I looked through my journal today and I ran across this
entry from 2006 that I wanted to share.
We went to the temple tonight. After doing a session, I went into the dressing room, and I saw a woman sitting on a bench with a very glum look on her face. I said to myself as I passed, “Self, she looks like she needs a hug.” Then the still small voice spoke to me. Go back and give her a hug. I immediately went back and sat next to her. “You look like you could use a hug,” I told her, and I gave her one. She told me she had been waiting for her locker to be freed up. Then she asked me, “Were you reading my mind?” I told her I wasn’t. She told me that seven years ago from tomorrow her husband had died, and this was the first time she had attended the temple near the anniversary of his death. So I guess my being told to give her a hug was one of those tender mercies from the Lord to her to let her know that He was mindful of her. I’m very glad I obeyed the prompting immediately.
Will you share a time when you found you were the means of
bestowing a tender mercy from the Lord?
4 comments:
What a touching post! Thank you for sharing that. I know that the Lord has definitely given me many tender mercies in my life, but I cannot think of a specific one at this moment. I was also commenting on this post not only to comment on its spirituality, but also to contact you. I apologize for proposing this in the form of a comment, but I found no alternative contact information elsewhere on this blog. My name is Alex Bramwell and I am an employee of Inspirational Art Shop, and I was wondering if you would be interested in becoming an affiliate with our website. If you are interested, simply visit inspirationalartshop.com and click on the affiliate link at the bottom of the page. thank you for taking the time to read this comment, and good luck with your blog!
I have a soft spot in my heart for this topic of ordinary grace. What a gift that God would inspire us to act as instruments in his hands, to lift and aid another just as he would! Some of the most touching times to me are when I feel that I shouldn't do something I'm doing but am inspired to do so anyway and then find out later why. As a GD teacher, last year about August I started typing out long summaries with links after each class and sending it to a list of people who gave me their emails. I kept doing this week after week, highlighting text with colors and making it sometimes three or four pages long. Many people told me that it was more than they could read, and I felt myself very foolish. I consider stopping several times, but would find myself late Sunday evenings typing it out. And my memory is usually poor for what I've said, but it was like I couldn't forget anything. In December a gentleman who travels extensively for the church doing the gold filigree work in temples returned home. He tearfully pulled me aside and said that while he was in Brazil for several months, my emails kept him sane and helped him spend the long hours in his lonely hotel room when he was so badly missing his family. He thanked me profusely and said that it had marked a watershed time in his life, when the Lord communicated to him that when he was about holy work, he would be blessed. I no longer felt any need to write the long emails, and now only send a quote each week. And for the life of me, I can't remember a thing I say minutes after saying it.
I think that the words to a favorite gospel song of mine is "as I minister to you, I minister to myself".
There are 2 older sisters in my ward and I love them so much. I sometimes feel that maybe the older sisters who are either widows or even single, tend to get "lost" in the crowd, but maybe not on purpose. But there is one Senior sister that I am always trying to encourage her to continue in her physical therapy. She walks with a cane and compensates heavily on the injured leg. I asked her one day if her back and good leg hurt. She said yes and she couldn't understand why. I suggested that she would carry a small weight or even a ball or bean bag in her good hand and she would "balance" herself out and would eventually feel better. She did it once, but forgot. So one Sunday she came up to me and gave me her phone number and told me that she really appreciated my concern over her, but she was forgetful. Maybe I could call her sometime during the week and remind her. Wow, and I thought at first I was out of line.
Bonnie and RGG, thanks for sharing those stories.
Alex, thanks for your comment. I do not put affiliate links on this blog because I know that it would distract me from my main purpose of sharing edifying content.
Thanks for reading.
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