Tender Mercies of 2-10-14 through 2-16-14

This week has been really hard for me (I gave a talk in church on Sunday, erhg) but, it has also had its perks- I've started writing a cool story, called Foxglove.  It is the first of the "Foxglove Trilogy," the books are, in order, Foxglove, Hemlock, Nightshade.  Quick overview of the story:

 

"There is a race of immortal nature spirits, who have been since the beginning of the world.  At the beginning of the world, Earth was devoid of color, so they all created the plants that us humans see and use in their everyday lives.  The plants were each named after the Spirit that made them.  But three of the spirits were shunned, and so turned bitter, and as revenge created poisons:  Foxglove, Hemlock, and Nightshade.  The plants killed many unsuspecting humans, who had been told that all of the plants were safe, before the other spirits discovered, and cast out the three, banishing them forever from their home and their jobs in the gardens and forests of the world.  Now, the trio have seen their selfish ways and want to make amends, but since they were cast out they lost all contact with their sisters and are as invisible to them.  Therefore, they must use trustworthy humans to carry their messages and to go on their quests.  An unsuspecting trio of 'perfectly normal' teenage girls find their families gone, and their services required by the three spirits."  Each book has a different main character's point of view, and a quest for a different nature spirit, but the trio go on the adventures together in each book.  Cool, right?

 

My mom really likes it, but one of my particular vices about writing books is that Inspector Gadget continually looks over my shoulder and prompts me to "forget he's there".  HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO "FORGET HE'S THERE" WHEN HE'S STARING AT ME!  Yeah, that's one problem.  After I failed at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), my self-esteem was down for a while, but then I got this crazy cool idea, and I couldn't keep it in or I'd forget all about it.  And that, friends, is a tender mercy for you:  imagination, crazy ideas.  Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving me my wild imagination to help my get through my frustratingly boring life.

Tender Mercies of 2-3-14 through 2-9-14

This week has been chock full of blessings.  Or, more specifically, tender mercies.  Our church describes tender mercies as "a personal revelation through other people or occurrences, with spiritual meaning to you, often overlooked".  So, at around the end of each day, I take some time to think about what's happened, and how the Lord has blessed my life with his many tender mercies.  One of today's:

First of all, you should know that Pinkie Pie and I seldom get along.  Today, while we were singing songs before our family meeting, my mom complimented Pinkie's singing voice.  This is a pretty sore subject between us two, because my younger sister is slightly jealous of my voice (probably why she pretends not to like it), so as you can imagine, I was a little mad.  My mom continued, saying that Pinkie sang like classical singers.  Little Rose, always the peacemaker, asked, "What about Hermione?  Isn't she good at singing too?"  My mom responded, dismissively, that I sang differently, and continued to remark on my sister's singing.  Stung, I returned to the couch in the living room.  I'll show them, I promised myself.  Then I realized just how stupid and selfish I was being.  If I did sing, I would do it for the point of singing.  Then, they started singing one of my favorites:   Love is Spoken Here.  It's a children's primary song, in two-part harmony for the boys and the girls.  I went back over there and I sang, I started feeling tears slip down my cheeks.  Looking back on that experience, I think that the Lord was trying to help me with one of my more fatal flaws: pride.  Thank you, Jesus Christ, for catching that when I probably could have gone on with my pride and envy all day.