My parents have this really old ladder, I have no idea how old it is, but this thing is not stable. My husband is really handy and he loves to help my parents when we visit them. They have a house with a very tall ceiling and several years ago when we were visiting, they asked my husband to fix something up really high for them. I honestly cannot remember what it was, but what I do remember is my large husband trying to balance on this very ancient and wobbly ladder. I was so anxious as I watched him do this.

Last fall, my parents needed some repair work done on the ceiling of this same area of their home. They knew that they would need to hire someone to do it, so they did This man came and built his own scaffolding. My mother said it was so scary to watch as this patchwork scaffolding did not look very stable. She told my dad that she could not watch and left the room.

This man was able to climb up on this seemingly unstable scaffolding he built and get himself up to the ceiling without any concerns and make the needed repairs. When all was finished, he shared with my father that he had fallen one time. He had broken his back and had to recover completely before being able to continue working again. This man had perfected his assembling of this patchwork scaffolding because of his previous fall and long recovery. This was a life lesson that he did not wish to repeat.

Why did I label this post wobbles and ripples? I have tried to paint a picture for you that describes the wobbles. In this life, we will all experience “wobbling ladders”. These are the experiences where we need to do something, but we don’t have a firm foundation. Sometimes, we will know to be cautious and we will do our best to balance ourselves in this tricky situation like my husband did on this ancient ladder.

Other times, we will fall and it will take a long time to recover, like the man that came to repair my parents ceiling. We will fall and it will be painful. It may take months to recover or many, many years. I hope that one day, like this man, we can heal enough to climb back onto more secure footholds, preferably real scaffolding that was made for the purpose of working in high places.

Jesus taught a parable at the Sermon on the Mount of the Wise Man and the Foolish Man in Matthew 7: 24-27 (KJV)

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”

“And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”

Jesus is the rock to build our houses on. If we build our home upon Jesus Christ, and all of the rains, winds, and floods of life come at us, we will not fall. We will be wet, and windblown, and our homes might take in some water, but we will not fall.

When we build our life on anything but the Savior, and the rains, winds and floods come, it will be impossible to withstand them. We will fall, and great will be the fall. Does that mean that we cannot recover? Of course not! He wants us to get back up and try again. His greatest hope is that we come to realize that something is missing, Him.

I was once a foolish man. I did not build my house upon the Rock of Salvation, Jesus Christ. I built it on the things of this world. Great was my fall. Yet, when I was ready to rebuild with Christ, everything changed. I would love to say that my house has never experienced the Storms of life. I have had many, and sometimes, I just had a wall and a piece of roof left standing when the storm abated. But it did indeed stand as I clung to my Savior throughout the fierce winds in His shelter on His rock.

This is where we learn about ripples. Sometimes we get to have beautiful clear skies when we live on this strong foundational rock, Jesus Christ. It is beautiful. I have had so many experiences staying close to my Savior and listening closely for the whispers of the Spirit to guide me in life. I have worked very hard to act on these inspired promptings, no matter how awkward they seem to me. I have gotten used to approaching complete strangers to tell them something that the Spirit has urged me to say. It has been such an amazing experience to do this.

I used to be very introverted and it was really hard for me to get out of my comfort zone. I would have great anxiety when even considering starting a conversation with someone else. Now, I am frequently looking around the room to see who I need to express love to. What a big change in the person I am from the person that I was. And you know the best part? God isn’t done with me. He is constantly showing me ways to improve. I have learned to become friends with the word change.

Now that I am talking with Heavenly Father and my Savior daily, I have started noticing the ripples around me. When you throw a rock into still water, it disrupts the smooth surface and creates ripples. Ripples are small waves.

When I act on these promptings of the Spirit, I am creating these small ripples. I have disrupted Satan’s plans and given the Light of Christ to someone else by loving them for Him. With Christ, I have cause small ripples and sometimes, I have created big waves that have disabled the enemies plans and given a small respite to that person from his great winds, rains, and floods.

I have experienced ripples given to me as well. As I have worked really hard to follow these promptings, I have been blessed in return. One day, I acted on a prompting that I had been putting off. It was going to be really hard and I was delaying it. I was listening to a podcast that said, “if you have a prompting, don’t delay! Act on it right away!” I knew that I needed to hear that message. I told Heavenly Father ok, and went to work. It didn’t go very well, but I know that the Spirit was with me the entire time bringing things to my mind to say to things to a loved one. It didn’t go well, but it didn’t go badly either.

After the conversation ended, I cried. I was pouring my heart out to Heavenly Father about how broken my heart was and I needed to give it back to Him. Then the words, “A seed was planted”, came into my mind. I stopped crying and thought how a seed might have possibly been planted in that entire conversation, but I trusted in the Lord and picked myself up, composed myself, and went about to start my day.

Not long after, I was listening to a different podcast about a young woman recovering from heart surgery. She said that she was in the hospital and recovery wasn’t going as well as she would have hoped. She was frustrated and asked, “Jesus, where are you?!” Then a friend came to visit. Her friend started crying upon seeing her in the hospital bed and she told her friend that she was okay, she didn’t need to cry. Her friend that shared that she had been praying for her recovery the night before and when she went to sleep, she had a dream. In this dream, the Savior sat by her hospital bed and held her hand.

It was at this moment that I had the thought come to my mind, “Jesus does not leave us, He knows what we need more than anyone else”, I understood then that Jesus knew exactly what needed to happen for this loved one, even if I could not understand how a seed could have possibly been planted in that conversation.

It was around then that I decided to go to the temple that evening and when my husband came home, I rushed to the temple. When I walked in, everyone said they were so glad that I had come. It didn’t take long to realize that not many people had come to the House of the Lord that evening. I was able to be alone for most of the evening. And the entire time, I felt such love and peace.

As I was getting ready to leave, the temple Matron approached me and we were able to visit. I felt prompted to share with her my experience earlier that day. She then told me something that I felt deeply in my soul. She said, “The temple was meant to just be for you tonight”, as she said this, I had the most warm and loving confirmation from my Heavenly Parents.

They had asked me to do something hard that day. I didn’t think it went well and I was so sad. They wanted me to feel their love for me. This is a tender experience that I will always treasure. This was a ripple made just for me.

What are the ripples that have been made for you? I invite you to ask in prayer if someone made ripples that affected your life. They will bring them to your mind and you can feel Their love for you.

My friends, I urge you to consider what your house is built upon. If it is not built upon the Savior, Jesus Christ, the winds, rains, and floods will always tear it down. I can testify to this as I have experienced it. I can also testify that when we build upon the Rock of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will always withstand the Storms of Life.