Tender Mercy

Dear Professor Papworth,  

  Next time I'll be more resourceful when choosing my post title.  As they say, "The gospel is perfect...the wordy Saints aren't."  Until my writing abilities become perfected,  I'll have to resort to occasionally using a few Mormon cliches.  

Love,

Katy

p.s.  I hope the vittles you ate last night are nourishing and strengthening your body.

p.s.s I hope that no harm or accident will befall you on your way to class tomorrow.

I once had an English professor who gave an interesting lecture about Mormon cliches. He told us that our testimonies shouldn't be cluttered with trite parrot phrases like: with every fiber in my being; beyond a shadow of a doubt; I don't know where I'd be without the church, etc.  He said that if we'd make a sincere effort to eliminate these phrases, replacing them with our own well contemplated thoughts, we'd end up delivering rich, unique, and heartfelt testimonies(He was in no way berating our current testimonies).  Elder Bednar's riveting speech, "The Tender Mercies of the Lord," is home to the often used phrase,"tender mercy."  Professor Papworth would undoubtedly add that phrase to his list of testimony no-nos. But when a chica's Calliope Muse is caught in the myer, she'll have to stoop to naming her post after an overused Mormon cliche.  The Church is still true and so is this post.

The boy and I got out of the car and walked through the garage and into the house.  Sometime during our short walk, a little piece from the boy's Star Wars ship fell off and was lost. He became unglued and begged for me to help him find the missing piece. I took a picture for you to see how little this piece is.  I know what you're thinking: "THERE'S NO WAY I'D SPEND TIME LOOKIN' FOR THAT!"  That's what I said too.

I told the boy that I was busy grading homework, folding laundry, and making a nutritious dinner for the rest of my homies.  I told him to stop crying and to just deal with it. He did.

I walked in on my praying boy and immediately began crying.  I grabbed the camera and took his picture--a bit irreverent of me, I know. Are you dying right now?  Are you thinking this story has a tender mercy ending coming up soon?  I said to him, quickly hiding my tears:

"Were you just praying about your toy, buddy?"

"Yes."

"What do you think Heavenly Father's going to do next?"

"He'll help me find it"

"You're right, buddy.  That's just what He'll do."

I resolved that I wouldn't go to sleep until that piece was found, by golly.  I wanted  him to know, with every fiber of his being, that Heavenly Father hears and answers every child's prayer(like the song).  Within minutes of our search, we found the missing piece.  Thank goodness because I was getting nervous.  I didn't want to come up with an explanation as to why we couldn't find it--so faithless of me, I know.  The boy's faith is so simple and perfect: mustard seed faith+sincere prayer= tender mercy answers, every single time.