Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Today's Tender Mercies

So many things to be grateful for. Started out reading an article this morning that I just chanced across. it was just what I needed. Funny how after that everything just kind of added to the lessons learned from what I had read.


Took Aedan to a birthday party today after attending a funeral. I walked Aedan and a couple of his friends down to the park where the party was taking place. A bunch of moms were sitting there chatting while their kids played. I wasn't going to stay, but I quickly recognized this as a tender mercy. I needed to be there. I needed to talk to these women and enjoy their company. It ended up being just what I needed, and I was glad I stayed.

As I left the party, I started pushing the buttons on the stereo. Zan had stored a new FM sports talk radio station on the stereo a few weeks ago, and Quinlan, as a joke, a few days after he stored it, covered it up with a country station, knowing that would tick Zan off. Well, as I started to pass over that station, I felt strongly urged to stop. I'm not a country music fan--raised with too much of Willie, Waylon and the boys I guess--but after listening for just a moment, I knew why I had to stop there. Another tender mercy. This is what I heard:




So many messages from this song sang out to me. The idea that the birth of a child is like seeing God. I feel that I've seen God many times in my life in that respect--when my children were born, when my mother died, when my kids have gotten baptized, when I watch Gannon pass the sacrament. It's times like these that I know God loves me. That He's aware of me. I also love the message that God sends us personal messages everywhere. Do we stop to look? Do we accept these things for what they really are?

Tonight, Zan and I took an older, mentally challenged woman from our ward to the temple with us. I've visit taught her for the last few months. I feel that she, too, is a tender mercy in my life. Margie loves unconditionally. She has a child-like way of looking at life. I can learn a lot from her. She frequently says, "She loves me, doesn't she?" or "They love me, don't they?" Why is it I always look at life from the half-empty point of view when it comes to this? I've decided I'm going to start thinking this in my head when I talk to people. Heck, I may even ask them, "You really love me, don't you?" Wouldn't that make them remember me?

1 comments:

Rory Baxter said...

jules,
thanx so much for sharing - your blog and you yourself continue to amaze me! I admire you so much for the spiritual and personal strengths you share with all of us!
Having a new little person at our house constantly reminds me how blessed I am. Our little one truly is an angel.
I am also thankful for sick little people who snuggle in my lap (who wouldnt otherwise), finding out the car is having major issues and having to scrape up 100's of dollars to have our car fixed before we travel, and for the gift of having a camera to capture all those little things around us (raindrops on a leaf)that we seem to take for granted or never even notice!
There are so many gifts, blessings and tender mercies everywhere - what a joy this life is to be able to experience them if we just take the time to stop and look.
Thanx again for sharing - you are WONDERFUL!

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