Does God Really Care about Us?

By Sister Delphine Gamiette

Area Organization Adviser

We are made to progress, and I can testify that our God takes care of putting us in situations that will allow it. He likes to put us outside our comfort zones. I have seen it for myself and continue to see it today. He gives us situations in our professions, our family, our callings, so that we can learn, improve ourselves, change, and become better. In our learning, we face different difficulties that could lead us to doubt His love for us.

But as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland so aptly mentioned in his talk at Brigham Young University on Jan. 18, 2022:

“God is perfectly and thoroughly, always and forever good, and everything He does is for our good. I promise you that God does not lie awake nights trying to find ways to disappoint us or harm us or crush our dreams or our faith.”¹

He truly loves us and wants our happiness and not our destruction. He invites us to trust Him. I will not recount the difficult challenges of my life. I want to share an experience that shows that He cares for us in every way.

When my husband had his business in the early 2000s, he called me one day, asking me to prepare a very important administrative document that was necessary for him, and I had to find it quickly. I knew I had seen this paper in one of the trays. I looked all over the office, but it wasn’t there. I searched several times, but nothing worked. I prayed. But not a simple prayer. I prayed with all the energy of my heart, the strength of my soul. When I do this kind of prayer, I am almost exhausted as I put my faith into action. Expressing to the Lord that I know He can help me and guide me to find what I seek, affirming that I believe in His power. I continued to search, then, as I leaned against the door frame at the entrance of the office, I observed the room. I looked at the tray, which was near the window, and then I understood what had happened. It was as if the story of this sheet was being shown to me. The document had flown out the window. I ran downstairs, I must say my faith was tested; a paper that flies from a second-floor window can go anywhere.

I circled the building, tree leaves strewn across the ground. No documents in sight. I continued to seek, nevertheless fearing that it was lost.

I saw a small piece of dirty paper under the leaves, and I almost missed it as it could barely be seen. I picked it up, and oh, what joy I felt when I saw that it was indeed it, this precious document for which I had spent so much energy, searching, imploring, and importuning my Heavenly Father. I took the time to sincerely thank Him.

I was so grateful that He helped me, and especially that He even kept this document outside for us because I noticed, with the dirt on it, that it had been outside for several hours or even a day or two. God had paved the way before I even knew it.

God loves us and takes our needs into consideration. We can ask Him anything. We can trust Him. He will not ask us to do anything that we cannot do. Nephi had that confidence. He did say, “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them, that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them” (1 Nephi 3:7).

Yet often we doubt and worry that we are not up to it. We put incredible pressure on ourselves to try to do things perfectly. A sister told me this: “We put pressure on ourselves to always have our interactions as a performance when we have callings, but I think that’s a mistake. Our perfectionist tendencies come into play. Sure, some presentations will be more formal, but I think most are simply about listening, loving, encouraging, uplifting, and bearing witness of Christ. Get to know the people you serve. Love them. We ALL learn as we go.”

I work hard to learn to trust in Him, to lay at His feet my fears and feelings of inadequacy, my fears of suffering. I want to learn to do my best, despite my imperfections, to let Him train me, to mold me through the experiences He gives me. May my weaknesses be made strong by being humble and coming unto the Savior.

Does God care? Yes, He cares, and He is in every detail of our lives.