“If today you feel your prayers are not heard, or you can’t feel God’s love for you, please know that every effort you make matters, even if you don’t yet recognize it,” Salani Pita said in her Tuesday morning devotional address.
Pita, an analyst in the university budget office, spoke on the power of receiving and acting on spiritual promptings. She illustrated this teaching with two personal experiences.
Amid the busyness of life as a mother of four, Pita often forgot the impressions she had received by the end of the day. She was inspired by Elder Henry B. Eyring’s invitation in 2010 to act on spiritual promptings. To better remember and follow through, Pita began carrying a small red notebook, writing down each prompting as it came so she could return to it later and act on it.
“I have seen enough to know of a surety that every time I act in faith on a prompting from the Lord, His purposes are accomplished,” Pita said. “I don’t need to know His purpose to be obedient, and I don’t need to see His purpose accomplished for it to happen. I am willing to go forward in faith and leave the outcomes to Him.”
Pita shared a powerful story about her son Sa’o, who was born deaf and unable to feel or move. Through consistent, intentional patterning guided by medical experts, he gradually gained the ability to sense, hear and even walk.
She drew a parallel to spiritual life: Just as Sa’o’s senses were restored through consistent effort and love, spiritual sensitivity can be restored through patient, intentional connection with God.
“In the same way that physical feeling is important, feeling God’s love is essential not just for our spiritual safety, but for the joy it brings to our lives,” she said.
Pita highlighted four practices to help feel God’s love: praying sincerely, seeking out the Spirit in holy places, remembering God’s goodness and serving others. Each of these practices serves as a form of spiritual patterning to awaken our souls to God’s love.
