Mystified

Last night as I finished putting the kids to bed, I continued to pursue the unpleasant job of tearing my house apart, in my fruitless search for my missing wedding ring. I had hashed it out in my head a million times, I had searched every nook and crany and I'm pretty sure I had prayed my silly little heart out to no avail. I was starting to come to terms with the fact that I had no one to blame but myself and that as much as I hated the thought of it, my wedding ring was forever gone.
I was doing my best not to just fall apart and be really angry that my prayers were going unanswered and that all my hard efforts were all in vain. I just kept telling myself I couldn't stop looking until I knew I had searched every square inch of my little house (which had come to feel more like a mansion as I was searching and cleaning every square inch of it).
It was during my fruitless searching last night that I sat on my kitchen floor mystified by myself. If I truly had come to terms with the fact that my ring was gone forever why was I wasting my time searching my home over and over again! If it was lost forever I wondered why it was that I hadn't received the peace I had asked for. So I was stuck in limbo, I wasn't sure whether I should trust the feeling I had that my ring was lost forever, or the other feeling I had to just keep looking.
For those of you that know me well, you might have guessed that my stubborn nature usually always wins (for better or for worse) and I found myself praying one last time for peace of mind, one way or the other. I can't say I felt any different after my prayer, I felt just like I did after all of the other prayer I had offered up about my ring, it almost felt as if Heavenly Father was just patiently waiting for me to work it all out on my own, like he really wasn't going to intervene one way or the other.
I knew I had a few places left to look, like the hot and smelly garbages outside, and the drawers in each and every dresser, so I figured I would tackle the dressers before I went to bed and start on the garbages in the morning.
I started with my dresser drawers. I emptied them one by one and my ring wasn't there. As I finished putting my clothes back into my top drawer I pulled out my jewelery box and began to rummage through it. I was laughing at myself at this point because I had been through my jewelery box two times before and I knew my ring wasn't there. I had carefully picked through each item (because this is where I usually keep my ring when I'm not wearing it), Derik had even watched me pick through it once, we both knew the ring was not there. So as I picked up the last handful of jewelery to place back in the box, you can only imagine my mystification when I saw my wedding ring, right there, where it should be.

So after three long days of worry and prayer and sleepless nights, I got my answer, I got my peace. Just in case any of you were wondering.