Tender Mercy Twine

Dear Kids,

I can't forget to tell you about our tender mercy twine. I was reminded when I saw the twine on our van this morning.

When we were coming home from Idaho about a month ago we had a situation with the bottom part of our bumper... the mud flap thing that is underneath the bumper. It had come loose while up in Idaho. I went to Papa's car care shop to get it fixed and we thought we had it taken care of.

We were going to do a stop in Blackfoot to pick up a tortoise from my friend to take back home with us as a pet. As we were heading to the freeway I had the DISTINCT impression to go on the back roads to Blackfoot. I ignored it, but again felt like I needed to, so I turned around and went away from the freeway exit and heading back to the back roads.

We made it to Blackfoot, picked up the tortoise, and then hopped on the freeway. I felt okay about getting on the freeway from Blackfoot. So about 2 minutes onto the freeway I felt a huge "POP" and then something was dragging... which of course was the mud flap.

I pulled over to the side. Got out, checked it out, and saw that it was going to be a HUGE problem for the rest of the trip. I tried to just take it off, but that wasn't going to happen, I wasn't strong enough. I tried to attach it somehow, but nothing was working. So I stepped back away from the van and thought, "Okay Heavenly Father, what am I supposed to do with this? I can't keep driving like this." We were on a time schedule as well in order to make it to Esti's baptism on time before heading to Salt Lake.

The spirit just said, "Look around." So I turned and looked around. There on the side of the road by the freeway was a piece of blue twine. There was NO OTHER twine to be seen. Just that piece, right by the side of the road where I stopped the van. I immediately thought, "It's tender mercy twine!"

So I grabbed it and was able to tie up the mud flap to the attached 'safe' part of the bumper so it was stable, and we were able to keep going on our way.

The most amazing part of this to me is that the Lord is in the very details of our lives. Had I not listened to the spirit and not followed the back roads to Blackfoot, that POP would have happened on the road too early. The Lord knew there wasn't anything there by the side of the road that was going to be able to help me. BUT He did know there was my tender mercy twine on the side of the road by Blackfoot.

Those small details of our lives are important to God. He loves us that much. He wants to provide the littlest things that can help us on our journey. He is in those details, MORE than we know and more than we realize.

I love you,

Your Mom