Johnny Cake

I have often told this story when speaking to the Youth and from the pulpit on Sundays, so I hope I don’t bore anyone by relating it again. 

It happened when my first three children were very young.  I had a job offer on the other side of the country, but we were so poor that we had to walk and hitch-hike across the country.  Many people were very kind to us and so the Lord blessed us to be able to gather a little bit of money and support for the move, and with that we were able to buy some things that we needed for the long hike.  There were many times when there were no stores close by so we carried dried food with us.  The thing with dried camp food is it doesn’t taste very good and the desire to eat it fades very quickly. 

After a few weeks of eating this bland re-hydrated camp food, Toni just couldn’t take it anymore, to which she voiced her opinion in great sadness.  She was wondering why things were so hard.  I didn’t want her to lose faith, and my heart was drawn out to the Lord for any ideas of what to do. 

The Lord heard my unuttered prayer and put an idea into my heart.  I called the children around and told them the story of Joseph Smith and the Johnny Cake. 

The story takes place in Nauvoo, when Joseph had very little food in the house.  At this time Joseph was called to dinner and all they had was Johnny cake.  The Prophet offered the blessing, “Lord, we thank Thee for this Johnny cake, and ask Thee to send us something better.  Amen.” 

Before the cornbread was all eaten, a man came to the door that brought the Prophet some flour and a ham. 

Joseph turned to his wife, Emma, and said, “I knew the Lord would answer my prayer.” 

After telling my children this story, we gathered together and I offered the prayer.  ‘Our Father in Heaven, we thank thee for this camp food, and ask thee to send us something better.  Amen.’ 

Nothing happened, so we started to prepare our dehydrated food.  But before we finished eating, someone drove into our camp with bags of fresh groceries, like lettuce, tomatoes, bananas, cereal and milk, a bag of candy for each child, and they even included ham just like with Joseph Smith!  The Lord heard our prayer too! 

It didn’t end there, the lady that brought us the groceries invited us over for supper with her family, and we were able to have showers and do laundry.  They fed us until we were so full, then they fed us a wonderful desert just to top us off. 

Then on the way back to camp, we visited a farmhouse nearby just to say hi, and much to our surprise they fed the children ice cream cones.  We were delighted!  The Lord had more than exceeded our expectations.  But with the Lord, you never know when the blessing is over, and when we finally got back to camp, we found that someone had been there and left us a couple of gifts, one of which was an Apple Crisp, which, if I remember correctly, was way more than we could finish that night. 

To us, this was such a great blessing!  Our Heavenly Father had heard our prayer and had poured out a blessing greater than we had room to receive it. 

But it didn’t end there! 

For the next three days the Lord continued to pour out His blessings.  Different people would be guided to us, and would invite us over for meals, and others would bring us groceries.  Someone even brought us a camper to sleep in, which was much warmer than our tent.  Other luxuries and necessities were also provided, which would about double the length of this post if I were to list them all.  Heavenly Father fussed over us so much after that one tiny prayer, and showered us with such great concern, and showed us with what detail He can and does provide for His children.  There is no doubt that He is completely aware of every aspect of our lives. 

I was so happy that the Lord heard our prayer and strengthened the faith of my little family. 

.