Tender Mercy Tuesday: 57th Edition

Hello dears. I hope you are doing splendidly and are enjoying "Fat Tuesday."

If you're not Catholic (like myself) then this day holds no extreme significance for you. I have, in the past, given up "things" for Lent. However, this year I am focusing not so much on giving things up, but getting things done. Occupying my life. Attempting to be patient until an unknown future date.

Life has been an interesting roller coaster ride as of late. I don't see it as being one of tons of ups and downs, but more of one with lots of twists and turns, new things around every bend. I have understood for a long time that God is omnipotent, but it still never ceases to amaze me how well he knows me and the ability he has to take me on a journey that is the best possible route for me.

Solider Boy told me a personal story last night that directly related to us and our future relationship that just confirmed to me how right this situation is for us right now. I've known it's right, but any outside evidence is always helpful to combating the feelings of doubt and fear that Satan tries to instill into my mind. I'm constantly reciting and remembering Doctrine and Covenants 6:36, "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." This scripture is pulling and pushing me through this unknown amount of time. How I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Basically, I want you to know that I KNOW that God is looking out for us no matter our situation or religious affiliation. We are all children of Him and He wants us to be a happy and joyful people. What a great thing to have - an omnipotent being rooting for us every step of the way. :o)

God bless.

p.s. If you happen to be LDS and have a favorite General Conference talk, I'd love for you to share it with me. I'm speaking in my congregation in a few weeks and have complete freedom in choosing my topic from a General Conference talk. However, I have no idea where to start - so please share your favorite talk of all time! Thanks!

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 53rd Edition

This is my FIRST tender mercy post of the new year! Wow! I didn't realize it had been so long!

I have been really blessed so far at the beginning of this year with good friends, an understanding family and a Heavenly Father who loves me and is willing to guide me through my crazy moments. Answers to prayers are always the best thing, even when you don't necessarily want to hear those answers.

Life keeps on getting more and more exciting and I can't wait to see what is in store for me in the coming months. I'm rather excited about it all. :o)

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 49th Edition

Hello dears.

It has been a week FULL of tender mercies. It honestly has been one thing after another and I have been so blessed in so many different ways.

I think the one that stands out to me the most is in relation to my calling. Being over so many sisters and needing to know their needs and concerns so that I can help them can be very overwhelming at times.  This past week has been full of small moments of me being given ways to help these sisters and feel like I am, in some way, assisting these sisters to learn and grow. It's a good feeling to know that these sisters are being watched over and that Heavenly Father is working through me to help His daughters that he loves so very much.

How wonderful this gospel is to be full of light and happiness and a Heavenly Father who truly cares about each and every one of His children. It's amazing.

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 46th Edition

Hello  Tuesday! I am so glad to see you. Mostly because it means that I only have two more days to work this week. :o)

I am so very blessed. Honestly, I can't believe how wonderful my life is sometimes! I am continually thanking my Heavenly Father  for all of my many, many blessings.

So, this week's tender mercy comes from just the other day. Every 2nd Sunday I have an early morning Stake Training meeting for my calling. It's at 7 am at my church building and it is always a wonderful meeting to go to. I just love it. The night before I had watched a movie with Monkey Man and some of our friends from the ward. I didn't get home from said movie night until one in the morning. Smart, I know. Well, as I was getting ready for bed I had the prompting to get everything packed and ready for my meetings the next day. Now, I had set my alarm and had left myself plenty of time to get ready, but I just felt like I should have everything packed up. So I packed my church bag and set out my outfit for the next morning. Now, I normally set out my outfits for each day, but I set out every little detail of my outfit down to my nylons and shoes and then I went to bed.

Normally when I set my alarms I set two on my phone to go off within three minutes of each other and then I set another one on my iPod touch that is a music alarm to help continue waking me up while I snooze the other alarms. :o) Well, my music alarm goes off and I doze in and out and then start to realize that my phone alarms aren't going off, I finally get out of bed to see what's going on and it's 6:58am. Needless to say I freaked out and started getting ready SUPER fast. Lucky for me, EVERYTHING was laid out and ready to go and my hair looked just fine from the day before. I felt so blessed to have been able to receive and follow inspiration. I think it is amazing that Heavenly Father helps me with the big things in my life as well as with the little things.

Life is amazing. I hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 44th Edition

I have the best Tender Mercy to share with you today!

Back when I was learning to drive (many, many years ago), my dad would take me on back roads from Spanish Fork to Payson to help me get used to going faster without any cars around me. I remember that being so scary! (going fast - not the back roads. ;) ) Well, yesterday that knowledge of back roads that my dad shared with me finally paid off! I missed my exit (well...more like it was closed and I didn't realize it) on my way to Spanish Fork to teach my Monday night ballet class. The next option was to take an exit that put right in the middle of the back roads my dad used to take me on. I was surprised at how quickly the knowledge of these back roads came back to me - it was seriously like riding a bike again. I was pretty sure where to turn and once I made that first turn everything was surprisingly clear to me. I am so grateful that I have a father who would teach me things that I don't think are necessarily important or useful, but then they end up being for my good.

Our Heavenly Father is like that too. He teaches us lessons and skills that we don't think we need, or that are there just to spite us and make us sad; when really, all of these lessons truly are for our good. Heavenly Father doesn't just randomly decide to teach us something. He has a plan for us and He knows what we need to know and when we need to learn it so that we can use it later for ourselves and for the betterment of others. How cool is that?!

Anyways, that's what I am so grateful for today. I definitely have some amazing men in my life. The End.

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 37th Edition

So...I totally got thrown off by the week and really truly thought yesterday was Monday for the longest time. In reality, it was Tuesday and I forgot to post my Tender Mercy. I really want to share this with you so...we're going to keep pretending like it is Tuesday for just a few moments this morning, okay? Okay. ;) (it's my blog, I can do what I want, so there.)

It was my responsibility to teach our Relief Society lesson on Sunday. Since it was the first Sunday of the month, there was no set lesson plan and I was left to my own devices on deciding what it was the sisters needed the most. I came across several ideas in my studying and wondering, but finally settled on a lesson on self-worth. Now, I used several different talks and ideas and pulled many different things for my lesson. Basically, what I learned and taught was this: We are all of infinite worth, we are all special in our individual ways (and no, that's not just a way of saying no one is per Dash from The Incredibles [and yes, I quoted The Incredibles in my lesson.]) In order to build our self-worth we need to build our relationship with our Heavenly Father. We can do that most by utilizing the basics and doing three things: 1. Make goals 2. Have Daily Personal Prayer and 3. Read and study the scriptures.

I challenged my sisters to make three goals, find a way to have that personal conversation daily with their Heavenly Father and finally, to read the Book of Mormon in 100 days (between now and December 31) using this program I found online.

Teaching that lesson was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I know it was the right thing to teach on and that everyone that was there needed to hear what I said. There were several times when I was relating experiences or sharing quotes that I knew that the Lord was using me as a spokesperson. It was honestly a very humbling experience. I was so worried and concerned leading up to giving my lesson, but I stood up and the Lord just took over. Looking out into the eyes of the sisters I saw them soaking up what was being taught like little sponges. I am so grateful for the gift of revelation and being able to teach something that was needed to the sisters.

Tender Mercy Tuesdsay - 28th Edition

Hi there. It's been a long weekend. Full of fun in the sun, fun with friends, fun with family, and fun with boys. I promise to give you a full recap later - I'm sure you want to hear about all the fun fun fun fun I had...in the meantime I want to take a moment and be thankful for how well my Heavenly Father knows me.

See...even with all the fun I had this weekend I struggled with a few things emotionally. Mainly related to past relationships and where things could have been if we were still together. I don't really want to go in to a lot of detail because it's not needed. I've worked through the emotional angst and I know that I'll be okay, but that doesn't mean that this weekend wasn't hard. One of the harder ones I've had to be honest.

However, Heavenly Father knows me SO WELL that he made sure I had friends who made plans with me, family who called ME and asked me to spend the holiday with THEM and basically HE made sure that I had a well of support around me through all my hard moments. It made getting through my thoughts and emotions that much easier because I had people I could talk to who understood where I was coming from right then.  How grateful I am for that tender mercy.