Tender Mercies

This last week, amongst the chaos this week was, I took my daughter to get a violin because she has expressed an interest in orchestra. As I opportunity I had to do this with her, it struck a memory for me.

Please allow me to share with you.

A couple of weeks ago, I took my kids to Salt Lake City for our traditional 'hoopla' back to school trip. It is tradition for us to take care of some business and include back to school shopping as well as play as much and as hard as we can as a celebratory "ITS BEEN GREAT!" farewell to summer.
This time was no different.

We were able to attend the Ogden Temple open house, to marvel and feel the spirit of another House of the Lord before its dedication. More than anything, I was struck with the artwork that now resides there. I was not lucky enough to get the details about it I was hoping for, but I pray that it will be shown to me sooner than later.
We spent time across the street at the Treehouse Children's Museum. The kids had a great time with that.
Of course there was more shopping than I'd like to admit, but we did get it all done. It is amazing that something I save so long for can be gone in a matter of hours.
Because we ended up staying on a Sunday, we were privileged to attend "Music & the Spoken Word" in the Conference Center. I have heard the tabernacle choir many times on CD or mp3 player, but those touching renditions pale in comparison to the experience of listening to them in person. It was our first time attending "Music & the Spoken Word" and we thoroughly enjoyed it. On the particular day we attended, the orchestra was also there and playing. My daughter would later tell me that it was this experience where she gained a desire to be part of an orchestra, and that she wanted to play the violin. We walked around temple square some, even going inside the tabernacle as I tried to explain to my children that 'Once upon a time, before the conference center was........the tabernacle was the only place to hold General Conference'.  I'm not sure they fully understood, but they wanted me to share their most favorite story about the tabernacle, so I did my best.
We then proceeded to the South Visitors Center. As we walked in, on a large screen they were playing various "I am a Mormon" clips. I'm sure they do that frequently, but the one they were playing the moment we walked in, stopped me in my tracks.

Perhaps it was the part where Lindsey talks about her core beliefs about having worth because she is a daughter of God.......that struck me more than anything else we did on that trip.
I've heard it said that a coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous, but the timing that this particular clip at the very moment I walked in was more than a coincidence......This was a tender mercy. (Did you notice she's playing a violin?)

Thank You Lindsey Sterling! You have two new fans in our household! !