PROVO, Utah — God knows who we are by name, but nurturing our relationship with him is up to us, said Hank R. Smith, a Church Education System instruction, during an Education Week session.God leaves little things along our lives letting us know that he is there and loves us, Smith said.People usually refer to them as "tender mercies.""Tender mercies are like love notes in your lunch," he said.Sometimes people consider tender mercies just a coincidence, but they aren't.These tender mercies "are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ," according to Elder David A. Bednar's talk in the April 2005 general conference.They come in a variety of ways.When Smith was a ninth-grader, he broke his hand in playing football.He and his family went to the emergency room and he got a hard cast on it. Football meant the world to him at the time, and was heart-broken when at the next practice he was told he couldn't play with a hard cast on.So he prayed for a way for his hand to heal quickly so he could play.He wouldn't recommend it, he cut his cast off, much to his parent's dismay."Apparently casts are expensive," Smith said. "No one had told me that."So, he and his dad went and got a soft cast and they wrapped it up really, really tight.It was painful every tackle he made, but he played the season with a hand broken in three places.His hand eventually healed and he didn't think anymore about it.When he was telling the story in college, a friend mentioned that the Lord did answer his prayer."I hadn't realized it until then," Smith said.In the first chapter of the Book of Mormon, Nephi says his record is "to show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith …" (1 Nephi 1:20)"It's the thesis statement in the Book of Mormon," Smith said.Tender mercies aren't hard to find in the Book of Mormon and church history. They are there when Nephi goes to get the brass plates from guarded city and guarded palace. The Lord had a plan when Martin Harris lost the 116 pages. Those tender mercies were there when Nephi was commanded to build a boat, when Limhi's soldiers found the Jaredite ruins and the plates of Ether, when Ammon found Aaron in prison, when Alma and the sons of Mosiah just happened to meet up after their missions and when none of the stripling warriors died in battle.Many times, the tender mercies are like the cairn rock formations that let hikers know they are on the right path, Smith said."When life gets difficult, we can see the tender mercies and know we're on the right path," Smith said. "It's God saying he knows who you are."
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