Remember that old song from the animated version of The Hobbit? Okay, maybe you don’t, but it stuck in my head and seemed like a fitting title for this post.

That’s how I feel now that I’ve been back to the doctor for a FOURTH time and have been given new medication and new hope that I will soon overcome this awful cough. It’s amazing how revealing an x-ray can be! No wonder my lungs hurt! It’s not pneumonia but it wasn’t pretty. There’s more of LIFE ahead and I’m looking forward to it.

THANK YOU for all your prayers. I sincerely appreciate them and they have helped. My biggest pleading with God was to know if I should go to the doctor again. After my last experience, I was full of doubt. But when I woke up this morning and took a deep breath (haha), and my lungs were burning, I KNEW it was time.

Keeping this short today, as I want to sleep.

I just marvel that the more I read and think about these chapters from the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 1-7) The more I see it as a testimony of God’s love and mercy toward His children.

One of the questions we talked about at dinner tonight is how do we see God’s tender mercies in our own lives. I have to tell you, in spite of wanting to eat a little more healthy, tonight I saw the existence of pizza delivery as a tender mercy. I just didn’t have the energy to make dinner, but we really needed to eat. Mr. Hot Stuff has been working super-hard at work recently on a massive software change and I just couldn’t feel good about letting him come home to find that he was going to have to cook dinner again. I hope tomorrow I have a little more energy. At least I know I can plan earlier and get something in the slow cooker or multi-pot.

FYI, I think that another word for tender mercy is grace. And I’m really feeling that right now.