A Calming Spirit Entered My Classroom

A few years ago I taught an extremely difficult and troubled group of children in school. I was upset by my inability to reach them and found myself depressed and tearful as I left school each day.

One day the woman working with me as an aide told me she had been praying for a calming influence to enter the classroom so I could teach. Although she was not a member of the Church, she knew the power of prayer and was, I feel, prompted by the Holy Ghost to tell me of her prayers to remind me what I should do.

I realized that I had been so involved with the problem that I had neglected to go to the Lord for help. From then on I frequently found myself on my knees before school began, praying for inspiration. As the weeks went by, a calming spirit did enter the classroom and I was able to see I was making some progress with the children. There were still moments of frustration, but I seemed better equipped to deal with them.

We would all do well to follow Paul’s counsel to Timothy: “Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:6–7).

The Holy Ghost influences us in simple ways to allow great things to happen in our lives.—Nadine Doyle, La Crescenta, California