Tender Mercy

I tend to start out my morning walks with a prayer.  I silently pray as I walk along, it's good quiet, contemplative time.  And really starts the day off on the right foot.

This morning I included a request that I might be aware of The Lord's hand in my life, among other things.

After my morning oatmeal, I headed out to prune the lilacs.  They're very happy bushes.  We have two of them in front of the living room windows and they've gotten quite tall - I'd guess about 12 feet.  Really too tall.  So I set about hacking and cutting them down, quite far.  (They aren't actually The Husband's favorite bush, he doesn't care for their ranginess or the fragrance of the blooms, shortlived though the blooms are.)

All during my walk as I planned out my day and again as I was working on the bushes I kept thinking:  it's too bad that today is garbage day and the cans will be emptied before I get the bushes trimmed.  (Our garbage is picked up usually around 7 a.m. and this happened to be a week when both cans were barely used.)  I kept thinking about that huge pile of clippings that would sit around for another week.

The Tender Mercy of today:  The garbage truck didn't make its rounds until about 10:30 a.m.  Long after the usual time.  This is such a rare occurrence that I actually can't remember the last time they were so late.    But this day, when I didn't even need the late pick-up, just hoped for it, it happened just at the right time.

We were able to get the bushes trimmed and all the clippings in the cans in time for pick-up.  Truly a trivial thing in the overall fabric of life.  But in my heart I choose to think Heavenly Father took notice of my simple prayer and extended His hand.  My next prayer will be one of gratitude.

p.s.  I loved what The Husband said when I apologized for getting him all hot and sweaty.  He said, "I'm not hot and sweaty, I just have spring all over me!"