{{item.title | uppercase}}

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23 (NRSV)

In the 1950’s a contest was held to create a new advertisement for the soft drink Dr. Pepper. The winner of the ad campaign came up with “Dr. Pepper, the friendly Pepper-Upper at 10, 2, and 4.”

How wonderful if new mercies could be handed out at 10, 2, and 4 following the theme of the old Dr. Pepper advertisement.

New mercies every morning.

Early after my husband passed away, I can’t say I woke up feeling hopeful. The sorrow stayed with me even in sleep, many times crying as I awoke to face another day without him.

Life comes at you hard and fast as you enter the journey of grief. There are no “Time Out” or “King’s X” or the cry for “Mercy” as when we were losing the battle with our siblings back in the day. I found this especially true one day as I held the weed-eater above my head…

The weight of that piece of equipment never entered my mind, but a sliver of sanity crept in with the thought, “You throw this thing, you pay to fix or replace it.”

Not being a violent person, my next thought surprised me.

Lowering that weed-eater, I made a promise to myself.

“If I hear one more man say, “All you gotta do” on a ‘How to’ video, my next search will be ‘How to make sure your next throat punch is effective.'” Where did that surprising thought come from?

I had no training for these new assignments. There were no crash courses on ‘Weed Eating for Dummies’ or all the other “jobs” my husband did.

• Locking up for the night was never part of my check list for the day.
• Storm watching — my husband always kept watch while I enjoyed the storm.
• Wild hog control, a real problem in Texas AND at our place.

Whether I felt new mercies as I forced myself out of bed, new mercies were mine.

New mercy helped me up and whispered in my ear, “You can do this. I am with you always. You are mine.”

Hopeful in the morning, I feel it. The thought crosses my mind, “I can do this.” Hope feels so wonderful. Eyes on Jesus, I got this. The clock ticks on, the day progresses, and I feel the change.

Grief is a heavy burden — a peace-stealer.

New mercy is a reminder of how much we are truly loved by our Lord Jesus Christ.

My favorite flower is the sunflower. I love the fact that sunflowers follow the sun where they find their strength. The blossom stem, the green flower bud, faces east for the early morning sun. Throughout the day, the sunflower tracks the sun across the sky finally facing west. Overnight, the sunflower returns to its starting position to get ready for the next day.

As we look across a field of sunflowers, we don’t see the scars of their battle to grow in a world of pestilence and sunflower struggles. We see their beauty as they seek the sun for their strength.

There are days I will need you to remind me…

His mercies are new every day.

We can trust His promises.

He is our Hope.

And there will be days, I will remind you.

We have something much better than mercy distribution at 10, 2 and 4. Our Lord supplies mercies continually…our ‘take as needed’, our ‘continual pump’ of mercy.

“For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.”
Isaiah 54:10 (KJV)

Our Heavenly Father, thank You for Your new mercies each day. Help us to keep our eyes on Your Son, Jesus, where we will always find our strength. Amen