Ever since I was fourteen years old, I’d felt someday I would have my ham radio operator’s license. Not sure why. It wasn’t that I knew anybody with a ham radio, let alone anyone with a license. But that idea had been planted in my brain and so it stuck.
Ham radio
Through the ensuing years, the thought of getting my ham operator license would pop the thought would slip away into nothingness.
For years I would have the same re-occurrence. And for years I’d tell myself that there must be a reason the thought of getting my license kept coming back to me. But I’d tell myself how busy I was and that although there must be a good reason the Lord was so persistent in reminding me, I’d have to find time some other day.
Well, this year I joined a local C.E.R.T. team. C.E.R.T. teams will be a preparedness topic for another day on this blog; I can only say briefly here for this post that C.E.R.T. teams are urgently worth looking into. Do a Google search to find a local C.E.R.T team near you and join them. They will teach you better than practically any other institution how to prepare your family and friends for emergencies.
But it was precisely because I joined my local C.E.R.T. team that I once again felt reminded to obtain my ham radio operator’s license. My new C.E.R.T. team only had two “hams” and very much needed more. Sigh. This meant I needed to actually move forward on a decade’s old prompting.
To write it all now embarrasses me. I wish I could say that I was like Nephi of old, who immediately created a second set of plates when asked (even not knowing their purpose). I wish I could say that immediately after feeling prompted the first time that I sought out my ham radio operator’s license. After all, there isn’t an age limit for “hams”. Even as a fourteen-year-old, I could have obtained one. How good that would have felt . . . being that spontaneously obedient.
But flash forward to 2007. I still hadn’t obtained my license, but now needed to because of my C.E.R.T. team’s needs. So I dutifully downloaded information and began studying. Now mind you, I’m the farthest thing from a high-tech kind of gal. I know zilch about megahertz and all the other electronic information needed to pass the entrance level test for “Technician.” But I’m not dumb. I figured that by studying, I would be doing my best.
Well, again, life got busy. One month passed. Then another month began since I’d given my commitment to my C.E.R.T. team. Of course, all of those other “busy” activities were legitimate: church callings, homeschooling, etc. But that did nothing to erase my commitment I’d made to my C.E.R.T. team (and my sincere desire to follow the prompting given years prior).
The first available testing date had already passed by me since my agreement to help out my C.E.R.T. team. Now the second test had sped its way toward me and was that very evening. Yikes! I couldn’t go another month, it felt, without at least trying. I frantically printed out study materials and started cramming as quickly as I could in the few hours I had remaining till the test.
I crammed and crammed and crammed. Some things I understood; other things were laughable in their technological terms – I didn’t understand anything. But I was going to do my best!
I showed up that evening (dragging my husband along with me – the good sport had said he’d go win the test with me). The test proctors passed out pencils, answer sheets, and the actual test. The first question frightened me. The next question did too. Ouch. These questions were tough! I had no idea as to how to answer them. “Oh, well,” I thought, “I’ll just do my best. If I have to come back next month, so be it, to take it again.”
I struggled through the questions for three of the nearly ten pages of multiple choice questions. On the third page, there right in front of me, was a question requiring the mathematical equation we were supposed to have memorized, to then apply to the test problems. But some previous person had scribbled the equation on the page, with all the final, mathematical results. The person’s handwriting looked assured and even correct.
The choice was clear – I really wanted to pass this test. It would mean I’d completed an obligation the spirit had laid upon me years before.
But then again . . .
I raised my hand. There was only one thing to do. “Excuse me?” One of the proctors looked up. “This test is written on.” I knew in my heart that even if I flunked the test, I was NOT going to cheat.
The man came over. He vigorously scrubbed at the pencil marks, attempting to erase them into oblivion. Then a thought came to him. He began to flip through the rest of the pages. Sure enough, there were more calculations. He closed the test packet, took it with him, and walked toward the front of the room.
In my heart, I knew that if I’d not said anything the possibility existed that I could have passed that test. But in my soul, I knew that I’d done the right thing. There was always next month and by studying harder, I could probably pass the test then. I sighed and sunk a bit in my chair because I really had wanted the test behind me.
The man soon returned with a new test booklet in his hand. He laid it on the table in front of me. I breathed in deeply and began again.
To my astonishment, these questions were so much easier! And that was when I understood – that in being honest, what I’d really done was to trade in a much harder test packet for a simpler set of questions. I blazed through the packet; sure enough, the 35 questions (from a pool of 350+ possible test questions) were simple, straightforward and “coincidentally” only required one math calculation!
The end result? I passed the test – with only four incorrect answers. I’d gotten one of the best scores in the room! The Lord had blessed me in my honesty.
I walked out of that room that evening with warmth in my heart. Now I had not only become a ham radio operator, but I also had become closer to my God because of the honesty I’d chosen. Now that’s a feeling of preparedness. Why? When we’re prepared in honesty, we will much better be able to face all things.
So as you make your emergency preparations today, tomorrow and the next week make sure to include honesty. The Lord will bless you and smooth your way by so doing. If I’d NOT been honest, chances are I would have walked out of that testing site not only having flunked the test for ham radio operators but having flunked the test for daughters of God!
Now, I can say like Nephi that I have gone and done what was required of me. I’ve obtained my ham radio license, as prompted so long ago. I wished I’d been more quickly obedient like Nephi, but at least it is done. Whether I will use the ham radio license physically in this life does not matter; the point is I at least used the radio signal of honesty – a beacon I hope that reached to heaven.
