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Sabbath Devotional :: A Blessing Upon the Land
Trying to make family history fun and relevant to others, I recently hosted a tea party with some relatives to honor a British pioneer ancestor’s birthday. Ellen Williams died a hundred years ago this month. We have a handful of photos of her, but she didn’t leave a journal or personal history. I don’t know if she was excited to exercise her newly-granted right to vote in 1920 a few years before she died. And I don’t know if Ellen thought much about her descendants, and what life would be like a century later. However, being a family historian, I often think about being a good ancestor as well as…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Living Faith
I have been reading the book “My Bright Abyss” by Christian Wiman. Wiman is a contemporary poet and through this volume of essays he explores his faith and belief and how these have ebbed and flowed during his life. He writes and describes faith as a living and changing thing and this has really resonated with me. Wiman writes “[E]very single expression of faith is provisional — because life carries us always forward to a place where the faith we’d fought so hard to articulate to ourselves must now be reformulated, and because faith in God is, finally, faith in change.” As a reader, I have always taken to heart…
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Sabbath Devotional :: “A Genuine, Sacred, Divine Response”
In April of this year, Elder Gary E. Stevenson spoke of the two great commandments: “In the twilight of Jesus Christ’s ministry, during what we now call Holy Week, a Pharisee who was a lawyer asked the Savior a question he knew was nearly impossible to answer: ‘Master, which is the great commandment in the law?’ The lawyer, ‘tempting him’ and seeking a legalistic answer, with seemingly deceitful intent, received a genuine, sacred, divine response.” “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Accuser and the Advocate
Recently, my spouse and I were strolling through a leather market in Florence. I had wanted to buy a bag to store my wallet and water more securely. I found one I liked and tried to do a bit of haggling to bring the price down before I bought it. As we walked away with the bag, my husband paused and suggested I probably could have gotten a better price if I had bartered a little more. WHAT?! In my jetlagged state, it didn’t take much for defensiveness to set in. How dare he imply that I’m stupid and incompetent. This is the first bag I’ve bought in years. So what…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Because They Are Ours
Sunflowers are my favorite flower. This is the first sunflower I have ever planted, and it came up a few weeks ago in my curbside garden. It was supposed to be rust colored and fuller. It was not supposed to look like this is all, but it does not matter, I love it because it is mine. About the time this sunflower came up, my husband and I became empty nesters for the first time in 27 years. Our adult children have bounced in and out of our upstairs apartment, together or separately, as they have dealt with the pandemic, finances, mental illness, difficult losses, and physical illness. Right now,…
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Sabbath Devotional :: SONday
I have a complicated relationship with the sun. We love sun symbolism in the gospel. The celestial kingdom, our highest goal, is always drawn with a sun. Nauvoo sunstones are prized. I love sunrises, sunsets, light and all its symbolism. But as a middle-aged redhead reckoning with the legacy of California childhood sunburns, I am a heliophobe. I seek shade at all costs with my SPF 100+, hat, and long sleeves. My annual dermatology visits are stressful, since each time they burn or freeze or cut or biopsy different parts of my skin. There is sunshine in my soul today, but singing that chorus repeatedly does not make me want…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Poetry by Lucille Clifton
I am in the throes of school assignments all weekend and in spite of my best efforts as always down to the wire writing my Sabbath devotional! Forgive me for keeping it short and sweet and borrowing the words of another. I want to share two Lucille Clifton poems, of many that I love written by her. Poetry is one of my favorite genres to read and I find poetry is a wonderful complement to my spiritual study — the space between the words leaves room to think deeply. Both poems below by Lucille Clifton my dream about God He is wearing my grandfather’s hat.He is taller than my last…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Martha and Mom
It’s my mom’s birthday this week. Will you indulge me for a minute while I talk about her? I have a large extended family, and we love to spend time together. When our children were very young, after family dinners, my sisters and I retired to the adjacent family room to form what my uncle dubbed the lactation station. While we were feeding our youngest children, our husbands would chase the toddlers. We would have wonderful, lively conversations full of fun that sometimes shifted to deep, heartfelt discussions. While we were enjoying ourselves, my mom and dad were busy in the kitchen. Dad never leaves the kitchen until the dishes…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Holy Imaginings
Before the end of this month, I am going to be deposed. It’s my first ever deposition, and I’m feeling incredulous. I’ve never even had a speeding ticket! I volunteer! How did a nice girl like me get into a mess like this? My husband and I are suing government workers for neglecting to obtain a warrant before seizing our children after a false child abuse accusation. The experience was, as you can imagine, very traumatic, and since my own family was reunited I’ve spent many hours on the phone with other parents trying to figure out how to get their babies back, too. This is a cause I care…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Hope on the Border
“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” –Jeremiah 17:7 In what was once a nightclub in downtown McAllen, Texas, a Catholic sister unapologetically lives out her religion. Every day, the Catholic Charities Rio Grande Valley Humanitarian Respite Center takes in scores of migrants who have been screened by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). Sister Norma Pimentel and her team provide floor mats for sleeping, donated clothing, diapers, over-the-counter medicine, a shower, warm meals, and help arranging transportation before they head out on the next leg of their journey, usually within a day or two. The shelter, with its blacked-out windows and…
