“Be free with your mercy.” – Sharon Eubank.
“If you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on one another.” – Joseph Smith, as quoted by Sharon Eubank
“God delights in mercy and does not begrudge its use.” – Dale G. Renlund
“Loving mercy means that we do not just love the mercy God extends to us; we delight that God extends the same mercy to others.” – Dale G. Renlund
From these quotes from Oct 2020 General Conference, I think we might need to extend more mercy to people right now than we ever have before.
I’ll be the first to admit that MERCY is where I feel most like a hypocrite.
I need it A LOT. But extending it to others in my life has not always been natural.
I know when I’m tired and overwhelmed and just need a break from normal responsibilities.
But letting other people “slack off”?! Much harder to do.
For the past three years or so, I’ve actively worked on showing mercy to the people around me as much as possible.
Letting go of “holding people accountable”, “they should know better”, and “how will they ever learn.”
Which is difficult, because those lessons are engrained pretty deeply within me.
But guess what I learned?
Showing mercy and extreme kindness to other people hasn’t changed their actions at all.
But it has completely changed my heart.
A loving God knows exactly when we need justice, and when we need mercy, and He doesn’t hesitate to dish out either.
And we mortals have to try and learn that perfect balance.
When does my daughter need me to stop the fun and enforce bedtime? And when does she need me to throw the rules aside and laugh with her a little more?
All I know is that I have never regretted erring on the side of mercy.
And I don’t think our Heavenly Father regrets His mercy, either.
He delights in sharing it with us.
Which means, in order to become like Him, we need to delight in indulging others with our mercy.
A tough thing to do in a world as tough as ours.
But a necessary step in order to soften our hearts and respond in kindness and mercy.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
3 Responses
“A loving God knows exactly when we need justice, and when we need mercy, and He doesn’t hesitate to dish out either”. I really needed to hear that! Thanks Cali.
Thank you…I needed this.
It’s crazy how Wonderful words well spoken can feed your soul. I know what your saying is true. It’s like a hidden treasure of knowledge. To be willing to extend mercy might not change someone else but it sure can change me. I feel power in just wanting to implement that truth better into my heart. That to me is just one closer step to appreciating the Savior. So maybe in the deeper bigger picture it does change people. I believe that in your example that it will make a difference in the life of your daughter.