Most of my life I've claimed that I don't believe in coincidences, and since I first made that statement, that fact has been proven to me over and over. "The tender mercies of the Lord are real and...they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence." They come subtley, and without warning or knowledge, and if we're not careful, we miss them all together. So many times we think we're alone, without purpose or direction, and that no one is ever listening, but these tender mercies are a loving Father's way of showing that when the rest of the world has given up on us, He is there. He loves you, He's paying attention, He wants to help, and most importantly, He's the only one with the capability to help when no one else can.
Elder Bednar defines tender mercies as "very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts." All those words are great, but what do they actually look like? My tender mercies generally involve snow (especially in Georgia), letters, phone calls, a song on the radio, a package of tea and pastries, a breeze at just the right moment, the list goes on. Whatever they are, they're always chosen specifically for me at that specific moment. Today was not such a good day for me, and all I wanted to do by the end of the day, was go to Institute. Sister Healey (my faithful institute buddy) listened to me whine all the way up, the discussion we had was amazing, and I was living high my friends! As far as I was concerned, my evening was finished off perfectly. Until....Happy Hip
pos. For those of you who know me, I firmly believe that Happy Hippos are pretty much the best thing ever invented. They make me...well, happy! Suffice it to say. I love Healey for randomly having them in her car. You're a rockstar. :)
pos. For those of you who know me, I firmly believe that Happy Hippos are pretty much the best thing ever invented. They make me...well, happy! Suffice it to say. I love Healey for randomly having them in her car. You're a rockstar. :)
I love that talk by Elder Bednar. Did you know that Jake and I ran into him in an airport? We chased him down. It was awesome.
ReplyDeleteOne tender mercy that comes to mind... I was upset one day, really overwhelmed and sad, so I decided to take a walk to this pretty little lake in our apartment complex. I took my scriptures and thought I would have this really spiritual experience, get some real nice revelation for myself. So, I get to the lake and find myself a seat on the grass... and I open up my scriptures, and as I'm about to start reading, I notice all these geese slowly making their way towards me. There were like 20 geese headed straight towards me!! So I stand up and start yelling at them to go away, but they keep coming! And it's scary, and they're hissing at me and I start running and they start chasing after me. It was so funny, the absurdity of it all, I just laughed and laughed... and that was Heavenly Father's way of cheering me up that day. Not something from the scriptures, but a flock of geese making me laugh.
ok, that's scary/hilarious. I actually have a fear of geese. This one time we were about to go tracting, and there were these geese, and before we started my companion prayed that they would go away, and when we opened our eyes, they were waddling down the road. How sweet is that?!
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