An Airport Answer to Prayer

A couple of weeks ago I took the 2 older children on a trip to Utah with me to visit my family while my pregnant wife and our youngest child enjoyed the weekend in Atlanta with her family. After being dropped off at the airport more that 2 hours from home, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. With an hour before our plane was departing, I doubted that we would be able to get though security without ID.

With less than an hour before our plane's departure, I attempted to call my wife on her cellphone to explain our predicament. Unfortunately, her phone went right to voicemail which meant that her batteries were most likely completely run down and she wouldn't likely check her phone until she arrived at her parents who lived about 35 min from the airport. My wife does have a phone charger in her car which I bought her for her birthday, but which she has rarely ever used. In fact, my wife often refers to the phone charger as an example of a gift I gave myself on her birthday.

As my 2 children and I stood to one side of airport security, and still unable to reach my wife on her phone, I approached one of the airport security officers to explain our situation. Our plane left in less than an hour, I was more than 2 hours from home without a wallet, and my wife who dropped me off at the airport was unreachable on her phone and would be most likely unreachable until she arrived at her parents home. The security officer told me that he was sympathetic to our situation but that they required some form of ID to pass airport security. I walked back a little dejected to where my 2 kids and our carry-on bags were resting. My 6-year-old daughter who was aware of our situation must have seen the discouraged look on my face and began to sob.

At that moment the thought entered my mind and heart to take my children and our bags aside and offer a prayer to our Heavenly Father for assistance. We found a quiet and discrete nook off to the side of airport security and there offered a humble prayer with my 2 children explaining to God our situation, and asking that I would be able to reach my wife on her phone and that we could find a way to get past airport security and make our airplane. After concluding our brief prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, I immediately called my wife again on her cellphone.

As it turned out, my wife answered the phone on the first attempt. I immediately explained our situation, and told her about our prayer, and then I asked her how she thought to check her phone and plug it into the charger. My wife said the thought and feeling just came into her mind and heart to check her phone. She noticed that the battery was down so she plugged it into the charger that I had been using to charge my phone on the way to the airport. My amazing wife then suggested that we might use my son's "Identi-Kid" ID which she told me he was carrying in his backpack. This ID was a professional-looking laminated credit-card-sized card with my and my wife's name on it, our address, but our son's photo and fingerprint.

I approached the same security officer again with my child's ID, and to my relief, and after a pat down and a search of my bags, we were cleared to pass through security with plenty of time to make our flight. Additionally, my wife called her sister who lives down the street and who has a key to our house to verify that my wallet was at home. It turns out that my wallet was resting right where I had set it out the night before with my keys. Somehow the keys made it into my pockets but not the wallet. My sister-in-law was kind enough to overnight my wallet to me in Utah which I received the very next day.

While some might look at this series of events as a lucky coincidence following an unfortunate oversight. I consider this a clear and unmistakable answer to prayer. Although, I do not wish to make a habit of forgetting my wallet while traveling, I am thankful I could use this incident to demonstrate to my children the power of prayer and how we must rely on our Heavenly Father in times of need and adversity. I am thankful to a kind and gracious Heavenly Father for His merciful and loving kindness in answering a humble prayer. Additionally, I am thankful to my wife who i can always count on to be in-tune with and responsive to the Holy Spirit.

While these kinds of answers to prayer are not exclusive to members of the LDS Church, the same promptings of the Holy Spirit that lead me to pray and that inspired my wife to check her phone, is the same power by which I know that there is a God in Heaven, the Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God like the Holy Bible and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's true church on the Earth.