Tender Mercies

When we hear the words "God's Love" we seem to automatically think of the Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement.  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."-John 3:16  I think often times we over look the small and more simple ways that God shows us His love.  We categorize these small and simple things as blessings, small miracles, or my personal favorite, tender mercies. In my opinion, tender mercies are the means by which Heavenly Father lets us know that He is aware of us, and loves us.

Tender mercies are apparent in so many different ways.  In my life, I find that a lot of the tender mercies of the lord come through personal prayer.  When we pray we are securing for ourselves blessings that Heavenly Father is already willing to give us. I have come to really appreciate the gift of prayer.  It is a time when I can set aside everything else and commune with Heavenly Father.

One of my favorite examples of the power of prayer is found in the book of Enos, in the Book of Mormon.  Enos is the son of a prophet.  Which to me indicates that Enos faced a lot of pressure to be practically perfect.  However, we see that Enos is not perfect, as none of us are.  He has a "wrestle" with God. I think we all experience similar feelings when we go to repent and pray for forgiveness.  Enos did not make His prayer a rote conversation.  He practically poured out his soul to God through his prayer.  After Enos had prayed all day and all night for the salvation of his soul, he heard a voice which told him his sins were forgiven him because of his faith in christ.  Faith in Jesus Christ is what can bring the most power into our prayers.  When we have faith in Christ we are given power to do whatever is required of us.  That is a tender mercy in and of itself.

One way that I have been able to more fully recognize the tender mercies that come into my life because of prayer, is through a prayer journal.  This might sound like a far off idea to some.  However, keeping a prayer journal has helped me to see that Heavenly  Father really does hear and answer our prayers.  There have been many times when I will ask questions in my prayers, and the answers will come quickly, and subtilely.  I will write things down that happen to be answers to a previous question, or thoughts that will bring peace.  For me, keeping a prayer journal helps me to better recognize answers to my prayers.  These answers become tender mercies in my life.

Another way that tender mercies can be apparent in our lives is through the scriptures.  Studying the scriptures can also help us to receive answers to our prayers.  When I was on my mission, I decided to participate in what I like to call "the 30 day challenge."  This challenge was given by Sister Nelson in a world wide devotional in January 2016.  Sister Nelson invited the young adults of the church to ask Heavenly Father a different question every day through prayer. After we ask the question, we open the Book of Mormon to any random spot and read until we find our answer.  She invited us to do this consecutively for 30 days.  As I took on this challenge, I received so many specific answers to my questions through the Book of Mormon.  I was so amazed that the answers to my life questions were found so simply in the Book of Mormon.  Not only did that experience help strengthen my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, but it also helped me to know that God really knew who I was.

There are tender mercies that occur in our lives that we deem as mere coincidences.  They become moments in time where we thing that it is just "too good to be true."  However, those "too good to be true" moments are just testaments of God's unfailing love for His children.  I had an experience just a couple weeks ago that fit into this category.  I was headed back to Rexburg Idaho after spending the weekend with my family in Utah.  My car allows me to plug my phone in and it will play music and GPS commands over the audio of the car.  It happens to be really convenient.  For some reason my phone was not playing audio, and my car would not let my phone settings pair to the sound system.  So as any millennial would, I got frustrated that my seemingly simple technology was not working.  I was praying for it to work so that I could get home safely with the assistance of Google Maps.  After a while of trying to get everything figured out nothing had improved.  Well may parents happened to find where I had pulled over.  They came and tried to get things fixed.  Right when my parents showed up, the spirit came in great abundance.  As I was sitting in my car with my parents, the spirit whispered to me that this was all happening to keep me or my parents safe from accident or harm.  At that point I just felt so humbled.  Here I was getting frustrated because my music wasn't working in my car. It only happened because God loved my family enough to keep us out of harms way.

"The tender mercies of the Lord are real, and they do not occur randomly, or merely by coincidence."-Elder David A. Bednar "...Behold, I Nephi will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty, even unto the power of deliverance.  - 1 Nephi 1:20

There have been times in my life when I have definitely felt like I was left alone to figure things out by myself.  If you feel that way, or have felt that way, I invite you to pray for the greater ability to recognize the tender mercies of the Lord in our every day lives.  They there, and always will be.  We just have to learn how to recognize them.