One of my all-time favorite General Conference talks was given by Elder David A. Bednar back in 2004. It’s called “The Tender Mercies of the Lord,” and to say it changed my life is a huge understatement. In this talk, Elder Bednar teaches that there are no lucky coincidences—everything good comes from God. Everything. “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.” And when we look for these tender mercies, we’ll discover that we’re given them every day in small and not-so-small ways. I was blessed with one of these not-so-small tender mercies almost a year ago, which I never took the time to write down, and since I still get a bit emotional when I think about this experience, I knew I needed to get it in writing. So, here we go…
The Story of the Raspberries
A little background. I. Love. Raspberries. They are one of my most favorite things on the planet. My Grandma Peterson used to have a raspberry patch in her backyard, so when we’d visit in the summertime, you would often find me IN the raspberry patch eating raspberries as fast as I could. When I go to visit my mom and dad in Idaho, my mom always has raspberry jam for me to put on her homemade bread for breakfast. And while I love flowers, John has learned that the true way to my heart is to bring me a carton or 4 of fresh raspberries. He gets huge brownie points for that! And I love the weeks during the summer when Kroger has raspberries 10 cartons for $10. I think “we” seriously went through 20 cartons in one week last summer! 😉
Almost a year ago, we were in Utah for Kam and Steven’s wedding. We’d had a stressful and jam-packed few weeks of wedding preparations, and when combined with wanting her wedding day to be perfect and wanting to make sure everything happened like it should, it was one of those times in life that are both super stressful and super happy. We’d stayed at a Hampton Inn & Suites in Orem for a few days before the wedding, and they had the best breakfasts! Each morning there was a platter of fresh cut fruit—pineapple. oranges, grapefruit, grapes, strawberries, and kiwi, and I definitely took advantage of that fruit every morning.
The morning of the wedding I was really struggling. I was over the moon happy for Kam and Steven—they truly are a match made in heaven—but sad too. I knew nothing would ever be the same. I so wanted everything to be perfect for her since she’d been dreaming of this day since she was a tiny little girl, and I was worried about a few details I’d hope would fall into place, and to be honest, I was on the verge of tears. I knew one little thing would send me into meltdown mode, and I didn’t want that…because…red, puffy eyes for a million pictures that we’ll keep until the end of time would be so not good! So I got ready and headed down to breakfast that morning, purposely alone, so I could have a bit of time to get my emotions under control for what was going to be a very happy but exhausting day. When I went to get my fruit from the fruit platter, there was a huge pile of raspberries!!!!! There hadn’t been any raspberries, or any evidence of raspberries, on any of the preceding mornings. I knew, at that moment, that those raspberries were a huge tender mercy meant just for me on this morning, and these little red berries were a sign from a loving Heavenly Father that he was aware of my struggles and was telling me that everything would be A-okay. I instantly had a huge smile on my face and felt a million times better. I was able to control my emotions throughout the day, do what needed to be done, and Kam’s wedding day turned out just as she’d dreamed—perfect!
If I hadn’t been looking for those daily tender mercies—both the small and big ones, I know I’d have missed this very special one and others that happened that day because I know that there are no coincidences in life, only tender mercies sent from above just—and especially when—we need them the most.
Last Monday, after driving home from Knoxville after spending the weekend with Zach and Angela, and after 4 extremely tortuous hours of car shopping with Parker (the time w/ Parker was great, the car shopping, not so great), John went to Kroger to pick up a few things and came home with…4 cartons of raspberries! Love that summer $1/carton sale! Although this year there is evidently a limit. 🙁 And those raspberries were just the thing I needed that day.
We had another huge tender mercy take place just this past week as we were finally able to sell our home in Arizona. We’ve been landlords just a few weeks short of 6 years, and while it’s been stressful at times (like when you get the call that water is pouring out of the ceiling into the downstairs), looking back, I can easily see that we’ve received many tender mercies during those years:
- It was only empty a total of 3 weeks the entire time, which is simply amazing.
- We always had good tenants who took care of our home, which is huge based on horror stories I’ve heard from other friends who have been landlords.
- We were able to sell our home to one of my best friends and her family, who’ve been renting it for almost 3 years. How this all fell into place—very quickly— is one tender mercy after another. I’m so excited she and her husband bought our home because that has been our favorite home for many reasons, #1 being that we spent more time in that house (almost 8 years) than we’ve spent anyplace else, and it’s where our kids spent their best growing up years. We have so many fond memories of Arizona and this home that we all loved, so I love that my friend and her family will be making their own memories, hopefully for years to come, in our old home.
^This is the last picture I took of our home before we moved, and this was the first thing we saw when we walked in for the first time almost 14 years ago (well, minus the window covering, blinds, not-white paint, and hardwood flooring…). We instantly knew this would be our home.
I could go on and on about the too-many-to-number tender mercies I’ve received over the years, but I’ll save those for other posts because I know I will continue to receive them, notice them, and hopefully record them—at least the not-so-small ones, anyway. 😉
Leave a Reply