Tuesday, September 21, 2010
As I think...
I might as well point out that this is Craig. I wanted just to point out the significance of the title "God's Tender Mercy to Me." Awhile back in 2005 General Conference Elder Bednar spoke and referred to the term tender mercies from the scriptures. My dad kind of took hold of that statement and used it to teach us about God. Since then I have often returned that those words and in some ways they have become something of a motto to me.
The scriptures use several times that phrase. It teaches us that God is not a God of penance but of happiness and mercy. He is not solely engaged in this universe-sized effort for our learning as much as for our love. He loves us and that is the hope to which I have consistently returned. That He has mercy and He has tenderness. Like any other principle our awareness of it grows over time and determined effort. I have grown to see His tender mercies the moreso as I live each day.
I do not mean this as some joke although it makes me laugh but I never once concieved, not even once have I imagined such a tender mercy as the one which God has given to me since my return home. Cayla Janay is God's Tender Mercy to Me- and I daresay His greatest.
I don't put this out as certain doctrine so much as my way of thinking about things but there are things, people, or mayhaps events in our lives which God gives us to renew and sustain us and to form a bulwark upon which we will become the more holy and whole possible. You could almost think of it as a glorified 'sword in the stone' from King Arthur or First Vision from Joseph Smith. Needless to say the the mercies change us in significant ways sometimes even to become wholely opposite. Alma the Younger saw an angel and heard his pronouncements. That changed him quite a bit =) There are other examples that are out there but what I have written suffices me.
Cayla- and I say this in a very simple way- is the greatest example, tool, person, event or otherwise that I could ever have hoped for from God. That does not mean that great and special things do not await. We aren't even married yet! I can't wait and I'm shouting it! What I mean is that I have looked over what God had given me, and what He has promised me in coming days and there is nothing that is more important to me, nor that will affect such a fount of goodness like Cayla Janay. I mean it! I love her... When I look at her everytime I see a priceless pearl, a gem that is pure light. Each time I hear God say to me, "Son, I've given you the greatest treasure that you can expect from me. I want you to treat her well. She is not around just to be admired." And I add that on other occasions I have been told that my greatest successes in life and indeed the successful completion in life itself will come from her.
She is not around just to help either. I am here to help her. My happiness in life will come from that priceless gem reaching becoming all that she is. I have had time and time again, vision after dream and what she is amazes me. I'd be a fool not to hop on the two seat band-wagon with her and I ain't gettin' off lol. My satisfaction will come from her realizing what she already is. Most of life's lessons are just realizations and their application.
She is not around just to teach or be helped either. God does not give us companions just to teach us patience =) In my fortunate case Cayla is my friend, my deep friend. She is a person that I want to be around, and one to whom (strangely enough) I have felt a bond from day one. The very first time I heard her name (and I remember the moment clearly) it came with a unique feeling, one which I have come to share with kinship, former and present, and the inklings of the Spirit telling me that something is coming. She is actually the best friend I have ever had, the one to whom I have related most in my entire life, and I haven't seen a fault in her yet. I don't expect I will =)
In essence, she created this blog and gave it the name which I had told her about on several occasions as being words of special significance to me. I want to add my piece for now (and more certainly later) but just to explain the name. Yeah, it obviously is cute and has some specialness but I want to add my bit- Those words are the faith that I live by. They mean everything to me. I've called Cayla those words because she is. Beyond God and my brother Jesus I have no other tender mercy that is so great, so true, so faithful, and so precious to me (speaking very personally) like Cayla.
I mean the words I said. They are the truth. I love her. I love her. I love her.
The scriptures use several times that phrase. It teaches us that God is not a God of penance but of happiness and mercy. He is not solely engaged in this universe-sized effort for our learning as much as for our love. He loves us and that is the hope to which I have consistently returned. That He has mercy and He has tenderness. Like any other principle our awareness of it grows over time and determined effort. I have grown to see His tender mercies the moreso as I live each day.
I do not mean this as some joke although it makes me laugh but I never once concieved, not even once have I imagined such a tender mercy as the one which God has given to me since my return home. Cayla Janay is God's Tender Mercy to Me- and I daresay His greatest.
I don't put this out as certain doctrine so much as my way of thinking about things but there are things, people, or mayhaps events in our lives which God gives us to renew and sustain us and to form a bulwark upon which we will become the more holy and whole possible. You could almost think of it as a glorified 'sword in the stone' from King Arthur or First Vision from Joseph Smith. Needless to say the the mercies change us in significant ways sometimes even to become wholely opposite. Alma the Younger saw an angel and heard his pronouncements. That changed him quite a bit =) There are other examples that are out there but what I have written suffices me.
Cayla- and I say this in a very simple way- is the greatest example, tool, person, event or otherwise that I could ever have hoped for from God. That does not mean that great and special things do not await. We aren't even married yet! I can't wait and I'm shouting it! What I mean is that I have looked over what God had given me, and what He has promised me in coming days and there is nothing that is more important to me, nor that will affect such a fount of goodness like Cayla Janay. I mean it! I love her... When I look at her everytime I see a priceless pearl, a gem that is pure light. Each time I hear God say to me, "Son, I've given you the greatest treasure that you can expect from me. I want you to treat her well. She is not around just to be admired." And I add that on other occasions I have been told that my greatest successes in life and indeed the successful completion in life itself will come from her.
She is not around just to help either. I am here to help her. My happiness in life will come from that priceless gem reaching becoming all that she is. I have had time and time again, vision after dream and what she is amazes me. I'd be a fool not to hop on the two seat band-wagon with her and I ain't gettin' off lol. My satisfaction will come from her realizing what she already is. Most of life's lessons are just realizations and their application.
She is not around just to teach or be helped either. God does not give us companions just to teach us patience =) In my fortunate case Cayla is my friend, my deep friend. She is a person that I want to be around, and one to whom (strangely enough) I have felt a bond from day one. The very first time I heard her name (and I remember the moment clearly) it came with a unique feeling, one which I have come to share with kinship, former and present, and the inklings of the Spirit telling me that something is coming. She is actually the best friend I have ever had, the one to whom I have related most in my entire life, and I haven't seen a fault in her yet. I don't expect I will =)
In essence, she created this blog and gave it the name which I had told her about on several occasions as being words of special significance to me. I want to add my piece for now (and more certainly later) but just to explain the name. Yeah, it obviously is cute and has some specialness but I want to add my bit- Those words are the faith that I live by. They mean everything to me. I've called Cayla those words because she is. Beyond God and my brother Jesus I have no other tender mercy that is so great, so true, so faithful, and so precious to me (speaking very personally) like Cayla.
I mean the words I said. They are the truth. I love her. I love her. I love her.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
The Story...
So I wanted to somehow make sure everything is told in like blogging language and post it on. People kept asking me for the whole story and so I figured it would be a good place to put it on and to have it as a little bit of a surprise…
As best told from Mike Gassaway (Craig's Dad)
Cayla's family is from West Phoenix. She is from a really wonderful family that has been in the area a long time. Her grandfather is currently a stake president here in the West Maricopa Stake. Her father is one of our high councilors in Buckeye, and so forth. You get the picture, they are just really good people! Cayla's folks found a good deal on a new home here in Buckeye about 3 years ago and moved in, though they admit that they didn't really know why they were coming here. We arrived in January of 2009, and almost immediately became friends with their family and especially Cayla. By last summer Ayesha and I decided that we loved Cayla so much that we were going to give her one of our sons to be her husband! She became really good friends with both Sean and Tom. Then last summer, Ayesha was making up a birthday package for Craig, and she got the big idea to have some of the girls from our ward write letters to him which they did. Cayla was one of the girls that wrote to him…And well… They never stopped writing to each other. They quickly became good friends via the letters they wrote, even though they had never met before. Cayla says it felt a little funny at first to write to someone she had never met, but really enjoyed the letters, so they kept up. At Christmas time, Craig called home and we spent an hour or so talking to him with everyone on the speaker phone. Toward the end he bore a powerful testimony of the work that he was involved in and then he said good bye after telling Tom that when he came home Tom would have to go on the top bunk! What he didn't know is that Cayla was in the room visiting with us and got to hear the testimony that Craig bore and was very touched by the experience as she was at that time sharing the gospel with some friends from school. It was the first time she had heard his voice. Unbenownst to us, their letter writing increased significantly after that. Many other wonderful experiences occurred in the ensuing months, which have endeared Cayla to us all the more. She is without question the finest, the sweetest, and the most wonderful young woman that we have ever known! In all of our travels across the country, we have never met anyone even close to her (she is like our own daughters)! We hoped, we prayed, and she was doing the same thing at the same time. I'm not sure anyone really understood what was happening, but the bond between her and our family had grown very deep, and the bond between her and Craig was also growing very deep as they continued to correspond. Shortly before Craig returned home from his mission, we invited Cayla to come with us to the airport to welcome Craig home. She said she would like to but without mentioning it to us, she wrote to Craig and asked him what his feelings were about her coming. He told her that he thought about it and decided that he would really like it if she would come.
As best told from Mike Gassaway (Craig's Dad)
Cayla's family is from West Phoenix. She is from a really wonderful family that has been in the area a long time. Her grandfather is currently a stake president here in the West Maricopa Stake. Her father is one of our high councilors in Buckeye, and so forth. You get the picture, they are just really good people! Cayla's folks found a good deal on a new home here in Buckeye about 3 years ago and moved in, though they admit that they didn't really know why they were coming here. We arrived in January of 2009, and almost immediately became friends with their family and especially Cayla. By last summer Ayesha and I decided that we loved Cayla so much that we were going to give her one of our sons to be her husband! She became really good friends with both Sean and Tom. Then last summer, Ayesha was making up a birthday package for Craig, and she got the big idea to have some of the girls from our ward write letters to him which they did. Cayla was one of the girls that wrote to him…And well… They never stopped writing to each other. They quickly became good friends via the letters they wrote, even though they had never met before. Cayla says it felt a little funny at first to write to someone she had never met, but really enjoyed the letters, so they kept up. At Christmas time, Craig called home and we spent an hour or so talking to him with everyone on the speaker phone. Toward the end he bore a powerful testimony of the work that he was involved in and then he said good bye after telling Tom that when he came home Tom would have to go on the top bunk! What he didn't know is that Cayla was in the room visiting with us and got to hear the testimony that Craig bore and was very touched by the experience as she was at that time sharing the gospel with some friends from school. It was the first time she had heard his voice. Unbenownst to us, their letter writing increased significantly after that. Many other wonderful experiences occurred in the ensuing months, which have endeared Cayla to us all the more. She is without question the finest, the sweetest, and the most wonderful young woman that we have ever known! In all of our travels across the country, we have never met anyone even close to her (she is like our own daughters)! We hoped, we prayed, and she was doing the same thing at the same time. I'm not sure anyone really understood what was happening, but the bond between her and our family had grown very deep, and the bond between her and Craig was also growing very deep as they continued to correspond. Shortly before Craig returned home from his mission, we invited Cayla to come with us to the airport to welcome Craig home. She said she would like to but without mentioning it to us, she wrote to Craig and asked him what his feelings were about her coming. He told her that he thought about it and decided that he would really like it if she would come.
(Picking Craig up from the Airport)
She did, and things didn't take any time at all after that. He asked her to marry him 8 days after they met for the first time, and officially proposed to her at the Mesa Temple 16 days after they met. And she said yes happily on both occasions! We were thrilled!!!
The Proposal at the Mesa, Arizona Temple
The Ring
Craig Gassaway and Cayla Hansen
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