Following priesthood counsel

Our older son Michael had decided to quit school after his first semester at BYU, which meant giving up the second half of his full-tuition scholarship, to get a job to earn money for his mission. The idea was originally his, but we felt comfortable with it, particularly because there seemed to be a lot of compelling reasons why that course seemed to be a good idea: He was starting his college career with about a year's worth of advance placement credit. He was wondering about getting too far along in a major like computer science before leaving for two years. He was even having second thoughts about his major. He had exhausted his own funds from his summer job and wasn't sure where to get the money to pay his room and board for another semester. He had a job opportunity that seemed promising. His mission would mean more to him if he had more of his own funds invested in it. Etc.

A lot of good reasons . . . except for perhaps one: Apparently the Lord had other plans in mind.

It happened something like this: On the afternoon of December 17, 1991—the Tuesday of finals week—I received a phone call from F. Michael Watson, our stake president, just before I was getting ready to leave my office. He said he had been thinking a lot about Michael and didn't think it was a good idea for him to drop out of school and wondered if it were too late for him to reverse his decision.

"I don't know," I replied, "but he'll be home sometime this evening, and I'll talk it over with him and see what he thinks."

The reason Michael was coming home from Provo that par­ti­cular night was a job interview the next morning for a six-month position as a full-time data entry operator (the same job he had had part-time while in high school).

Michael came home after I had gone to the stake center for my regular Tuesday meet­ings there. With­out telling him why, Claudia had him phone me there. I told him he needed to come down to the stake offices so the two of us could talk with President Watson about his future plans. He arrived shortly, and we went in to visit with President Watson, who began something like, "Michael, this has been weighing heavily on my mind the past few weeks, and I feel very strongly that you need to stay in school."

I was surprised at how forceful his counsel was to Michael. He continued by saying that means could be pro­vided toward his mission to compensate for the income he wouldn't be earn­ing by staying in school and that he shouldn't worry about finances.

Needless to say, Michael and Claudia and I were up late that evening discussing this sud­den turn of events, trying to help him decide what to do. We happen to believe rather strongly in following inspired counsel from a priesthood leader, particularly under the circumstances this counsel was given and without our even seeking it.

As we talked, we were amazed at the num­ber of seeming coincidences that made this change seem the right direction to go. For example, the timing of President Watson's telephone call. Or the several steps Michael needed to take to leave BYU that with only three days left in the semester he had still not taken. Or his resident assistant's continuing to forget to bring by the forms Michael needed to sign to leave Deseret Towers. Or Michael's bishopric for­getting the previous Sunday, the final one of the semester, to include his name in the list of people being released from their callings because they wouldn't be in the ward after the holidays. And so on.

By the next morning both he and we knew the right decision was for Michael to stay in school for another semester. I'm certain we don't understand why he is supposed to con­tinue at BYU. Perhaps we may never know. But subsequent events have already proved that it's the right decision.

A single example from among many: Ten days later, as I was preparing for our visit with the bishop at tithing settlement, I discovered that somehow I had miscalculated the final tithing I owed for the year. I had planned a final payment at tithing set­tle­ment that would have put us, even with a generous round­ing upward, about a thousand dollars beyond what we actually needed to pay. Now, I keep a fairly meticulous budget, and I still have not been able to figure that one out on paper. But I know it somehow computes in the cur­rency of heaven. A thousand dollars was the amount we were still short on completing the payments for Michael's room and board for the rest of the school year.

"Wherefore, dispute not because ye see not," the revelations say, "for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" (Ether 12:6).

And, of course, the Lord's promise, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, . . . and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi 3:10).