I Will Remember Mercy

 “He is just the WORST at this! Idiot!”

A kid on my 7-year-old’s soccer team yelled this within earshot of his teammate, the goalie, who had failed to block the winning goal.

That little goalie walked off to the side & slumped in the grass in shame, placing his face in his hands.

My mom heart! 💔

When my boy ran over to me, I asked him: “Do you see the goalie on your team? See how sad he is? Will you go tell him that it’s ok?”🙏

He ran right over! As he spoke, the boy’s head snapped up. A grin spread across his face. Then the two of them high-fived.🙌

My son ran back to me, smiling. “I told him it was ok. I said everyone misses sometimes!” 

❤️

In the midst of the Saints’ persecution, the Lord chastens them. He lists off things they’ve done wrong: “Contentions, & envyings, & strifes, & lustful & covetous desires… slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord… they esteemed lightly my counsel…” (D&C 101:7-8)

Yup. Looottts of mistakes. 

Yet instead of shouting “You guys are the WORST at this!” God continues, “Notwithstanding their sins, my bowels are filled with compassion towards them. I will not utterly cast them off; & in the day of wrath I will remember mercy.” (9)

I WILL REMEMBER MERCY.

Often we refer to the Plan of Salvation or the Plan of Happiness. But I love how Alma describes it: “The plan of mercy… God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, & a merciful God also.” (Alma 42:15)

When our faces are in our hands, ashamed, feeling like failures, do we forget He is a merciful God ALSO? 

One of the very last things Moroni exhorts us is to “remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men” (Mor. 10:3)

His mercy “allows for improvement over time rather than demanding immediate perfection. Even with the multitude of sins occasioned by the weakness of mortality, as often as we repent & seek His forgiveness, He forgives again & again.” (Elder Craig Cardon)

God remembers mercy. And so should we.

“Be merciful & you shall find mercy. Seek to help save souls, not to destroy them” (Joseph Smith)

Cause everyone misses sometimes.