Tender Mercies

I have been thinking a lot lately about "tender mercies" - daily gifts from God that usually come in tiny little packages that you only notice if you are looking for them, but that make you feel loved and known. There are simply days that whatever reason just seem hard. You know that you are truly blessed and that the things that are frustrating you aren't a big deal, but you still just feel a little low. Call it stress, hormones, whatever; it just happens.

I experienced a day like that while teaching last week. Jeff asked how my day went and I answered "It just wasn't a good day to be a teacher." Normally, I adore my job. In my prayers each night, I thank my Heavenly Father for the opportunity I have to teach, love, and help shape these young children. I know it is a special, even sacred, responsibility. But there are days when it's hard. I expect it will be like that as a mother as well. In fact, I am SO glad for the chance I have to teach before becoming a mother because I am learning so many things that will make me a better one.

Okay, enough tangents. It is clearly a spill-your-thoughts kind of night. The point of this post is to express what a difference a tender mercy can make in the middle of one of those feeling-low, self-doubt, and I-think-this-outfit-might-make-me-look-fat kind of days. As I was walking back into my classroom after taking my students to lunch, a former student of mine spotted me down the hall and called out my name. This student was one of my biggest disciplinary problems last year. He said, "Mrs. Goold, wait! Don't go into your room yet! I just saw you and wanted to give you a hug because you're, like, the best teacher I ever had."

And I think I heard some angels singing! Thank you for reminding me just how much I love what I do. Oh yes, it is hard. And oh yes, it is undoubtedly worth it.





Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish the desired end. Character is not the result of chance work but of continuous right thinking and right acting."
— David O. McKay