The 5 Cranes: Tender Mercies

It seems whenever the Lord sends you a wonderful blessing, say, a baby, there is a certain amount of trials that follow. Why does this happen? I think it has a lot to do with keeping our trust in the Lord and putting Him at the head of our lives. Maybe our family just needed a lot of reminding over the past few weeks. While we have definitely had our share of difficulties lately, we have also been so abundantly blessed to see the tender mercies of the Lord through it all.

What is a tender mercy? Apostle David A. Bednar stated that,

"the Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ."

A tender mercy is a way of knowing how aware the Lord is of us and what we are going through. Elder Bednar continues by saying, "Truly, the Lord suits “his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men” (D&C 46:15)." I love that! Not every person sees the tender mercy as you do. It is completely personal and unique!

So, for posterity's sake, here's a brief rundown of these trials we've been going through. Soon after we came home from the hospital, the ceiling in Ellie's room started leaking. First it was just by the window, but within days it was leaking across the entire room and down the walls. Then our dryer decided it had had its last hurrah and died. To fix it would be $300. We bought it for $100. Danny took the car in to have an oil change and was greeted with the news that our tires were shot and that our car was leaking oil. We just bought tires last spring. On the morning of February 10th, my dad was taken to the hospital via ambulance. Anyone who knows my dad well is aware that the last time this happened, he was not expected to live through the ride to the hospital. And lately we've all been taken out by a nasty cold (well, I had the stomach flu. Yeah!) that has made me contemplate starting my own nursery at church. In the midst of all these things, some new opportunities completely unforeseen before have crossed our path. So we've been praying and pondering what's best for our family.

Now on to the fun part. Tender mercies we've seen. Around the same time Ellie's ceiling started leaking, maintenance fixed the roof. The morning after we had the sad news about our dryer, Danny found an envelope containing $300 in his desk from some anonymous coworker. Danny took our car back to have it looked at again. This time the manager did it and told us that nothing was wrong with our tires. (According to Danny, the manager really let the scum-of-an-employee have it. Walmart Tire Center will never be the same.) We also had our "oil leak" checked out. Doesn't exist. We came home from church one Sunday soon after and found $100 in an envelope taped to our door. We are so blessed by others' generosity. So thankful! My dad went in to the hospital on the 10th. The 9th was my original due date. My mom was going to fly here on the 7th. If Caleb hadn't decided to come 3 weeks early, my mom would have been here in Utah. My sister would have been all alone with my dad. (My dad is completely fine now. They're still not sure what happened, but they've made some adjustments to his pacemaker.) And while we've been sick the past week and a half, the sweet members of our ward have gone out of their way to help us.

The Lord is truly aware of our individual needs. When I am up late worrying as my (almost) 2 month old suffers from that exasperating booger up his nose that I can't do anything about; when I feel guilty for putting in a movie for Ellie instead of being the fun mom I want to be, but I just don't have the energy; when I feel Danny's stress because we're still getting hospital bills, I know without a doubt that the Lord will send his tender mercies to us. I've seen them multiple times- in a hymn, in a talk or a prayer, in the smile of the cashier at the grocery store, in the intuition of my mom when she calls at a really rough moment in my day. These are the small assurances the Lord sends to us to know that everything will be ok. He is in charge and in the end, Caleb's booger will go away, Ellie will quote movies like me and be able to play outside when it's warm, and we will pay those bills. Everything always works out if we put the Lord first. The "windows of heaven" always open just in time.

Ultimately, I'm grateful for these challenges. I grow and learn and become who I need to be. They shape and direct our future. I pray that I can continue to see the tender mercies of the Lord. What a blessing they are! Oh, and here is a link to Elder Bednar's talk "The Tender Mercies of the Lord." Read it.