“Put the Wheat in the Buggy and Go,” Friend, Sept. 2007, 34–35
Put the Wheat in the Buggy and Go
(Based on a true story)
Look up the following scriptures: Luke 6:21; Romans 8:14; D&C 44:6. Which one do you think fits the story best? Write that scripture on the blank lines.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
“Mother, what are we going to have for dinner tonight?” Eliza quietly asked. She was hungry, and she knew that her mother had given her and her brothers and sisters the last of the potatoes for lunch.
Her mother didn’t answer. Eliza’s hope fell as she watched her mother scurry around the small kitchen looking for a little flour or wheat to feed her family. As Eliza’s stomach rumbled, there was a knock at the door. When Eliza’s mother opened the door, there stood a pretty lady carrying two small children.
“Sister Peterson, please come in. What brings you by?” Eliza’s mother asked.
Eliza had seen Sister Peterson at church. She knew her husband owned a large farm and that their family always wore nice clothes.
Sister Peterson set her two children on the floor. “I was scrubbing my floors and tending to my children when a quiet thought came into my mind: ‘Put the wheat in the buggy and go.’ I ignored the thought and continued tending to my children,” she explained.
“A few minutes later I heard the voice again: ‘Put the wheat in the buggy and go.’ This time the thought was a little louder. I told myself that this was a silly thought. Where would I go with the wheat? I ignored the voice again and went back to my work.
“A third time I heard, ‘Put the wheat in the buggy and go.’ This time the voice was so loud that I looked around the room to see if my husband had come in from working in the fields. But no one was in the room except my two small girls who can’t speak yet. I decided that I should listen, that maybe the Holy Ghost was giving me a prompting.
“I bundled up my two small children, filled the buggy with bags of wheat, and hitched the horses to the buggy. I didn’t know where to go. I held the reigns loose and let the horses lead me. They brought me straight to your house. Could you and your family use this wheat?” Sister Peterson asked.
Eliza’s mother wept as she looked around their small house filled with young children. She replied: “My children were hungry and I didn’t know what I was going to feed them for dinner. We have no food in our house. Thank you for listening to the Holy Ghost.”
That night Eliza went to bed with a full stomach. She thanked Heavenly Father in her prayers for sending Sister Peterson to their house with food.
[Follow Promptings]
“We watch. We wait. We listen for that still, small voice. When it speaks, wise men and women obey. We do not postpone following promptings of the Spirit.”
President Thomas S. Monson, First Counselor in the First Presidency, “‘The Spirit Giveth Life,’” Ensign, May 1985, 68.
Illustration by Brad Teare