A Lesson Learned

by Katie Harding on May 9, 2022

I remember the day I was driving home from an appointment with a loaf of applesauce bread in my backseat. I had baked it for a friend moving out of the area and planned to deliver it later that day. However, as I approached the stoplight near her neighborhood, I felt the Lord say, “Go now,” so I pulled over and texted her quickly to see if it was okay to stop by. She said they were leaving earlier than anticipated, and if I could be there in the next 10 minutes, that would be great. Otherwise, they would be gone. Had I stuck to my plan, I would have totally missed her.

I wish I could say I’ve always been attentive to the Spirit’s promptings, but in all honesty, for years I didn’t even realize that the Spirit would prompt us to action. That was, until early 1999. It was then that everything changed.

“...for years I didn’t even realize that the Spirit would prompt us to action...then everything changed.”

Mike and I were headed to church one morning, and as we got in the car, the thought suddenly crossed my mind that I should make sure our daughter had her key. I interpreted it as her house key and reasoned if the kids got home before us, they could just wait a few minutes until our arrival. So off we went. As the choir took their seats and worship began, our daughter, our son, and his friend were nowhere to be seen. Soon the dad of our son’s friend was mouthing, “Where’s my son?” His son, who had perfect attendance in Sunday School (which followed worship), had spent the night at our house and should have arrived with our two in our other car. Yet, there was no sign of them. So, I left the service and called home only to learn they had tried to reach us, but to no avail. Gratefully, I stopped them from trying to hot-wire my car as they had seen on the web (mercy me!) and headed home to give them my keys.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. If I had acted on that “thought,” and not just brushed it aside after “hearing” it, things could have turned out so differently.

That realization encouraged me to give further reflection to the “thought” and led me to wonder if it was the prompting of the Spirit. After that day, I decided to start paying more attention to and acting on the promptings I experienced. Over time, I discovered it's through the promptings of His indwelling Spirit that Jesus often speaks to us - inviting us to follow Him.

“But be ye doers of The Word, and not hearers only…” (James 1:22, emphasis added).