Tender Mercies Again

As today has been a day of tender mercies I feel a need to write.
First one of the best tender mercies the Lord has given us today upon the earth is the Book of Mormon. This is the most true books of all books upon the earth. When I am having a hard day all I have to do is pick it up and find a verse and reflect on it. No it doesn't make my day perfect, but it does improve my spirits. I love that book and I know it is true without a doubt. I feel as though Nephi, Jacob, Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, Mormon, and Moroni are old friends - friends who never leave me hanging. I am eternally grateful to them that they took the time to write things down, something I need to be better about. I am also grateful for Joseph Smith who had the faith necessary to translate the Book of Mormon so we could have it today. Of these things I know. If you would like to learn more about the Book of Mormon or obtain a copy for yourself please click here.
The second tender mercy of the day is that the Lord knows the desires of our heart. In recent years I have been pining to learn how to sing. I mean in college my roommates and I struggled to sing hymns on tune and as far as I know I was always the one the worst off key. Since that time I have worked to listen to the melody of the hymns we sing in church and try to match the piano, I felt I had improved, but had no confidence in my ability to join a choir until today. In my ward (congregation) is a retired music teacher and today she offered to give me music lessons for free because my voice has high potential. That made my week. Here I hadn't even prayed to get this, but yet the Lord has seen fit to give me this opportunity to develop a talent that I wanted to have, but wasn't sure I had. Thank you Heavenly Father.
The final tender mercy is that my friend Sheri Pendleton invited me over to her house for a game night. I have been wanting to interact with more people my age, as opposed to those quite a bit younger than me, and I knew this invite was the chance. I am not saying there is anything wrong with those quite a bit younger than me, but it is nice to be around those at a similar phase in life. I also have been wanting to do something for New Years Eve and knew there was a dance in Fullerton, but didn't want to go by myself or even drive by myself and meet a friend there. Well tonight the problem is solved, I am going with a group of girls who are at a similar stage of life as me and I am very excited. The Lord has truly seen fit to bless me this day.

Crafting time

Today I am going to record a tender mercy from yesterday. That tender mercy was the time I spent last night sitting on the floor of the laundry room, right outside of my mom's sewing/craft room cutting quilt squares while talking to my mom. As I reflect on this moment it makes me smile because I love my mom. I may have had hard times understanding and loving her in the past, but honestly I wouldn't ask for Heavenly Father to give me anyone besides Cheryl Kay Page Stout as a mom.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year. It is a time to remember what we are truly thankful for. I am thankful for so much this thanksgiving. A tender mercy of the Lord to me was that I was able to spend Thanksgiving with my mom and dad and my Aunt Susan and Uncle Jim. We just talked, laughed and ate good food.
Another tender mercy this Thanksgiving is that mom is feeling better than she was. She was having a rough go of it emotionally for a while and it was affecting everyone's life, but she is doing sooo much better. We had one funny incident this Thanksgiving that when I told my sister about it and how my mom reacted to it she said "Wow, Mom really is doing better." The incident is that my mom decided to be good and prep stuff in advance for thanksgiving dinner so that the day of we would have less to do. Part of that prep involved chopping up the onions and celery for the stuffing. Unfortunately there were three homemade pumpkin pies in fridge in the same drawer my mom put the chopped onions in and the onions were so strong they flavored the pies!! We ended up throwing away the three pies and buying a pumpkin pie at Costco. We did have a good laugh though and from now on if we chop onions in advance they will be stored in the freezer rather than the fridge.
To wrap up this post I want to share a video called "In the Spirit of Thanksgiving" that talks about being thankful and about what some people in New York City are thankful for.

Finally

So I have been meaning to post for a while, but then get distracted and don't do it. So here I am on a Sunday evening while dinner is cooking finally writing a post.
During church today I began to think about what tender mercies I have had in my life recently. Here are some tender mercies I have had in the past few days.

• Good friends. Both Friday and Saturday I got to hang out and chitchat with good friends. On Friday I went to dinner and a high school football game with my Robyn. Then on Saturday I went to dinner with my friend Cathryn.
• No headaches as of recently. This is a big one because the headaches I was having were disrupting my life.
• Finally I have realized that my parents are a tender mercy from the Lord. I know the Lord gave me my parents because they would love me and nurture me and help me to grow in the ways I need to.

All of the above a just some tender mercies from the Lord that I have noticed. Now I ask all who may read this - What are some tender mercies in your life?

Update on Life

Things have been a little hectic lately. I was in the hospital again (4th time since July!!) and that just throws every thing off. The tender mercies I have chosen to focus on this week revolve around the fact that I made the decision to withdraw from my classes for the semester in order to focus on my health. I will be returning to school for Spring semester, which starts in January.
The two tender mercies that have stood out to me the most this past week are:
1. How supportive everyone has been of my decision to withdraw from classes. All have been good about reminding me of the importance of health and that this semester is just a moment in time.
2. They want me back at my job in January!!! I couldn't believe it. When I made the decision to withdraw from school I knew I would have to stop working too (I am a graduate student assistant) and I knew I was leaving them at a critical time (big things happening). Yet they want me back in January - truly a tender mercy.

Tender Mercies on a Monday

The Lord had many tender mercies for me today, but I am going to focus on the ones that revolve around school.
-The ability to take my accounting 502 exam
-The ability to quickly calm myself down after seeing the exam
-Everyone who answered my questions regarding stuff covered on the exam
-Damien showing me how to calculate social loss, which I had no clue about, but ended up being on the exam ;)
-The ability to at least guess at an answer for each question on the exam
-The ability to think clearly while taking the exam
-Lucky pencils from Tanya and Rachael Delgado ;)
The Lord has blessed me soooo much today and I just wanted to recognize a few of the ways. Good night all!!

What Adam is Thankful For

My brother Adam was the first person to respond to my request for a list of what he was thankful for. So I have included his entire list - some of which overlaps with mine, but he put many items (which are in bold) that are different.

• Jesus Christ and his gospel
• New days
• Family
• Mom and Dad
• The time I live in
• Self awareness
• A free country
• Guns
• Hobbies
• Friends
• Wife (Liz)
• Son (Holden)
• Bed
• The weather
• Roof over my head
• Food
• Water
• Toilets
• Showers
• Medicine
• School
• Ability to keep on learning
• Clothes
• Shoes

Thanks for sharing Adam!!

1,000 Things to be Thankful For

So it has been awhile and I have been constantly thinking how I need to work on this blog again. I have been struggling with illness, a move, another move in the near future, school, and just life in general. My mom asked me on Saturday what I was grateful for and it got me thinking. Then I read an article in the Ensign titled 1,000 Things to Be Thankful For. This got me thinking of how long of a list of things to be thankful for can I come up with. So I got to work. I made a list myself and then I asked family members to give me lists of what they are thankful for. I will also be reaching out to friends. Today I am posting my initial list of what I am thankful for (also included are a few things my parents are thankful for).

1. My mom
2. My dad
3. My car
4. Money to stay in a hotel
5. The temple
6. Jenna (sister)
7. Travis (brother-in-law)
8. Brennan (nephew)
9. Kaia (niece)
10. Elise (niece)
11. Ephraim (nephew)
12. Jenavieve (niece)
13. Tyler (brother)
14. Priscilla (sister-in-law)
15. Priscilla's family
16. Madison (niece)
17. Logan (nephew)
18. Adam (brother)
19. Liz (sister-in-law)
20. Holden (nephew)
21. Norm and Linda Kowallis
22. Sherry Pargassingh
23. Cathryn Tochilin
24. Robyn Swancoat
25. Brother Meacham
26. Brother Rossell
27. My Savior Jesus Christ
28. My Heavenly Father
29. The Holy Ghost
30. Friendly smiles
31. A job
32. Health insurance
33. The Book of Mormon
34. The Bible
35. The Pearl of Great Price
36. The Doctrine and Covenants
37. Mormonchannel Music
38. Forever families
39. Grandma Ruth Stout
40. Grandpa Clayton Stout
41. Grandma Cora Page
42. Grandpa Larry Page
43. Aunt Susan
44. Uncle Jim
45. Aunt Donita
46. Rachelle
47. Brianne
48. Uncle Mike
49. Betty (Uncle Mike's wife)
50. Sunshine
51. Cool breezes
52. Fall leaves
53. Cherry blossoms
54. The priesthood (given by my dad)
55. Priesthood blessings (given by my dad)
56. Reading (given by my mom)
57. Crossword puzzles (given by my mom)
58. Food
59. The United States of America
60. Freedom
61. Prayer
62. Flowers
63. Trees
64. Grandma Virginia Bailey
65. Grandpa Ron Bailey
66. Missionaries who taught my dad the gospel (given by my dad)
67. Dad serving in the military (given by my dad)
68. Recipes (given by my mom)
69. The Plan of Salvation
70. Myself
71. Hope
72. Good music

Tender Mercies Jar

So a few months ago I was struggling to see the hand of the Lord in my life so I started a Tender Mercies jar. Honestly, I would recommend everyone do this and place the jar in a prominent place where you will see it often. The funny thing about jar is that I haven't been faithful in using it. The folded paper in the jar is actually a culmination of about four days of usage at the beginning. Yet, having the jar in a place where I see it (and its label) often and knowing that I had all those tender mercies in JUST four days makes me feel the love of my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Whenever I see the jar I pause to reflect upon my blessings and maybe drop in a tender mercy.

So if you would like to make your own tender mercies jar here are the instructions:

Step 1 - obtain a large clear jar (mine is the largest size canning jar sold they sold at the grocery store)

Step 2 - decorate the jar anyway you like, but be sure to label it as a Tender Mercies jar very prominently. (I used some of the yellow post-it label roll I got as free sample some time last year - and am sooo excited because they now sell it at Wal-Mart! - then I wrote "Tender Mercies: God's greatest gift" on the label tape in black Sharpie)

Step 3 - cut strips of blank paper to have on hand so you can write your tender mercies down as you realize them

Step 4 - fill the jar with the written on slips of paper and enjoy seeing how much the Lord blesses you!!

The start of a new day!!

So today I had the prompting that a good way to track the tender mercies of the Lord in my life is through a blog.
Thus today August 11, 2013 the blog "Tender Mercies for Lorna" was born.
I will mainly blog about tender mercies I see in my life each day, but I will also blog about tender mercies I feel the Lord gives all of us. So enjoy and try to see the Lord's tender mercies in your life!!