A Stupor of Thought

I had a kind of cool thing happen to me yesterday.  Well, I guess the cool thing was really the day before that.  My bread recipe that I make every week makes four loaves of bread, but we can only eat three before it goes bad, so each week I give a loaf away.  This week, though, when I was trying to think of someone to take the extra loaf to, I could not think of a single person.  There are lots of people I could have taken the bread to.  I have neighbors all around me, and a whole ward of people who eat bread.  There are several people who have volunteered to take my bread any time I want to give it to them, but on that day I could not think of a single person.  It was like we were the last people on earth, and everyone else had disappeared.  I guess the best description I can give is that I had a stupor of thought.  It was kind of weird, but since there was no one to give the bread to, I just put a loaf in the freezer and went on with the day.

The next day I was at the library when a family came in to return their books and get their Summer Reading prizes.  Their books were quite late, and they owed quite a bit in fines.  Like I usually do for loyal patrons, I asked the mom how much she had with her that she could pay towards fines.  She looked a little doubtful, but finally brought me the $5 out of her truck that she had been saving to buy bread, a $2 bill from one of her kids, and a $1 bill.  I told her I thought it would be wrong to use a $2 bill for library fines, but I took the six dollars and cleared all their fines.  She told me how she thought this month had been good for her kids, to teach them that money doesn't grow on trees, and you can't just go to the grocery store whenever you want and buy everything.  She also said that they were going to be paid in a week, and they would go grocery shopping then.

Did you hear my cue in there?  As soon as my shift was over at the library, I wrapped up a loaf of bread and set out to find their house.  It wasn't easy to find, but when I finally found it I realized that I drive past it all the time on the way to "the Ranch," which is where my parents keep their animals.

I was so grateful for the stupor of thought that had stopped me from giving a loaf of bread the day before, and the family seemed grateful for the loaf of bread.  I also took them one of those reusable grocery bags because the one they had been using for their library books was literally in shreds.

I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging here, because what I really wanted to show with this post was how amazing the Spirit is and to share another way in which he directs our paths.  Sometimes he doesn't need to give instructions.  He just needs to keep us stumped until we see the right path for ourselves.