My daughter Jenny got new glasses recently. She needs them only for reading or studying and is not required to wear them all the time. She was excited to get glasses, and she looks really cute with them on.

It reminded me, however, of the wonderful power of fasting and prayer as taught by the savior, Jesus Christ. When his disciples approached him to ask why they were unable to cure a lunatic child, the master said, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." (Matt. 17:20-21)

Shortly after Jenny was born, my wife noticed that Jenny's right eye was reddened and a little puffy underneath her lower eyelid. We took her to the doctor and were ultimately sent to one of the top children's eye specialists in the nation. He told us she had a hemangioma, a tumor of capillaries which was putting pressure on her eye and causing both astigmatism and amblyopia. The prognosis was grim. We were told the tumor would probably disappear by the time she turned 5, but by the time she was a year old, she would probably be blind or, at best, nearly blind in her right eye.

We were instructed to put a patch over her good eye every other day in the hope of forcing her right eye to strengthen itself against the pressure of the tumor. We were also supposed to keep her from crying since that would cause the capillaries to dilate and make the tumor grow. Our final instruction was to bring her back in two months to be fitted for corrective lenses to slow the progression of the blindness.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are asked to fast on the first Sunday of each month and contribute the cost of the meals we miss (or more) to help feed the needy. We are also encouraged to fast for a purpose personal to our needs.

My family decided to make Jenny the focus of our fasting each month. We combined our fasting with daily prayers that the Lord would bless her.

On our first return visit to Dr. King, he expressed amazement that her astigmatism and amblyopia seemed to be getting better. He decided to hold off fitting her for glasses until the next visit. That established a pattern that held for the next five years. By the time she was 5, the hemangioma had disappeared and the doctor pronounced her vision 20/20.

Where medical science was unable to help, God had taken over. The wonderful principle of fasting Jesus taught produced a miracle in our daughter's life.