Teaching about Tender Mercies

Our stake presidency issued families in our stake to read The Book of Mormon as families twice this year.  We heard this in church today.  I decided this would be a good goal for us.  We've never been great about getting through the whole Book of Mormon when any of these challenges have been issued, but I think we can actually do it this time.  I do.  Justin is excited to try.

So we started tonight again.  It's funny how the last verse of chapter one of 1st Nephi has so many truths in it.  I asked Justin what he thought a "tender mercy" is.  I asked him if he thought we've received any blessings since Daddy died.  He told me "no."  That stopped me short, bothered me tremendously.  I realized the importance of acknowledging to him each time we receive a blessing, a service rendered to our family, or a kindness of some sort.  There are thousands that we've received over the past five months, so I clued him in to a few.  And then I verbally listed some from today only.  And this isn't all.  But I told him of the following:

• Taylor B. coming to shovel our driveway and walkways before church.
• Sis. Kunz soothing my screaming baby in the hall after church while I searched the building for my other two kids.
• Frank J. for taking my keys from me, starting my car and getting snow off my car while I rounded kids up and got coats on them.
• Teigan and Paula holding Carson for me while I played the piano a couple times at church.  I've missed playing the piano.
• The AMAZING freezer meal that we ate tonight for dinner, made by one of my friend Stacy J's church friends.  Seriously amazing, I thought I hated pork chops, but apparently not!  They were great, and so was the yummy "yellow rice."  Who knew that something frozen could be SO SO SO GOOD!?!  And it was made by a total stranger for us.  It makes me tear up.
• Great primary teachers that taught my boys today (Spencer's first day of primary, he LOVED it!)
• John M. for helping me load all my kids in the car.
• Jared B. for holding Carson and giving me a break during Sunday School.  Those breaks mean so much, and Carson has made a new bud, of which I'm glad.
• All the offers of help with my kids today.
• The Vacanti's offering to help Spencer out of his tantrum.  Ahh, if only there was a magic wand to stop those tantrums!:)

And the list goes on. It's one of my new missions in life, to instill gratitude in my children, for me to acknowledge the good in my life.  We have a lot of life ahead of ourselves and while we've experienced an unspeakable tragedy, there is much--SO MUCH--good to be acknowledged and grateful for....and so I post the last line of the last verse of chapter one of 1st Nephi:

"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."