Tender Mercies

Isn't it interesting how the Lord has always accomplished great feats in the wilderness? Think about it...the children of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness, and Lehi took his family into the wilderness. Nephi accomplished great things with overwhelming odds in the wilderness: returning to get the plates from Laban, constructing a ship, enduring hunger and hardship. In our own sort of way, Castle Valley was like unto the wilderness for our family. Granny cooked over a fire, and we lived in tents--dug a well, established roads, put up fences, raised animals, built a cabin and outbuildings. And despite the hardships, we learned a lot and grew together in strength and unity. In many ways, it became the best experience of our lives.

But all of the events in the wilderness are not physical. We may face the wilderness of hardship, tradgedy, addiction, or discord in our lives today. How we deal with these challenges in large measure will determine whether life's obstacles will be for us stepping stones or stumbling blocks. We can't always control the circumstances in which we find ourselves, but we can control our response in the face of affliction.

One of my favorite quotes is from Charles Swindoll, who said “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

"The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.”

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

The wilderness of our lives often comes at inoppurtune times that challenge us when we don't quite know what to do and causes us to reflect on what is really important. We can have faith in the Lord that He will see us through as we with confidence face our challenges.

That we can know.

I love you, dad

Psalms 145:9