NOM

I teach the sunbeams and we have a little girl who can't walk. I am not sure what her diagnosis is, but she has a special chair she uses so she can scoot around. She always has a big smile. Yesterday she was on the floor coloring, and when she finished she didn't say anything, she just used her arms to drag herself back to her chair, reached up to the chair and puller herself halfway up, then reached over the molding on the wall and tried to do a chin up to get herself into the chair. She did this for a few seconds and my wife grabbed her and helped her back in. The little girl didn't mind, but she seemed happy to try to get back into the chair herself. I was moved by her strength and attitude.

Later for the end of sharing time we watched a short Christmas video which includes a Jesus Miracle Montage (sans the 80's music). In the Montage it showed Jesus healing a man who was lame, he couldn't walk. The man was laying on the ground, then Jesus walked up and helped him to his feet and the man was healed. This little girl leaned over to me and asked, "Why was that man laying down?" I immediately got emotional and it was all I could do to say, "Because he couldn't walk."

It was hard for me. In the past I might have added something about the power of Jesus, and how he can heal us, fully believing in a God of real miracles. But I no longer believe in the Jesus who performed miracles like that. I don't believe that Jesus is going to do for this little girl what he supposedly did for the lame man 2000 years ago. I do have hope that modern medicine may provide some help, though even that probably won't make the girls legs work like the other kid's. But I also believe that she will be okay, because she is strong, and not afraid.

This sums up the mixed feelings of this situation really well. Thanks for sharing. I can't imagine how heartbreaking it must have been to tell that little girl that, fully aware that Jesus can't or won't do that for her.

Lucky for us we have apostles and prophets just like in the New Testament. Peter, James, John, and the rest of them were always healing the lame. There are several recorded instances of this in the New Testament. Do you have an apostle visiting your stake soon? That should do the trick.

Maybe I sound snarky, but it is really mostly betrayal you are hearing. We have men who insist that we sustain them as apostles, as "prophets, seers, and revelators", who claim to be apostles like Peter, James, and John - but who couldn't heal this poor girl even if their lives and the lives of everyone they loved depended on it. It is hard for me to not be cynical when they claim for themselves such great power and authority, but would not be able to heal the beautiful child of God the OP described.

They should be ashamed to take upon themselves the title of "apostle". We should be ashamed for letting them get away with it.

I hate stories like this. It reminds me how self centered, greedy and ungrateful I can be. I am the natural man.

My heart goes out for this dear child. I am so happy she is strong and able to make the best of her situation at such a young age.

There isn't anything a parent wouldn't do to help their child in this type of situation - just to help them be normal.

The unwitting insult of faith in church/God to make it all better will be a painful reminder to this child her entire life that life isn't fair and there's nothing we can do about it.

Thank you for helping this little girl as best you can and may we all remember to help others however we can to make the world a little bit better. Because the Q15 isn't.

I feel your sadness Linked...... I used to really believe in a literal sense the power of blessings. Now however, I just can't understand how TBMs continue to accept this without any real sense of success. The incidental anecdote of a blessing coming true is all it needs to continue the ruse.

Ah well magic is in the air this season and we continue to hold it in our hearts.

Well some do.

Happy holidays

Wow! That is a powerful story. Thanks so much for sharing.

Very touching experience, thanks for sharing Linked.

It reminds me of a little girl in one of the wards from my mission in England. I didn’t know what her diagnosis was either, but there was something wrong with her legs. She had braces on them and couldn’t walk without them and some crutches. She was very quiet, frail, and sweet and would always hobble over to me to sit on my lap during sacrament meeting, coloring and drawing most of the time. I still don’t know why she always came to me, never my companion. It made me feel special and it did make me look forward to Sundays.

I was sad when I transferred from that area. She had an effect on me, for sure, and back then I fully believed she could be healed by God.

I do still cherish my experience with her, even though my beliefs have changed.

This hits home for me. A good part of what caused my faith crisis was a family member who suffered a spinal cord injury a few years ago becoming quadriplegic. I suffered a large existential crisis during a priesthood blessing for this individual when I realized the promises were empty and he would never walk again unless science progressed.

This is part of what led to my disbelief. It's not right that there are people who are trapped in bodies that don't work, who may very well only have one chance at life and this is what they get. We have a girl in our ward with profound cerebral palsy. She can hear and see but can't even move her head. She can't eat food. She can't communicate in any way, except an occasional bright smile or a loud cry. As far as anyone can tell, she has an intelligent mind and a personality of her own, but she is trapped in as deep a dungeon as any we've ever seen. And a loving god allows this to happen, over and over and over again. It never made sense to me. It doesn't make sense now. If there is a god, he/she/it doesn't care a fig about life on Earth. If there were miracles, this girl would be whole and well. Here, on Earth, not in some possibly non-existent afterlife.

I'm with you, Linked. I can't accept it.

This sort of thing is another huge shelf item for me. The PH has no supernatural power. The PH has never raised the dead, or healed a child like this little girl.

Early on in my faith transition I found a blog named 'why won't God heal amputees'. It opened my eyes to the fact that the PH power is a myth.

TBMs, who have medical emergencies rush off for the best medical treatment, then when they are medically stable they get a PH blessing. Six weeks later they tearfully bear testimony that the PH healed them.

The true test of faith is for the person having a heart attack or with cancer to get a PH blessing then go on with their lives. No doctors, no hospitals, just a PH blessing. THAT could prove whether or not the PH has a power.