And now, the rest of the story.......

Women of God can never be like women of the world.
The world has enough women who are tough;
we need women who are tender.
There are enough women who are coarse;
we need women who are kind.
There are enough women who are rude;
we need women who are refined.
We have enough women of fame and fortune;
we need more women of faith.
We have enough greed; we need more goodness.
We have enough vanity; we need more virtue.
We have enough popularity; we need more purity.

Margaret D. Nadauld, “The Joy of Womanhood,” Ensign, Nov 2000, 14–16

This quote is on my top 5 list of quotes that help me and guide me in my life.

It is so powerful and true. In driving down to Salina with some other teachers to observe a program there, I had a conversation with a teacher that involved this quote.

She said she was listening to a talk on a radio station from the Manti area. The president of Snow College, Stephen Nadauld, was speaking. He was a general authority at one time. His wife, Margaret Nadauld, was the general YW president just before Susan Tanner.

He told about a time when his wife was getting ready to speak in General Conference. Apparently, there is a practice room with a podium just like in the conference center, where you can practice using the teleprompters and time your talk. The talk has to be timed and be exactly the time you are allotted, since it will be televised. She practiced the talk and it was too long. She prayerfully shaved some of her thoughts off and tried it again and it wasn't long enough. Then, she felt impressed to add something else instead of putting back in some of what she already had. This part of her talk became the quote for which she is most known.

After the teacher told me this, it did happen to be the quote that I know and love so much! It is interesting to know how much effort and prayer went into developing this. It is important to me and I am so thankful that she took the extra effort and inspiration to come up with this. I don't have time right now, but I will look for this talk by Stephen Nadauld and see how much of the story I got right. But it is very interesting to hear about this.

And, as Paul Harvey was so famous for saying, And that is the rest of the story!

The Tender Mercies of the Lord

I love the phrase "tender mercy". I will compile a list of scriptures that mention the tender mercies of Heavenly Father and/or Jesus.

Here is the first one and, I think, one of my very, very favorite scriptures of all time:

But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance. 1 Nephi 1:20

Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.
• • •

Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments.
Psalms 119:77, 156

8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.
• • •
37 And he did exhort them then with all the feeling of a tender parent, that they would hearken to his words, that perhaps the Lord would be merciful to them, and not cast them off; yea, my father did preach unto them.
1 Nephi 8:8, 37

Ps. 40: 11
11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
Ps. 51: 1
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Ps. 69: 16
16 Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.


Ps. 145: 9
9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.