Pockets

“‘Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers because we need a pocket for him to put it in’” (George MacDonald) and we don’t have the pocket. And it’s not that God doesn’t want to answer at this time but it’s that we haven’t got a place to put it. I like to call it holding places of the heart and life sometimes carves those. Maybe you haven’t had an answer to a prayer or inquiry that’s a very good question...but there’s some other things God’s going to do...’I have this wonderful great big beautiful answer to that question but there’s just a little pocket in your heart right now. I can’t fit it in there. Let’s stretch the heart with some other knowledge so I can put this beautiful answer in.’

“I had to experience enough of life to realize how wonderful- whether it’s good things or bad things, the trials and joys- I had to experience enough of life so that the answer would fit and I would believe it when it came.”

S. Michael Wilcox, "The Great Visions of the Pearl of Great Price." BYU Ed Week 2008