Tender Mercy

Richard has been working like crazy this summer, and his shoes were really starting to show it this past week. I wish I would have taken a picture of the shoes, but they were totally worn out on the inside edges of the soles, and were starting to really hurt his feet. They weren't made for the kind of walking he has been doing!
Last week, we went shopping to find him some new shoes, only to find that the only ones he liked that were a reasonable price, were out of stock in his size. We were bummed, and went home empty handed.
Yesterday, when Richard came home for lunch, we decided we needed to go back and try again. Richard is such a good example to me, I never would have thought pray about it, but he did - he prayed that we would be able to find good shoes for a good price. We went back to the same store, and looked again for the same shoes, and no dice. Then, Richard started looking at other shoes, and found a few running/court shoes that were comfortable, but more expensive. As I was standing there looking at the shoes he was trying on, I happened to turn and look at the shelf in front of me, and right at eye level, I see a box that was marked 80% off - $16.99. There were no other boxes marked down like that, and when I opened it, the shoes inside were ones that we had seen earlier and really liked, but thought were too expensive. They were a size too big, but when Richard tried them on, they fit perfectly, and were more comfortable than any of the shoes he had tried on. I felt like crying. We could not believe it! We laughed and high-fived and bought those shoes, and then got ice cream to celebrate!

It was a little thing, but it is one of those things that let us know that Heavenly Father cares about the details of our lives, and will answer our prayers if we just show some faith and ask.