Sorry to include one more talk/tender mercy experience, but this talk we were asked to give shortly after the miscarriage experience addressed in the last post. After rereading this talk, I felt like it had enough personal family experiences included, that it would be great for posterity sake.
So, Camden sang "I Am A Child of God" right before I gave my talk and it was going so beautifully. Then he had a funny moment where right as he sang, "Lead me Guide Me," He burped. He stopped singing, Kelv paused on the piano, and without missing a beat he smiled and said into the microphone, "Excuse me", then went right back into the song. He was 3.5 years old at the time, and we honestly got more compliments not for his singing, but for how polite he was to say excuse me. Adorable. We were so proud of him!
So here is a long talk about Tender Mercies, including the story of how I got into the Conference Center without my initial ticket.
Nov. 11. 2012
Ideas for General Conference
Talk
Thank you Camden! You did a great job! And what a wonderful way to start our
meeting and beautiful message: We are all God’s children… he has sent us here…
and because he loves us he has given us an earthly home… and because he wanted
us to succeed, he’s given us parents kind and dear. God did this because
we truly ALL have such immense worth and he did not want us to have to do this alone.
In fact, Sister Linda
Burton our new General RS Pres, reshared this story given recently by President
Dieter F. Uchtdorf that emphasizes this point well.
“One woman who had been through years of trial and sorrow
said through her tears, ‘I have come to realize that I am like an old 20-dollar
bill—crumpled, torn, dirty, abused, and scarred…But I am still a 20-dollar
bill. I am worth something. Even though I may not look like much and even
though I have been battered and used, I am still worth the full 20 dollars.’”
Sister Burton elaborates by saying, “This woman knows that she is a beloved daughter of
her Heavenly Father and that she was worth enough to Him to send His Son to
atone for her, individually. Every sister in the Church should know what this
woman knows—that she is a beloved daughter of God.”
And that fact, that knowledge that we are ALL God’s
Children, that we have immeasurable worth was a message that really stuck
out to me during this last General Conference. In fact, this is a concept that
has given me strength throughout my life and something I firmly ground my
testimony on. That I have divine worth! That God cares about me, even the
little things that I wouldn’t normally think would matter to him. I am a Child
of God is also the theme for Primary next year so maybe this topic was on my
mind before as well but ---I just love
it! Just like I love being in Primary. Just like Heavenly Father loves all of
his children.
And I have always felt that one
of the ways Heavenly Father love us so much is because as Elder Uchtdorf taught us this
last conference, he knows our potential! Our REAL potential! Elder Uchtdorf goes on to say that God, “ knows things about us that we do not
know ourselves. He prompts us during our lifetime to fulfill the measure of our
creation, to live a good life, and to return to His presence.” And Elder
Ucthdorf encourages us to be proactive with this knowledge of our potential he
says,
“We certainly cannot do this with a
dragging-our-feet, staring-at-our-watch, complaining-as-we-go approach to
discipleship.When it comes to living the gospel, we should not be like the boy
who dipped his toe in the water and then claimed he went swimming. As sons and
daughters of our Heavenly Father, we are capable of so much more. For
that, good intentions are not enough. We must DO. Even more important, we must become what
Heavenly Father wants us to be.”
This message from Elder Uchtdorf
rang so powerfully to me. Our potential is great! We need to be trying to live
up to that potential! And when it feels like we’re not doing a good job or that
we just can’t get it right, just the mere knowledge that the Lord has a great
vision for our lives- testifies that he does NOT Want ANY of Us to Fail. And
when we do make a mistake, as his children, he loved us enough that he provided
a way back for us through his most beloved son-- Our Savior Jesus Christ. Sister Burton said, “We would do well to ponder this stirring thought from Elder
Oaks: “Think how it must have grieved our Heavenly Father to send His Son to
endure incomprehensible suffering for our sins” “That is the greatest evidence
of His love for each of us!”
And why did he send his son? Because we were
worth it. And as Sister. Linda Reeves (the new 2nd councilor in RS
said) “He has
paid the price that He might know how to succor you. Cast your burdens upon Him.
Tell your Heavenly Father how you feel. Tell Him about your pain and
afflictions and then give them to Him.”
And The Lord …has not forgotten you! Whatever sin or weakness or pain or
struggle or trial you are going through, He knows and understands those very
moments. He loves you! And He will carry you through those moments, just as He
did Mary and Martha. “
I loved how Sister Reeves talked
about the experience the Savior had with Martha and Mary at the time of
Lazarus’ death. How easy it would be to read the story as an example of our
Savior’s power and miracles and miss the underlying message of absolute love
that he had for those women, their brother, and for each of us. The scriptures
quotes that the when hearing about Lazarus’ death the Savior knew this would be
a chance to glorify God. He knew that he would get the chance to raise Lazarus
from the dead, but seeing the grief of those two sisters caused him so much
sorrow that he groaned in the spirit and as the scriptures say, “He wept.”
Sister Reeves points out how,” This experience testifies of
the compassion, empathy, and love that our Savior and our Heavenly Father feel
for each of us every time we are weighed down by the anguish, sin, adversity,
and pains of life.
But as Sister Burton taught,
“All that is unfair
about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” Why does
the Lord allow suffering and adversity to come to us in this life? Simply put,
it is part of the plan for our growth and progress! We “shouted for joy”6 when we knew we would
have the opportunity to come to earth to experience mortality. Elder
Dallin H. Oaks taught, “Our needed conversions are often achieved more
readily by suffering and adversity than by comfort and tranquillity.”
And we do not suffer alone,
before sharing a very personal story of her struggle with her faith during her
husband’s potentially terminal illness, Sister Reeves reminded us that, “ our Heavenly Father and our
Savior, Jesus Christ, know us and love us. They know when we are in pain or
suffering in any way. They feel the depth of our suffering, and we can feel of
Their love and compassion in our suffering.” She goes on to share that when she finally
realized that she could not bear this burdens alone-that she needed the Lord,
she got to her knees and prayed. And as she fervently prayed, she felt the love
of the Lord like a blanket of love. He does not leave us alone.
Brothers and Sisters I too can
testify that I have experienced his loving arms wrapped around me in one of my
saddest times. I remember this
experience well, years ago when all I could do was just weep and plead aloud to
my heavenly father for some comfort. And it came. As if a warm comforter was being wrapped
tightly around me bearing the message of “Alene- Of course I love you. And I
will help you get through this time.”
It was a powerful moment that I
will never forget—It was a remembrance that the Lord is aware of all of his
children because we are that precious to him. As you may have noticed a lot of
my examples have been from the RS general broadcast
and a big reason for that is likely because that was a powerful meeting and experience
for me filled with small examples of tender mercies of the Savior’s love for
me.
I had the awesome opportunity of
getting to attend the meeting inside the conference center for a couple of
reasons. First, my dear younger sister was singing in the Young Single Adult
Choir as well as my husband’s aunt being called as a new member of the General
RS Board.
Because of these reasons for
live attendance on both sides of my family, I happened to get a ride with my
mother-in-law to the conference center since we left a family gathering on that
side of the family early to attend the conference. As many of my mother-in-laws
sisters and daughters that could make it, were gathering to support their
sister or aunt(Kelv’s Aunt) in her new assignment on the board. Well, they are
VERY punctual people and consequently, we all got to the broadcast over an hour
and a half early. So all of his family went in and even had an extra ticket for
me, but I had already made plans to attend with my mother and a 2 of my sisters
so we could watch one of my other sisters in the choir together, and my mom had
my ticket for me. So I opted to stay outside and wait for my family.
Well, my family is not quite as
punctual as Kelv’s family. We’re just very efficient with our time and
multi-task around the home so that it’s difficult to just up and leave to get
places. Well, this fact in addition to a number of accidents on the interstate made
it so my family was MUCH later then they hoped they’d be. So much later that
after sitting outside for over an hour and watching the lines get steadily
longer and longer, and receiving more and more texts about how my family was
still on the interstate I was starting to get worried that I wouldn’t get in,
and that I would miss the broadcast and getting to see my baby sister sing.
I had already passed up people offering me
tickets 3 times at this point as I sat trying not to look worried near the
fountain, but it was when I saw the standby line start going inside the
building that I really started to panic. I resolved to get in one of these
enormously long lines and hope that either my family would miraculously show
up, or that I’d spy someone else with an extra ticket. In the meantime I
started texting and calling every female member of Kelv’s family inside the
conference center to see if they could meet me at the door and give me their
extra ticket. They must have been sitting in a dead zone because I couldn’t get
a hold of ANY of them. AND I couldn’t find anyone giving away tickets and I was
almost to the door AND my family was not yet into the city limits!
This is when I must have really
started looking panicked because as I passed one of the volunteers directing
lines, she looked worriedly at me and
said, “Can I help you?” So I asked her if she had an extra ticket on her. I
could see her holding a large bundle of what looked like tickets to me, but she
responded that she didn’t have any to give out. Then she said, “Do you not have
one?” I’m she was curious why I was even in this huge line if I didn’t already
have one. So trying to hold back the tears that all of a sudden were there, I
told her of my dilemma of waiting for my ticket and my other family being
inside with an extra one but not being able to get a hold of them and not
wanting to miss my sister sing, and a then TENDER MERCY occurred! She pulled me into a hug and
said, “Oh sweetheart,” You can have one of my tickets, just don’t tell or
they’ll throw me out.” So I got in and was able to sit with my husband’s family
who were actually sitting close enough so that I could physically see my sister
in the choir.
Then later I found out my family
did get in and the meeting was so powerful. They even showed a long shot of my
sister singing in the choir which was another TENDER MERCY in itself because of
the many sisters and sisters-in-law that I have all spread across the country
and for that one moment we were all connected, as we watched my little sister
sing.
It was amazing and what I realized a few weeks after the
meeting was that the Lord was spiritually preparing me for a more major and
difficult trial we’ve dealt with recently in our family.
And even in the midst of that trial, the Lord showed me
another tender mercy and reminded me how He DOES NOT want us to do this life
ALONE.
While doing my best to be strong and faithful during our
recent trial but it not being something we wanted to share with others, completely
out of the blue, a neighbor and friend showed up with a sweet note and
thoughtful gifts for me and my family. It was so powerful to me. She had no
idea what was going on. She just felt prompted to come by. This was as if the
Lord were reaching out and saying, you don’t need to suffer this alone. Then as
I wrote in my journal about this tender mercy, I started to notice 10, then 20,
and more and more little blessing that had surrounded me during this hard time.
As I wrote down this list of tender mercies I couldn’t help but be reminded
again that my value as a daughter of God is great. That He takes note of even
my smallest heart aches, and he did not send me to earth alone.
Just as he notices each sparrow that falls, he knows my
needs.
And just as Alma testified:
“And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions
and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which
saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
“And he will take upon him … their infirmities, that his
bowels may be filled with mercy, … that he may know … how to succor his people
according to their infirmities.”
And he wants us to
come to him. To cast our burdens upon him because that is why he suffered! To
support us just as he wants us to strive to support others as well. To be
available as a tool in the Lord’s hand. He didn’t send us to earth to do all
this alone and he wants us there to support others as well. He wants us to
treat others with the remembrance that they are His special sons and daughters
as well. That they too have worth.
Bear Testimony:
