Tender Mercies

Funny. I never thought about tender mercies so much until Elder Bednar spoke of them a few years back when he was called as a member of the 12. Now I think of them daily and wonder to whom did I attribute those times when God’s hand was clearly guiding my path. I just want to make mention of the top 5 from the last few weeks…

5. I was really worried- I mean really worried- about my kids’ teachers this year. We had such dynamite teachers last year, and I thought that I could never recreate that year again. Funny. It seems like we may have a repeat of fantastic! It seems like Greyson’s anxieties, although not all together eliminated, may truly be smoothed over this year with his sweet, extremely kind, FUN second grade teacher. A tender mercy!

4. Gage truly wants to become less angry. He truly wants to get along with that brother of his (Jace- in all his yellowness) that gets under his skin. I have been praying and truly, his heart is changing. I do not think he even wanted it to change, but in all its mercy, it is happening.

3. We seem to be able to have all our needs met and still have some left over to despite having my tutoring students cancelling left and right for the last two weeks.

2. Baseball teams may not seem very important to some, but I truly wanted some good experiences for my boys. I really prayed that we would have some coaches who were kind and truly loved my boys. Not only can I make the practices with our busy schedule, but both the kids have friends on the teams. Mitch is helping out with Aiden’s and even though he is soooooo busy, he is making it work and Aiden loves it. Gage begins tomorrow, but our neighbor is the assistant coach and the practice is at Heckethorn park. Gage could walk to the park. (Incidentally he thinks that is a great idea, but I think, um, nope.) My boys may not be terrific ball players when it is all said and done, but I truly think much good will come out of it. Another tender mercy.

1. Cooper is a wanderer. Yes, his parents have known this for years. It truly is a miracle that we have not lost him as of yet. While we were vacationing in Newport last week, we nearly lost him. Amazingly, my pleads for him to be found safe said 300 times in the 3.5 minutes that he was away from us, were heard. A jogger running the boardwalk of Balboa saw him and clearly knew that he was lost and also knew that he was surely too young to be wandering the island of Balboa alone. It seems that in the split second that I told young Cooper that he could not have the golf ball size gum ball for his own (and why do they make gum balls that are even too large to put in one’s mouth?) and his family turned down Agate, it was enough for him to walk behind another family and be separated from us for those dreadfully long 3.5 minutes. I thank that jogger a million times over for listening to the prompting to stay with him until he was delivered into Backyard Grandma’s arms. Oh and in the midst of me crying, another man who witnessed the events while he was waiting for the ferry also wept a tear for us too when he learned that Cooper had been found. Tender mercies for us all!

I am thankful for tender mercies. They truly fill my hours. For these, I am grateful!