Makin' a Toast.

The idea of making toasts originated not with me, but with some friends as we ate dinner one Sunday afternoon at the Cheers house. After having a delicious meal, we began to make toasts and they gradually became more expansive and creative. “I would like to make a toast to dance parties.” “I would like to make a toast to slipping on the ice during the winter because it makes people laugh.” “I would like to make a toast to making toasts.” We’d then cheer and sip from our Italian sodas. After this date, I have made silent “toasts” in my mind; something akin to noticing the “tender mercies of the Lord” about which Elder Bednar taught in conference not too long ago. Said Elder Bednar:
“We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord’s tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance.”
I’ll make a toast to that.