Angels that Intervene with Children By Anne Hinton Pratt

 Angels that Intervene with Children

By Anne Hinton Pratt · February 10, 2022

Some of the most beautiful and touching stories told are those about angels protecting children. Several months ago, I shared several of these in an article. I’ve since received additional amazing and inspiring experiences from readers like you that you’ll want to feast on.

Miraculously Rescued from Fire

Kenny Mazzanti, a retired Sergeant on the California Highway Patrol had several experiences where he saw firsthand where angels protected children.  He writes,

“I was patrolling southbound I-5 near Lebec (between Los Angeles and Bakersfield CA) when I saw the backend of a motorhome burst into flames. The driver pulled over to the right shoulder of the freeway and the family piled out of the motorhome. Most of the motorhome was fully engulfed by flames when I approached the family.  The mom was counting heads. 1,2,3,4…

“Where’s little Johnny?” 

“One of the children said that he had been asleep in the back of the motorhome. I had the family move further away and prepared to go in to find the child. (It’s not the heat that will kill you; it’s the poisonous gasses from the burning plastics that will get you first). The door handle was too hot to open, so I used my handkerchief to open the door.  I took a deep breath and pulled the door open to charge in and retrieve the child. That wasn’t necessary.  There stood little Johnny holding his teddy bear as flames swirled all around him. I grabbed him by his sleeper and pulled him from the fire that took all the hair off my forearm, and then closed the door behind him. 

“We got away from the burning motorhome, and Johnny’s mother did a thorough inspection of her child.  Not a hair was singed, not even on the teddy bear.

“One of the other children asked how he got out?  Johnny told them very matter of factly that ‘The man in white’ had awakened him and led him to the door. Then, pointing at me, Johnny said, ‘And then HE grabbed me.’ [1]   

What an extraordinary rescue! When God and angels intervene, such amazing things happen. This next experience that Kenny relates will take your breath away.  He continues:

“Back about 1979, one of the Officers that I supervised was patrolling Interstate 5 near Newhall, CA saw something of concern.  A young couple had stopped for lunch at the Denny’s Restaurant in Newhall and had resumed their journey entering southbound I. 5.  The Officer pulled ahead of them, activated his overhead lights, and slowed his and their cars bringing the young coupe to a stop on the freeway shoulder.  The Officer approached the driver’s window.  The driver defensively questioned why the Officer had stopped him.  He was doing nothing wrong, and in his mind, this was obviously an abuse of power… 

“Without a word, the Officer reached up on top of the car and took down the car seat that secured their newborn baby and handed it to the young father. Apparently, they were not yet accustomed to having a baby with them when they travelled.”[2]

What kept that unattached baby from falling off the top of the car as it picked up speed on the freeway?  God is so good…

I love the scripture that talks specifically about children’s angels:

“Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”[3]

Yes, these angels are often directed from the Father to protect small children.  Sometimes they protect them from their own lack of judgment…

Angel Protects From 12-Foot Drop

Janet Johnson remembers a beautiful experience she had with a young son being protected from a greater injury.  She wrote:

“My youngest child of four, a six-year-old boy, had climbed up into an open loft, twelve feet above our garage floor. He was leaning over the edge of the loft dropping army guys onto the floor below.  He leaned too far and toppled out of the loft headfirst. His shoulder hit a shelf on his way down, and he landed on the floor screaming in fear and pain.

“When I rushed into the garage and found him, his shoulder was bloody and the skin was torn, but I was shocked that his head had not hit the garage floor. I was so amazed as I held him in my lap that I commented on that fact. Although we had never taught, or even talked about guardian angels, or the possibility of loved ones who had passed being angels in our lives, he looked at me through his tears and said, ‘It’s because I landed on the angel. He was soft.”[4]

Isn’t it interesting that this child was protected from a severe head injury, but not saved from all pain?  The angel provided an intimate sweet experience for the child and his mother.  What a gift!

Angel Saves Two Girls from Accident

Allison Dunlap recounts a harrowing tale of angelic aid to two of her young daughters.

She writes,

“This happened when I was a young mother of 4 daughters. We lived on the corner of a busy street, but going the opposite direction was a lovely little neighborhood park that my girls loved to play in.

“One day I was nursing my baby when I heard a knock at the door. There stood my neighbor Sister Fredley with my two little towheads. She was nearly in tears as she told me what had just happened. Maddy and Rachel had noticed the front door unlocked and had quietly slipped out and wanted to walk up to the park to play. Sister Fredley was backing out of her driveway that had a slight slope on it, making the bottom of it not visible from her rearview mirror. She heard a man’s voice holler to her to “STOP”! She wondered what man would be yelling to her as we had very few that actually lived on our street. After she put her car in park and got out to look around to talk to the man, she noticed my two little girls in her driveway walking up the street towards the park.

“She looked everywhere for the man who had hollered to her to stop but found no one out in their yards on either side of the street. She realized then she had been helped by an unseen angel to protect my little girls from being hit by her car as she blindly backed out.

“As she related to me on my porch what had just happened, I was flooded first, with embarrassment at my negligence, but then an overwhelming feeling of gratitude to the Lord for protecting my innocent little daughters and sparing them and her and me from the devastating sorrow that would’ve beset us all. I thank the Lord for all the help He gives to us as we strive to bring souls into the world and do our inadequate best to raise them.”[5]

What a blessing!  It wasn’t the plan for the girls to die that day, and an angel and an “in-tune” neighbor helped God’s will to be.

Angelic Hope during Abuse                                                                                               

Sylvia was a child in an abusive home and growing up she felt very unloved by her parents.  She told me that one day, when she was a young girl, an angel came to her and said,

“Don’t worry Sylvia, things will get better!”  

She held on to that promise for many years, and after she left home and started life on her own, things went in a beautiful direction, but it was the memory of that day that pulled her through.[6]

Why?

Why was an angel instructed to visit Sylvia, or the boy in the fire, or protection for the boy on the loft and the two little girls, but not sent to other children in similar conditions? Somehow, these visits were part of these children’s’ specific plan.  It was God’s GIFT to them.  Other children receive other good gifts such as learning how to overcome trauma or how to circumvent their own difficulties.  God gives us ALL gifts. 

In scripture Moroni asks a profound question,

“…have miracles ceased?  Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men…”[7]  

Do we believe Moroni? God knows the life plan of all children down to the details. He knows what gifts they need.  The fact is that angels protect and succor MANY, if not all children from time to time.   In my mind, these are the inspiring stories that are worth retelling…

Feel Free to CONTACT ME with your stories at annehpratt@hotmail.com

________________________________________

[1] Kenny Mazzanti, personal correspondence.  Used with permission.

[2] Kenny Mazzanti, personal correspondence.  Used with permission.

[3] Matthew 18:10.

[4] Janet Johnson, personal correspondence.  Used with permission.

[5] Allison Dunlap, personal correspondence.  Used with permission.

[6] Sylvia [last name withheld], personal conversation.  Used with permission.

[7] Moroni 7:29

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/angels-that-intervene-with-children/

Lorraine's Story

 For twenty-five years before Alzheimer’s took away her memory, my wife Madeline worked pro bono and tirelessly to help hundreds of friends and strangers , who became friends, turn their hearts to their parents and prepare books of remembrance “worthy of all acceptation to present in many temples. She had many miraculous experiences from both sides of the veil. Just as Madeline began to be affected by Alzheimer’s we had an experience that shown an unmistakable spiritual light on the meaning of Malachi 4:6.

While working in the Los Angeles Temple we were surprised to see our beloved friends the McKinnon’s from Fillmore,CA were we used to live. They invited us to witness Lorraine be sealed to her deceased husband John, then stand proxy for her mother and father to be sealed along with other family.

Twenty years before Madeline had helped Lorraine complete the paper work necessary to seal her mother and father together with the children an eternal family. But for twenty years Lorraine refused because of her fathers drinking problems and the yelling matches that ensured. She said, “mom would not want to be sealed to him for eternity. “

Madeline encouraged her to do this work because her parents could alway reject it. More importantly Lorraine might not know the full story and may not understand how the Saviors Atonement may heal such wounds within families.

So here was Lorraine in the temple with her children ready to complete the sealing. Madeline was thrilled that it had finally happened. Lorraine explained afterward that her mother appeared to her in a dream and insisted that the sealing be completed. They were happy with each other now she said.

The McKinnons had other miracles having to do with the healing power of the atonement. Madeline told me of many other similar experiences involving the healing power of Christs atonement in family relationships which help and prompt the living relative to complete this great work.

When Angels Speak By Catherine K. Arvseth

 

When Angels Speak

By Catherine K. Arveseth · December 15, 2022

 

I put the last of my grocery cart items on the conveyor belt and nudged my cart forward. As the cashier scanned my stack of necessities, I watched the bagger swiftly fill bags and then my cart, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see another shopper had joined the line. She began unloading her cart, and without thinking, I turned for a better look. I recognized the woman immediately as a friend of my Mother’s.

I didn’t know her well. Growing up in a predominantly Mormon neighborhood, there were just a handful of families that were not LDS. Hers was one of them. But my mother had a way of making those families some of her closest friends. I remembered how much my Mom cared about this woman. I remembered going with my Mom once or twice to take dinner to her when she was not well. I remembered my Mom reminding us to be kind to her children.

Should I say hello?  The thought dangled in my mind.

She’ll never remember me. Or recognize me… It’s been over twenty years since we’ve seen each other.

The cashier announced the total of my purchase, so I inserted my card for payment and tried to dismiss the idea.

But the idea didn’t leave.

Maybe I should say something.

And then I felt it. A touch on my shoulder. My right shoulder. As if my mother were standing next to me, her hand gently brushing against my clothing.

Then I heard her voice. There was no mistaking it.

“You need to say hello to her,” she said. “You need to tell her that I love her.”

The cashier handed me my receipt and I hesitated, knowing it was now or never.

Reluctantly, I turned back to the woman behind me and spoke her name. Before I could make my excuse that she would never remember me, her hand was on my arm and she was saying my own name.

“Catherine. I was so sorry to hear about your Mom. It was so sad.” There was genuine sorrow in her eyes and in her words.

“Thank you,” I said. “We really miss her.”

“She was a great lady. She never judged me. There was never any judgement. No judgement at all.”

“I know,” I said. “She was good at that. I actually wondered if I should say something to you and when I hesitated, it was like she tapped me on the shoulder and told me to say hello, because she wanted me to tell you how much she loves you.”

Her face softened and so did her smile.

“She was kind to me. And you and your brother did more for us than you know.”

There was not time to say much more. I asked about her children. We swapped brief details and then again in the parking lot, we talked for a couple more minutes, about her family, how everyone was doing. It was a happy conversation and the connection was easy, unrestrained, and seemed to fill us both.

We said goodbye and I finished putting my groceries into the back of my car then climbed in and started the ignition. A glowing warmth and gratitude settled around me.

If I could have seen my Mother’s spirit with my very eyes, in all its shimmering essence, I would not have known with more surety that she was sitting next to me in the passenger seat than I did in that moment. So I spoke out loud.

“I did it Mom. I did what you asked me to do. I was your voice.”

And then I cried. And together we made the drive home.

Days later I was telling my friend Kara about the experience. How my mother’s words had felt so similar to the Holy Ghost when He speaks to me. The same kind of knowing and fire and peace. All at once. And yet it wasn’t the Holy Ghost. It was my Mother. She was the messenger.

Kara pulled out her Book of Mormon and reminded me of this verse in 2 Nephi 32. I’ve read it dozens of times. So many times. And never before had it made so much sense. One phrase rang out with perfect clarity.

“Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost.”

Since my Mother passed away, I’d been trying to figure out this new place of communication with her. I was trying to differentiate between her voice and the voice of the Spirit. And now I understood.

By the power of the Holy Ghost, I could discern her voice. Her message. And through the Holy Ghost, she was given means to communicate. This is the pattern angels use. This is how they speak.

They do speak. And when they do, similar to the Holy Ghost, they have a message for us. Instruction, illumination, a truth to confirm, a warning, a witness, and sometimes, simple but matchless comfort.

 

In this season of angels, when we speak of angelic annunciations and angels filling the skies over shepherd’s fields – this season in which we hang angels on Christmas trees, place their art on our walls, I can no longer think of them as distant floating figures. The word angel has personal, even tangible meaning to me now. They are family. Joseph F. Smith taught us this. Loved ones who care about us. And they are thick around us. Speaking to us, walking next to us, teaching us.

President Ezra Taft Benson said,

“Visitors, seen and unseen, from the world beyond, are often close to us… There is no veil to the Lord.” (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.35)

No veil to the Lord. How often do we consider His perspective? How he views this mingling of worlds?

I made my scripture study this month about angels. In almost precise verbiage, here are their capabilites.

They can stand by us, come to us, go before us, speak to us in dreams, speak by the word of the Lord, speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, talk with God, talk with us, carry us, tell us not to fear, testify, bear us up, have charge over us, minister to us after great temptation, stay with us through the night.

As I write these words, a new death is fresh in our family. Last night my Dad’s brother, Richard, passed away. Cancer commandeered his body at a tragically rapid rate in recent weeks, and his going was sooner than expected.

Sweet Richard. Always kind. Always gentle. How my Dad loved this comrade from his childhood. His oldest brother.

I wept for my Dad. He has experienced so much loss this year.

But then I thought of those who had likely come to carry Richard home. The Grandmother I adore, the devoted Grandfather I never met, Richard’s daughter Fiona, and my own Mother. Surely she would have been there. And once again, I felt that spark of her feet touching the earth, the sensation of air moving as she passed by.

I didn’t hear her speak, but I knew she was near.

 

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