2 Nephi 32:9
About a year ago in the summer of 2018 my wife, Bethany, and I were in the early stages of preparing to be parents. We had just found out a couple months earlier that we were expecting our first child to be born into the world. At this time, we were also in the midst of graduate school at Yale University, living very happily next to campus on Mansfield Street in New Haven, CT. Of course, learning that I would soon reach the milestone of being a father, one that for many years seemed as if it might not be a reality for me, coupled with the privilege of studying at one of the world's best universities made for quite an exciting time of life.
However, we also knew very well that this was definitely a time of tight finances for us. New Haven, and Connecticut in general, was much more expensive in every way than the cost of living that we had a year earlier in Utah. Additionally, as every prospective parent eventually learns, pregnancy and childbirth are certainly not the cheapest life events to pass through. And while God had so mercifully blessed us with a very generous stipend in my Ph.D. program at Yale University, our budget was still quite tight. And having been taught many times the very real dangers associated with going into debt, we did everything within our ability to try to avoid it. And so we started saving as much as we could, sometimes only $50 a month, so that when the time came for our child to be born we would pay the full cost right then and there.
One day, in the middle of this summer, an envelope arrived in the mail with the familiar appearance of a notification about a soon-to-come bill from the insurance that Bethany had. This of course was not unusual, and so we just assumed that it was just another bill covering the latest medical procedures, probably needing us to pay somewhere around $150 or $200. To our great surprise, the notification informed us that we would be getting a bill soon for nearly $16,000! Apparently, our insurance was refusing to pay any portion of the recently performed genetic tests that the doctors said were absolutely necessary. But we just simply could not afford to pay such a bill! And had we known that the insurance would not cover any of it, we likely would have foregone the whole procedure. But now it was just too late.
With great fear of the near future, I tried to remain calm and focus on the fact that all we had received was a notification of, and not the final, bill. But clearly something needed to be done if we desired to remain in a financially stable position as a family. But what could be done? At least the first step was to call either the insurance, the doctor's office, or the company that performed the tests. But was there really a way that such a phone call could be worth thousands of dollars by lowering the bill that was soon to come? Fortunately, the Holy Spirit brought to my memory a scripture that I had read earlier that week in The Book of Mormon :
Upon being reminded of this counsel from the Lord, I immediately reasoned that before making a single phone call, Bethany and I needed to pray that our performance of trying to find someway around a financial mountain we could not climb at the time would have the assistance of God. This we did, and soon afterwards made many phone calls.
Somehow through the mercy of the Lord, we were able to get everything worked out so that when the bill did arrive in the mail it was well within our abilities to pay off. To me, this proved the truth of the Book of Mormon verse that my heart had never previously caught a hold of. By making sincere prayer our first act of faith in the matter, we had the help of heaven. How could a single prayer produce a miracle? I may never know, but at least I know that in any situation with as far reaching consequences as a $16,000 bill, our family cannot afford to forge ahead without the help of God. And we learned that prayer was, and is, the means by which that help is unlocked to those with a sincere heart.
However, we also knew very well that this was definitely a time of tight finances for us. New Haven, and Connecticut in general, was much more expensive in every way than the cost of living that we had a year earlier in Utah. Additionally, as every prospective parent eventually learns, pregnancy and childbirth are certainly not the cheapest life events to pass through. And while God had so mercifully blessed us with a very generous stipend in my Ph.D. program at Yale University, our budget was still quite tight. And having been taught many times the very real dangers associated with going into debt, we did everything within our ability to try to avoid it. And so we started saving as much as we could, sometimes only $50 a month, so that when the time came for our child to be born we would pay the full cost right then and there.
One day, in the middle of this summer, an envelope arrived in the mail with the familiar appearance of a notification about a soon-to-come bill from the insurance that Bethany had. This of course was not unusual, and so we just assumed that it was just another bill covering the latest medical procedures, probably needing us to pay somewhere around $150 or $200. To our great surprise, the notification informed us that we would be getting a bill soon for nearly $16,000! Apparently, our insurance was refusing to pay any portion of the recently performed genetic tests that the doctors said were absolutely necessary. But we just simply could not afford to pay such a bill! And had we known that the insurance would not cover any of it, we likely would have foregone the whole procedure. But now it was just too late.
With great fear of the near future, I tried to remain calm and focus on the fact that all we had received was a notification of, and not the final, bill. But clearly something needed to be done if we desired to remain in a financially stable position as a family. But what could be done? At least the first step was to call either the insurance, the doctor's office, or the company that performed the tests. But was there really a way that such a phone call could be worth thousands of dollars by lowering the bill that was soon to come? Fortunately, the Holy Spirit brought to my memory a scripture that I had read earlier that week in The Book of Mormon :
"But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform anything unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul." ~ 2 Nephi 32:9
Upon being reminded of this counsel from the Lord, I immediately reasoned that before making a single phone call, Bethany and I needed to pray that our performance of trying to find someway around a financial mountain we could not climb at the time would have the assistance of God. This we did, and soon afterwards made many phone calls.
Somehow through the mercy of the Lord, we were able to get everything worked out so that when the bill did arrive in the mail it was well within our abilities to pay off. To me, this proved the truth of the Book of Mormon verse that my heart had never previously caught a hold of. By making sincere prayer our first act of faith in the matter, we had the help of heaven. How could a single prayer produce a miracle? I may never know, but at least I know that in any situation with as far reaching consequences as a $16,000 bill, our family cannot afford to forge ahead without the help of God. And we learned that prayer was, and is, the means by which that help is unlocked to those with a sincere heart.
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