Tender Mercies

1 Nephi 1:20 "And when [they] heard these things they were angry with him; ... and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. 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."

It's winter here, and even though it hasn't been the usually cold and snowy winter, some days have been bitter cold and some have even been snowy. About two weeks ago, we had one of those cold and snowy days. My car doesn't look or seem old to me, until I remember that a 2000 model car is now 12 years old. Or until something happens that reminds me that I have an old car. Or, as I'd rather think of it, a car that's getting old. Like when my automatic window rolls down just fine, but doesn't roll up just fine. Most of the time, not a problem - I just hold the button in the "roll up" position for a while until it works. But on a cold, snowy day, with your 2-yr old in the back seat, when you have to go to the store that's 15 minutes away, and you start out the drive with your window most of the way down - that's when it's a problem.

Because I'm a little lazy and it's convenient, when I drive anywhere, after I back out of the driveway, I pull up next to the mailbox, roll down my window, and get the mail. No leg movement necessary :). Now, you may be thinking, 'If you knew your window had problems rolling up, why did you even do it that way on a cold, snowy day?' Because, you see, it's never NOT rolled back up after 30 seconds or so.

But on this particular day, it hadn't rolled up after 5 minutes of holding the button. I tossed Jason's fleece hat back to him and cheerfully said, "Put on your hat, ok?" while thinking, 'My poor baby's going to freeze to death!! He's not gonna put on his hat - he's just gonna play with it and then toss it off to the side of his car seat where I can't reach it while I'm driving!'

It was only about 2/3 of the way down. 'Maybe if I roll it down just a spec more, that'll un-glitch it and it'll be able to roll up again.' Nope. Now it was down even farther. And maybe I'm the only one who's ever noticed this, but when you're in the back seat and a front seat window is down, you, in the back, get a whole lot more wind in your face than the person in the front who wants the wind in their face. Even with the heater on full blast, it was getting really cold in there. My poor little guy! Fortunately, with some encouragement, he DID put his hat on. And even though it was just resting in a pouf shape on top of his head, I was glad it was more or less on.

After about 10 minutes, lots of prayers, and constant holding-of-the-button-up, the window was still down.
...
As silly as it seemed, the only thing I could think of to do was call my parents and ask them to say a prayer, since mine didn't seem to be working. So I called and explained our plight and laughing, asked, "Would you mind saying a prayer that my window will roll up?" My dad said a prayer, with me still on the phone, and I felt grateful to have such good and loving parents. "Well," one of them said, "we hope it works soon!" "Me too," I said. And as we were about to end the call, my dad said, "Have you tried pulling up on the window while holding the button at the same time?" Hmmm, no I hadn't. *unglitch* *slow rolling up* "It's working! It worked! Thank you Dad!!"

We marvelled at the way the Lord had answered my prayer - by prompting me to call my parents. And at the way He had answered my Dad's prayer - by putting that little idea into his head to pull up on the window. Within a minute or two of that last prayer, the prayer was anwered and the problem was solved. Why He chose to do it that way, I'm not sure. But it was still a wonderful blessing to have the window up and Jason and I sealed off from the harsh elements, with warm air filling the car instead of cold.

Seeing God's hand in your every-day life, in the small but important-to-you details, these are the kind of experiences we call Tender Mecies.