Tender Mercies

I went to the Bountiful temple tonight with my niece, Kara, who will be married next week to her best friend and sweetheart. Kara is a beautiful girl with long, flowing blonde hair and exotic green eyes that are always smiling and kind. She is studying to be a teacher and will graduate soon from BYU.

Kara is also a miracle girl. Her parents, though loving and intelligent, both struggled with drug addictions during Kara's childhood. She lived for a couple of years with an aunt, and there she learned to pray and go to church and do her homework. After that, there were other angels in her life. Kara stayed focused, and now her dreams are coming true. In addition to all her own hard work, Kara has received tender mercies from the Lord.

I love those words--tender mercies.

I also experienced tender mercy at the Bountiful Temple. Rachel chose to be there for her own endowment, two and a half years ago. Since she was our first child to be married, Leslie and I were new at being divorced parents together in the temple, and I was uncomfortable. As I entered the temple, I walked up to the recommend desk, aware that Leslie could be there with his wife, Rachel would have her sweetheart, and I would be painfully alone. After my recommend was examined, I was surprised to see the temple worker look at my name carefully and then say, "Sunderland...hmm. Have you ever run across an Ernie Sunderland?" First I was surprised, then he was, as I answered, "He is my husband!" He looked at me and chuckled for a while before he spoke again. Then he said, "I was his football coach at Ricks. Tell him Coach Grant says hi. I always did have to look after those running backs!"

Tender mercies to me are those times when God surprises us with blessings. For the rest of the day, even though I was still alone, I felt the comfort that God was well aware of my sadness. It turned out that Leslie didn't bring his wife either, and we had a beautiful experience with our daughter. Coach Grant's chuckle has stayed with me to this day. I'm glad to know that God is still looking after his running backs.