The past few weeks I have been really pondering a passage from 1 Nephi 1:20 (in the Book of Mormon) that reminds us 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.” I know I have gotten better at recognizing the many tender mercies, or personalized blessings, that are continual evidences of God’s love and awareness of me and my family. But the next part of that verse promises that when I have faith, I can be given the strength to be delivered. There are so many things I hope to be delivered from – crushing grief, loneliness, pain, separation, temporal worries, and on and on. It’s the WHEN part that sometimes feels harder. The waiting on the Lord’s timing, which is so often not my own.
Except then I am reminded of how often the Lord’s timing of things has been pretty miraculous. For those of you who watched Kendall’s funeral, you may remember our bishop sharing that he had lost his own father when he was right around the ages of my children, thus making him uniquely suited to counsel and minister to our family in an especially compassionate way. But did you know that he was only sustained as the bishop a mere THREE DAYS before Kendall passed? Certainly that was not a mistake (or coincidence).
There were so many examples of things surrounding Kendall’s illness, or a specific need our family had, when the timing worked out in truly miraculous ways. Too many for me to recount right now, but I remember and recognize them. Even the timing of a global pandemic was fortuitous in some ways. I am immensely grateful for the five months of concentrated family time we enjoyed before Kendall’s diagnosis, as we quarantined together. And at what other time in the history of the world would our family, who suddenly needed to strictly isolate pandemic or not, have had access to streamed church meetings, or so many virtual schooling options, or had a world primed to be especially careful of germs, be willing to wear masks, or understand social distancing?
I had a very personalized experience with miraculous timing this past week. I was privileged to have the opportunity to attend a few classes at Education Week on Thursday morning, and then classes on Friday. A far cry from the deluge of classes I am accustomed to typically attending throughout an entire week, but still such a blessing that I was able to do this much amidst everything else going on in our lives right now. I decided to only look at the classes offered in the times and on the days I could attend so I wouldn’t feel bad about what I was missing. And folks, they were EXACTLY the classes I and my family needed. To a truly goosebumps-inducing level, they were so pertinent to our family’s needs and circumstances. I have been attending Education Week for many years, and I have never seen a class offered on “Financial Considerations after the Death of a Spouse: Avoiding Costly Mistakes and Moving Forward with Confidence” (which provided me with answers to some big financial problems that have been weighing heavily on me). Or there was the class on dealing with trauma and grief, or helping children cope with grief and heal from loss, or classes on some exact, very specific topics my teenagers or other children need or are struggling with right now. It was remarkable. I got exactly what I needed (and had the mental capacity to process and now implement), exactly WHEN we needed it.
And so, I sit back now and choose to be patient, to wait on the Lord’s timing for many of the answers and blessings I hope to receive someday. Perhaps not in this life, but I trust they will ALL come. In the meantime, would you pray for our family, particularly for my oldest child? She’s struggling right now with many things, and we’ll be doing more procedures and tests this week hoping to get some answers to help alleviate some rather alarming physical symptoms she has. I’ve seen firsthand just how prayers can move mountains and how they quite literally help carry us. Prayers really do make a difference.
