Tender Mercies: Stories to Stir the Soul - Joy Robinson

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

25 Sep 2008 11:14 PM

"Tender Mercies: Stories to Stir the Soul" is a beautiful compilation book by Joy Robinson in which she has gathered stories from men and women from various different backgrounds that show how the Lord is mindful of us in our every need and how He showers us with tender mercies constantly.

Stories in this uplifting volume include the account of a woman whose heart was touched upon hearing of the children who are taken from abusive homes and placed in foster care, often with just the clothing on their backs. She created CUDDLE Outreach, a program which provides handmade quilts to these children and gives them something of their very own to hang onto.

We read of a young man who was doing repair work at an apartment complex and fell four floors onto a concrete surface. The paramedics assessed him and said he'd broken several bones. Residents of the complex insisted on giving him a priesthood blessing before he was taken in the ambulance, and when he arrived at the hospital, the x-rays showed not one broken bone. He was released from the hospital the following day, when by all accounts, he should have died.

Each and every story in this book touched my heart, but my very favorite was the one of the pastor who found a cat in his tree. He couldn't reach it to get it out, so decided to bend the tree down by lashing a rope around it and tying the rope to his car, then pulling the car forward a bit. He did this, but something went wrong. The tree snapped upright and like a slingshot, the cat went sailing through the air. He looked for it, but wasn't able to find it.

A short time later, he ran into one of his parishioners who was buying cat food at the store. He knew she hated cats, so he asked her about it. She said it was the most amazing thing. Her daughter badly wanted a cat, but she told the girl, she'd have to pray for one. If God wanted her to have a cat, He'd give it to her. Literally seconds later, a cat came flying through the air and landed at the girl's feet.

The pastor decided not to tell her how the cat came to be flying through the air.

I enjoyed this sweet collection of stories over the course of a Sunday afternoon and found them a nice addition to my Sabbath. Read them one at a time, read them over several hours-either way, you will close the book feeling the love of the Lord and His tender mercy in our lives.

(This book was published in 2008 by Horizon.)

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Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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