Forewarned by a Dream

By Patricia Tarrant

I woke up from my dream, frightened. It was the same dream I’d had before, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of foreboding as I recalled a phrase from my patriarchal blessing: “You will be warned of the approach of evil and be protected from harm and accident.”

The dream was simple but terrifying. The small two-bedroom mobile home where my husband, our three children, and I were living was engulfed in flames. I didn’t know who, if anyone, was inside. But after the dream, I knew with certainty that we must move.

That would be more difficult than it sounded. My husband had just graduated from college, and we had moved to DeSoto, Georgia, after he had found a job.

Since he hadn’t been working long, we didn’t have much money. We’d been lucky to find the trailer, which had been sitting vacant on a cattle ranch owned by some friends.

And now I was insisting that we move. I didn’t know why, but I had faith in the promptings of the Spirit and in the counsel given in my patriarchal blessing. And my husband had faith in me. So I began looking for a new home.

I searched all over town and finally found a small, three-bedroom house inside the city limits of Americus. After we cleaned the place up and moved in, I sat back with a sigh. For the first time in days, I felt truly safe.

A week later, I received a call from the cattle ranch. “Have you heard?” my friend questioned. “The trailer you lived in burned to the ground today.”

To this day, no one knows what caused the trailer to burn. And it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the safety of my family and the guidance we can receive from the Lord if we will but listen and obey.

• Patricia Tarrant serves, along with her husband, as a stake missionary in the Plano Texas Stake.