Mindy Gledhill - I Will Rest In You Lyrics

After I posted yesterday, I thought about this song. I was surprised at how much it conveys in a song, the experience that I had yesterday. We will be blessed as we remember the importance of becoming like a little child......

Become Like A Little Child

Early this morning I had to go into work to take care of something that I failed to do upon closing last night. In a hurried frenzy, I bundled Chaz up in his car seat and hurried off to work to take care of the task.
As expected (and anticipated), things went well and before I knew it, I was buckling Chaz back up in his car seat. As I strapped him in, he comfortably adjusted around, grabbed his blanket, and closed his eyes settled in for the car ride home. As I looked at him, I sensed the trust that he has in me. He was completely comfortable, and knows in perfect faith that I will take care of him.
I thought back to when I was a child, and remembered how nice it was to know that my parents would do everything to take care of me and ensure my comfort.
For a brief second, I became somewhat envious of my past, as I realized what a task I now have to be the one to have to ensure that all of these comfort measures are in place for my own little ones.
Then I realized........As I become like a little child and perfect my faith, my Heavenly Father can fulfill every role that we fulfill for our children, only he can do it in perfection and with an eternal knowledge of our individual needs. I simply need to ask, and then proceed forward in faith, and this miracle can be a gift to me here in mortality.
How thankful I am for the comfort and peace we can receive in becoming like little children.

Ordinary People Change The World

We went and saw Big Miracle today. It had so many great messages. I caught myself sometimes thinking: "All of this for 3 whales", and then I realized that wasn't a very good frame of mind for 2 reasons: 1. It was the underlying miracles that also mattered so much & 2. I bet those 3 whales were glad such a big deal was made "Just for them". It reminded me of a story I have wanted to put on here for a while:

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference to that one!”

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved. - adapted from the Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley

A Dollar Sized Miracle

Another "interesting" experience with getting supplies for the blocks: Today, I went to pick up some vinyl. I intended to get an extra vinyl applicator for someone to help me, but I forgot. Side Note: The applicators cost $1 (hence the title) ;)
As we were leaving the store, I decided to go out a different door than we had entered. As I walked out the door, I looked down, and saw.........A vinyl applicator just sitting in the parking lot!!!! Wonder what will happen next week? :)

A Penny Sized Miracle

So we decided to expand our Families Are Forever Blocks (If you don't know what I'm talking about, and you want to know, Click Here )
Anyhow, we have teamed up with some other studios, and we are selling these fun blocks.........

Pretty Cute???????

Anyhow, last night we went to stock up on some ribbon for them. Five studios should keep us pretty busy making some fun blocks, and we want to be fully prepared. Anyhow, we found some fun silver ribbon. We have been going to Michael's daily, and using 50% off coupons, so that we can get the best deals possible to make the blocks for the least amount, so as to be able to pass everything we possibly can on to the family. When we got up to the cash register, we expected a silver spool of ribbon to come to $5 with our 50% off coupon. Not bad, huh? Well, we got up there to find out they were willing to sell it to us for ONE PENNY!!! Yes, One cent......About 50 times less than we expected to pay once it was 50% less than the marked price. Penny sized miracle!!!!

Pretty Amazing (at least I think so)

We Are All His Children........

Through some experiences that I will elaborate on in a future post, some hardness in my own heart has been literally healed by focusing on serving others. I have been so thankful for this.
On that same note, a little while ago I was watching the national news, and I saw a story about
 This Blog
This man challenged himself to perform one random act of kindness every day this entire year and blog about every experience. Impressed, I added the link above to my blogs that I follow, and I have been following his experiences.
I woke up this morning having a desire to add some "quality" to some of the family activities we do in conjunction with holidays. I contemplated visiting the Care Center where I used to work to hand out some Valentine treats to the patrons of the facility. This would also have been fun, but I knew we would be into that about 3 hours, and we needed to go to Parent Teacher Conferences tonight.
Amidst my contemplation, I checked the "Random Acts of Kindness" blog. His act today was to give Valentines to total strangers in downtown Chicago. I had an idea!!!!! I decided that we would go and buy Valentines candy to hand out in front of the Road Home (A family Homeless shelter).
We went for an early dinner to avoid the crowds, and headed into the downtown area right around the time large numbers of people were arriving for dinner at the shelter.
I was actually surprised by the amount of people that were down there. We all became a little intimidated as we realized there was not as many children as we had hoped for. While I was totally fine with us giving the candy to adults, I expected them to be very uninterested in a 33 cent box of hearts.
We drove around, trying to find a place to park, and contemplating who was going to get out of the car (and if any of us would actually get out the car). At this point, Josh comically chastised all of us for being "scared". He flipped a U turn, and pulled up to a man: "excuse me sir", he exclaimed. "Happy Valentines Day dude!" and he handed him the Candy through the window of the car. Us girls were all a little uneasy (just something different. I have never done something like this before).
Finally, I took the plunge. We handed out some candy through the window, and then got out, and visited large groups of adults SO HAPPY to receive something so small.
It was actually rather beautiful. I teared up a couple of times. I learned some great lessons tonight:
-We take A LOT for granted!!! Initially, I didn't want to hand these out to adults because I expected to be snubbed or rejected at such an offering. I was surprised to find the opposite in most cases. These people were so thankful. They were thrilled to be remembered. We all have so much to be thankful for.
-None of us is any better than another: On the way home I told Josh that in some cases it wouldn't take more than one choice (not a bad choice, maybe just one lacking thorough judgement) to put any of us in such a situation. The opportunity to work and provide for ourselves is a tremendous blessing.
-That Heavenly Father loves all of us: One group of individuals wanted hugs in return for the boxes of candy. I admit, initially, this made me a bit uncomfortable. But, their souls are sincere, and their appreciation and kindness unconditional and pure.
-Little things can truly mean a lot!!!!
It made me sad to see little kids in this type of situation. Parents who love their little ones as much as we all do have no way in their current situation to provide for the most basic of needs. This was an eye opening thing for my kids to see. Josh explained to them that Heavenly Father loves them as much as he loves us, and is mindful of their situation.
Everyone we came in contact with seemed surprised to receive a "Valentine Greeting". How would we feel if there wasn't anyone in our circle to offer even the smallest and simplest Valentine Greeting?
This was a neat experience for our family. I contemplated about whether or not to put this experience out on cyber space, so as to avoid making a skeptical of service. However, we can all learn a lot from these types of experiences. I think we will be finding more ways to serve others as part of our Holiday Traditions. A wonderful current lesson taught to me by the spirit has been this: If you want to pull yourself out of any selfish issue, and find true happiness, spend some time lifting someone else's spirits.

Our Foundation......Upon A Rock

Taking a little break from my "Tender Mercies" posts to focus on something that I have been thinking A LOT about lately.
The frailness of our mortality has been everywhere lately for me. In March, we watched the devastating earthquake in Japan. In April and May, we watched horrible natural storms tear families to pieces, as they lost precious children and loved ones in a moment. There has been car accidents that have taken precious innocent lives, house fires taking whole families, and innocent heartbreaking accidents calling the most precious of souls back home so early. WHY? I have been burdened with bother. Why is this happening?
As I have thought, I have came to a conclusion that has helped me process this information in a way that I need right now to help my testimony grow. That conclusion is this: Our precious family relationships here on Earth: They could be temporarily halted tomorrow as one gets called back to Heavenly Father. Granted, we have the priceless assurance that Families can be Forever, But........there is still an immeasurable amount of earthly pain for that parent who would give anything to hug their deceased child one more time. Our home could be whisked away in a moment so fast that we barely realized that a fire, or an earthquake, or a hurricane was to blame. Our health and wholeness that we take for granted can be changed in an instant as the diagnosis of Cancer (or some other horrible illness) gets delivered to us.
So what do we REALLY HAVE? What is ours forever on this Earth to take with us after we leave this earth? We do have relationships, knowledge, and personality traits that will follow us, but, when all of it is said and done, every last priceless eternal blessing will come to fruition based on the merits we have gained in building a relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ. Nothing else will bring eternal happiness or peace. We have to allow him into our hearts, and commit to him that we will be tools for righteousness to carry on his work on Earth until our mortal journey is complete.
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS!!!!!! NOTHING!!!!!

Jesus Christ - His Hands

Tender Mercies Part #3

Topic for tonight: Share a time when you experienced a tender mercy at school.
This event was life changing for me, yet, I did not fully realize the impact of this experience until very recently.
I was not active in the church in the early years of High School. By the end of High School, I had became fully active in the church including seminary.
In the time that I evolved into my new self by inviting full church activity into my life, I also changed the social circle that I spent time with both in and out of school. I never hung around with a "bad group" of people. But, by the beginning of my Senior Year, I was spending time with people who fully supported my spiritual goals. Some of that support included weekly trips together to the Temple, ending dance dates early to properly open our fasts and observe the Sabbath, and strive to do all each of us could to support or prepare our friends for missionary service in the future.
However, that is not to say that I didn't still care for those who I spent time with in the years before my Senior Year. In actuality, these were the friends who originally exposed me to the church. Ironically, however, it seemed as though, I went one way while they traveled another in a spiritual sense. Because I knew what they were capable of, this really bothered me. I knew they could be anything that they spiritually set their minds to, yet they had no interest in doing so.
Out of concern, I wrote a letter expressing these feelings to one of those previous friends. This was someone I had dated on and off in High School (this minor detail will be relevant to the rest of the story). Anyhow, I spoke of how I thought it was sad that this person wasn't living up to what they could be, and how I wished they would consider living everything they knew to be right.
A few days later, out of the blue, I received a page from the office to go to the Seminary building. I had no idea what this was regarding as I was heading over to the Seminary building. As I arrived through the front door I was greeted by a teacher who I did not even know.Yet, he knew me, and he took me into his office. Hmmmmm.....This was interesting. I was nervous, curious, and confused all at once. I had NO IDEA why I was there.
The Seminary Teacher quickly explained the purpose of this visit. He promptly took the note I had written out of his suit coat and handed it to me. He asked me to open it. I opened it to find the letter I had put so much thought and time into. Now, I was a little embarrassed. The letter was somewhat personal, definitely something I didn't want an unfamiliar Seminary Teacher reading. However, my embarrassment quickly turned to curiosity. How on Earth did he end up with this letter?
He must have read my mind as he asked me: "I'm sure you're wondering how I got this letter, right?"
Of course I said yes, and he went on to explain. He told me that this individual who I had given the note to had brought the note to Seminary. Through the course of his class, he was sitting with a large group of boys, and making fun of the letter and me as the author of the letter. The teacher went on to explain that he could tell that the letter was sincere, and that he felt bad that this had happened to me. He ended with the "Tender Mercy" part of this story. He explained that this individual did not care for me, and that he hoped that I realized that I deserved much, MUCH better than him. He stated that he felt impressed to share this with me, as he could tell from the contents of the letter that I wasn't fully aware that this individual was not good for me.
Several people had tried to express this exact thing to me for close to a year prior to this. But, for some reason, I didn't really listen until that day. I shudder to think of how different my life may be, even today, if that Seminary Teacher hadn't taken the time to help me to know what I was truly worth as a Daughter of God. I will forever be thankful for this Tender Mercy that set me on the path that I deserved to travel.

Beautiful Heartbreak - Hilary Weeks - Every Step

Tender Mercies, Part #2

Here's some points of perspective on Tender Mercies as explained by Elder Bednar:

"Six months ago, I stood at this pulpit for the first time as the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Both then and even more so now, I have felt and feel the weight of the call to serve and of the responsibility to teach with clarity and to testify with authority. I pray for and invite the assistance of the Holy Ghost as I now speak with you.

This afternoon I want to describe and discuss a spiritual impression I received a few moments before I stepped to this pulpit during the Sunday morning session of general conference last October. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf had just finished speaking and had declared his powerful witness of the Savior. Then we all stood together to sing the intermediate hymn that previously had been announced by President Gordon B. Hinckley. The intermediate hymn that morning was “Redeemer of Israel” (Hymns, no. 6).

Now, the music for the various conference sessions had been determined many weeks before—and obviously long before my new call to serve. If, however, I had been invited to suggest an intermediate hymn for that particular session of the conference—a hymn that would have been both edifying and spiritually soothing for me and for the congregation before my first address in this Conference Center—I would have selected my favorite hymn, “Redeemer of Israel.” Tears filled my eyes as I stood with you to sing that stirring hymn of the Restoration.

Near the conclusion of the singing, to my mind came this verse from the Book of Mormon: “But 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 Ne. 1:20).

My mind was drawn immediately to Nephi’s phrase “the tender mercies of the Lord,” and I knew in that very moment I was experiencing just such a tender mercy. A loving Savior was sending me a most personal and timely message of comfort and reassurance through a hymn selected weeks previously. Some may count this experience as simply a nice coincidence, but I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord’s timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them".
Tonight's theme: When is a time you experienced a Tender Mercy as an answer to prayer.
This has happened A LOT in my life, but the theme that is sticking with me are some of the experiences that I have had in making a decision to go back to school to get my Nursing Degree.
I had felt in my heart that this was something that I needed to do right after Kandace was born. Right before her 1st birthday, I started taking my pre-requisites. Most of them were taken in the summer, as I was very busy teaching dance during the school year.
I particularly remember my first day of summer semester 2004. I was taking Biology amongst other classes. Much to my dismay, I had to leave the kids with a baby sitter to go to this class (a good portion of my classes were able to be taken on line). That day, in a frenzy, I had gotten everything together and ran to get my babysitter. However, just minutes later, as I was getting ready to leave, I could not find my car keys anywhere. I searched the house and the car up and down. I was so frustrated because I had just had my keys minutes before when I went to pick up the babysitter.
Almost ready to give up, I went in to the house and said a prayer. I told Heavenly Father that if I did not find my keys soon, I would take it as a sign that this was not something I should spend my time pursuing at that point in my life.
Directly thereafter, I went out to the car (where I had looked for my keys A HUNDRED TIMES), only to find them sitting on my seat. Not only did this experience help me to realize that this was indeed the right time in my life to go to school, but, I drew off of that in faith many times proceeding that day when things were really tough and school was difficult.
Another time was right after I started into the Nursing Program. I had to take out a student loan when I was doing my pre-requisites. I was disappointed to later find out that I had to pay on that loan during my break from school while I waited to get into the Nursing Program. It was frustrating because I was expected to pay as though I had received a raise associated with finishing school, when in fact, I had not yet had the opportunity to reap the rewards of a degree because I was still waiting to start my program.
Within 2 weeks of starting the program for my nursing degree, I received a letter in the mail. It stated that because I had paid my loan in good faith with no late payments, that my loan was randomly selected to be paid off in full. Sometimes, I still can't believe that happened. But it certainly did, no doubt: a tender Mercy from the Lord.

Tender Mercies Part #1

Today on the way home from church, I fell into typical conversation with the girls, as I asked them what they learned about in class today. K'Lynn told me that she learned about "Tender Mercies of the Lord". This was interesting to me. This is one of my favorite personal topics, as I feel them to be just that, very personal. I actually think it to be a fairly deep topic, which is why I was surprised that they learned about it in Young Women's.
Upon looking at her handout, it became an inspiration for me to: Review what a "Tender Mercy" is, To discuss these topics in Family Home Evening, and to review and personalize each of the topics in the handout and personalize them as I reflect upon my own special blessings, or "Little Miracles", as I like to refer to them.
In pondering my post, I came across a past favorite talk from Elder Bednar. He explains the following in relation to tender mercies: "Through personal study, observation, pondering, and prayer, I believe I have come to better understand 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. Truly, the Lord suits 'his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men' (D&C 46:15)".
The handout my daughter brought home asked to share a time when you experienced or saw a tender mercy in family life.
When my sweet little Kandace pictured above was 2 1/2 years old, March 2nd, 2005, to be exact, she fell out of her bedroom window. The kids were in their room watching a movie, and I was in the kitchen cooking lunch (and talking on the phone). The night before, the kids would not stay in their room to sleep, so I had put the child lock on the inside of the door until they fell asleep. Upon them finally deciding to stay in bed, I opened their door, but I failed to put the lock on the correct side the next morning. The day of the fall, the girls had shut the door, but they were unable to get out easily as a result of the child lock.
That day was also one of the first warm spring days. The girls' room would get very hot. K'Lynn had decided that she wanted to open the window. So, she had piled a table on top of the toddler bed, and then a chair on top of the table to get to the window to crack it open. All the while, I am 20 feet down the hall in complete ear shot, and not aware this was happening (yup, they were sly). Shortly after this, Kandace later told me that she got up into the window because "I was trying to look at Pixie" (Pixie is our dog). When she leaned on the screen to call for our dog, the screen gave way, and she fell out the window.
As I was cooking macaroni and cheese, K'Lynn was continually beating on their door. As I stated before, I was on the phone. Her persistent knocking went on for a few seconds. I asked the person I was talking with to hold, and I impatiently asked K'Lynn what she needed. She sheepishly stated: "Kandace fell out the window" WHAT!!!!!!
I ran to our deck door to see my little Kandace lying face down motionless in our back yard. I immediately called 911. I feel so guilty admitting this now, but I was so scared of what I was going to find that I avoided going out to the back yard to see her. I struggled with that for a long time afterwards. Here I was so worried about what I was going to find that I didn't go to the aid of my daughter. About a minute later, she "woke up" and came to me. She said: "Mommy, I want to go to sleep" as she came over to me. I was still on the phone with 911 and still so scared. I didn't want her to go to sleep.
Shortly thereafter the cop arrived, and I kept asking him if he thought she was going to be OK. He kept telling me he couldn't say. Right thereafter, the Paramedics arrived. I was starting to feel a little better about things at this point. UNTIL.....I heard one of them radio in to get Life Flight en route. At that point, there was no calming me whatsoever. A short time after, the cops came out and told me that I needed to find a way to be strong or I would end up at another hospital and not be able to help my daughter (I was hyperventilating, and starting to go into shock).
As they brought Kandace out on a stretcher to take her in the ambulance down to the helicopter, they stated that she was asking for me. I went over to her, and told her that I loved her. I told her to say her prayers, and that I would say mine as well.
And at this point, you're asking how this fits in as a "Tender Mercy". I will borrow some expanded explanation from a talk I gave in Stake Conference just a couple weeks after her accident:

"About 3 weeks ago, I experienced the without a doubt most horrifying experience of my entire life. Our 2 year old daughter took a tumble out of her bedroom window. I went in to call the paramedics, and as I was trying to care for my little girl the best way that I could until help arrived, I was instructed by the 911 operator to have my 6 year old daughter go and get a towel to put on her sisters’ cut head. I frantically tried to find her, and eventually located her as it seemed to me at the time, hiding under my bed. Yet, I later asked her why she was hiding under my bed, and she explained to me, 'I wasn’t, I was praying that Kandace was going to be O.K.'. While waiting in the hospital later on, our daughter received X-rays throughout her body,  a cat scan, an M.R.I., a cast on her arm, and a good amount of stitches in the forehead. We were informed by the plastic surgeon that we could expect that Kandace would have additional bruising on her face, and we should expect to see two black eyes on her by tomorrow morning. Yet through this whole ordeal, she healed a lot faster than anyone including her Doctors ever expected her to. I was taught through a prompting that the reason being was because of the prayers offered in her behalf. I later learned that her name was put in the Temple prayer roll within minutes after her accident. I am thankful for the faith & concern of others’. The ultimate lesson taught to me about prayer was spoken to me later that night in the still quiet of a Hospital room, as I thanked my Heavenly Father with all of my heart for allowing me to keep my precious daughter here with me on this Earth as the whole full individual that I Knew her to be. As the spirit spoke to my heart that evening, the lessons taught to me were sacred & life changing. I thought I had a testimony of prayer & Priesthood blessings before this experience. I now know, as I know that you and I are sitting here in this room that Heavenly Father hears & waits with anticipation to answer our prayers".

In addition to these "Tender Mercies" listed above, many other precious and personal blessings came our way as a result of this trial.

I can honestly say, even today, almost 7 years later that our family has been forever changed by this. This experience has taught us that life is a journey not a destination, to treasure each and every day, to reflect upon what really matters, and to realize that there are a lot of wonderful people in your circle of influence who are ready and willing to help when we need them.

That day, our old Bishop (and dear friend) missed a root canal to come up to the hospital to help Josh give Kandace a blessing. He has since passed away from cancer. He always joked that he was secretly glad to have the excuse to not get the root canal. However, I happen to know he was a very busy man, and that the time taken out of his day to help us could not have been fun or convenient. Tender Mercies, special blessings from the Lord.

Not everyone is aware of how much a Helicopter ride to the hospital costs (even with insurance). If you have never had the opportunity to obtain this knowledge, be very, very glad. We had some pretty incredible financial miracles occur with this. Although they are a bit too personal to throw out in cyberspace, they were nevertheless also designated as tender mercies of the Lord in behalf of our little family.

Most of all, I am so thankful that Kandace had no ill effects as a result of the fall. Undoubtedly, a tender mercy from the Lord. I explained to my girls tonight that as we recognize these, we will do with them what the Lord would have us do with the changed versions of ourselves, and he will bless us with more Tender Mercies to move his work forward.

How thankful I am for these personal & sacred little (and not so little) miracles in my life. Definitely tender mercies from the Lord.