Tender Mercies

One of my husband's favorite General Conference talks is The Tender Mercies of the Lord by Elder Bednar (May 2005 Conference). Yesterday I experienced one. Dallen, Mara, Anderson and I spent most of the day getting the truck fixed. We dropped it off and walked over to a nearby shopping center to shop and get lunch. It was so hot and humid, but we had "fun". As much fun as I think I could have been having. Well, after I had spent enough money and we had lunch and figured it should just about be done we started heading back to the shop to check on the truck. I saw this little store that sells ice cream and shakes and thought how refreshing that would be. Well, I thought again about how much money had I spent just spending time and how much the truck repairs would be and decided we would keep on walking.

I returned to the shop to find out that the part was not going to work and they needed to order another one. Ugh. It was now after noon and it was hot. The kids were really loud in the waiting room, so I decided we would go back for ice cream. I felt guilty the whole way. As we got close I asked the kids if maybe we should just go to the grocery store and get ice cream and some spoons, but they wanted to go to this little shop. So I figured we would just drop by and see how much it cost. I asked them if they accepted debit cards and they said "Yes, but our computer is down." I said "Okay, well, thank you then." They said "Well, you can still order." I said "I don't have any cash." They said "It is not your fault your computer is down, so we will give you the food for free." I could not believe my ears. Those were the tastiest ice cream cones I have ever tasted. What a blessing. I promptly thanked my Heavenly Father for this tender mercy. Something so small as comforting me with free ice cream. The Lord does care for each of us - everything about us - even the small stuff. It lifted my spirits and helped me make it through the rest of the day.