Tender Mercies

Some doctrine of Tyler that I dare not teach or share in a Sunday School lesson.  Listening to the Spirit and going about doing good can be a real constant thing in our life. There are numberless chances during the day to stop and listen to promptings that will enrich our life and the lives of others.  While at BYU, I made a habit of slowing down in between classes and making a conscious decision of which route on campus I would take that day.  Most of the time at BYU people get set in a routine, walking the same way to their same classes everyday.  A number of days I just felt like there was a different path I should take, sometimes the paths were the opposite way of my class, and sometimes I just ended up at class real late or not at all.  How was this a positive?  Everytime I went somewhere I wasnt "supposed to be", without fail I would run into someone that I had not seen in awhile and we would share some time and words that would enrich our lives.  Oh right, I should add in here that sometimes it was excruciatingly painful for people to get across campus with me.  You never wanted to walk to class with me if you were planning on getting there on time and not meeting a bunch of good new friends.  I was reminded of this the past two Tuesdays.  Both Tuesdays I went to the same area near the temple to eat lunch.  The first time I was stopped by someone yelling "Workinger".  I looked over to see my good buddy Fitz, and he was eating lunch with a bunch of the guys that I spent a lot of time working with in a lab at UCSD.  We were able to sit down and enjoy some time together and renew old friendships.  Today, I went to the same place expecting maybe I would run into them again, however, I ran into Rory Taylor.  I dont know Rory incredibly well.  We didnt talk a whole lot.  We just exchanged pleasantries, said Hello, asked about each others jobs and carried on with our days.  All these simple "tender mercies" though reminded me that God has a role in all sorts of small things in my life.  Tonight everything seemed to be topsy turvy of what I wanted.  I ended up running a bunch of errands that I would have forgotten to run if I had gone on my own selfish way.  At the end of the errands I was at the checkstand, the little cute latina clerk sneezed, and I promptly said "Bless You".  Then, I kind of laughed and looked up with a smile and was like "Salud!".  She had just been speaking Spanish to the other clerks and when she heard me say it she got a huge smile on her face.  As I walked out, I heard her start talking to the other workers in Spanish and smiling and laughing about the whole thing.  Sometimes, God just wants us in places so people knows he care and that we care.  Hopefully, we all stay a little less busy and find a little more time to be in the places not that we want, but the places where God needs us.  We truly are each others angels.  Oh, Ill also give Maelyn another shoutout here for making my night last night.  Even though we were totally joking around about sharing a positive, uplifting moment at the end of the night, it really did make me smile.  Also, I hope people dont think Im posting this to say that Im awesome, cuz obviously that is not the case.  I feel like all the opportunities were in order to bless me and I selfishly got way more out of them even if I didnt get to do the initial selfish things I wanted to.  Basically, sometimes we think we are sacrificing but something more awesome comes are way!