We all have them at some time or another in our life. In Mormondom (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) we call them “faith promoting experiences”. Some people experience them more than others. But it’s not so much that these experiences come to some more than others as if they are more special in God’s eye but that when it happens we recognize them as a tender mercy from above.
For example, you are on your way to work or running errands around town and you feel impressed to take 
a different route. After following that impression you find out later on that if you had gone the way you were going to go, you would have been involved in some kind of wreck or accident. It doesn’t always happen that way but many times we feel impressed to do something in a certain way and when done, it works out wonderfully.
We do experience trials which helps us to be a stronger people but then there are also times when just in ordinarily life we can find tender mercies from a loving Heavenly Father.
I cannot count how many times our cars have made it home just fine and then unexpectedly would not start or would not move in some way sitting in our drive way. This helped us immensely as we were not stuck somewhere in the middle of the road in the middle of the night in our car but we were able to deal with the problem from home. Sometimes it doesn’t happen that way but over all most of the time it does: tender mercies.
During a ten year period in my life I was assigned to help the young women (ages12-18) in our church with our church camp for a week during the summer. One year I was asked to be the camp director while I was almost 4 months pregnant with my eighth child. For most of my pregnancies I was always healthy and I rarely got sick. But at 36 years old and having my last pregnancy unexpectedly end at 4 months, I was a bit concerned. My doctor gave me permission to go if I didn’t lift anything heavy and let the girls do all the work.
My husband gave me a priesthood blessing right before I left and I felt pretty good physically. Girl’s Camp lasted four days and was somewhat hot during that time. What was so amazing to me and was a tender mercy of the Lord was during the time I was at camp, I didn’t even feel pregnant. I felt stronger and had to consciously remember not to lift or do anything out of the ordinary because I felt so good. This feeling lasted long enough for me to get home and clean up all of our mess so by Sunday morning I was back to feeling pregnant again. It was truly amazing.
Building Strong Families
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It reminded me of a scripture from The Book of Mormon, a record of an ancient people in the New World starting with the travels of Lehi and his family. They had many faith promoting experiences. The women had to trek across the wilderness with their babies and they were blessed. From 1 Nephi 17:2 it says: “And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children and were strong, yea even like unto the men;…”
A song on the radio at a particular time to boost our spirits, a friend dropping by to help when most needed, an unexpected check in the mail at the right time: all of these are tender mercies from heaven. David A. Bednar (LDS Church Leader) explains it like this: “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.”
Families greatly benefit from tender mercies as it strengthens relationships. Strengthening our faith in God helps us to live a happier life. Look for them in your daily routine because they are there and then be thankful that we are so blessed.
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Valerie Steimle has been writing as a family advocate for over 25 years. As a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she promotes Christian living in her writings and is the mother of nine children and grandmother to twelve. Mrs. Steimle authored six books and is a contributing writer to several online websites. To her, time is the most precious commodity we have and knows we should spend it wisely.
To read more of Valerie's work, visit her at her website, The Blessings of Family Life.
