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Sabbath Devotional :: The Gift of an Imperfect Christmas
Since that Christmas I have been learning to stop chasing perfection and instead let all the imperfections and disappointments and messiness be a reminder to me of what Christmas is truly all about: Why that baby was born in a stable, why we are celebrating His birth. That is a lesson worth reminding myself of all year long.
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Light of the World
When I was a little girl in Chicago, we used to put our tree up about two weeks before Christmas. These days, my neighbors have their lights and wreaths up by mid-November. Do you ever wonder why the Christmas season, with all its trappings, has been starting earlier and earlier? I believe we all want to be surrounded by the Christmas feeling of love and warmth that the world needs so desperately. In this tech-savvy world, we are inundated with instant information about negative things — like the lives affected or lost by negligence or unkind actions. On social media, some take their anger out on people they don’t know,…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Things We Want But Already Have
Many years ago my family got on the want/need/wear/read Christmas bandwagon. In short, each child would get four gifts: something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read. The four gifts simplified the season, reduced our kids’ expectations, and made me a happier mama. This system has worked extremely well for us, but as the kids got bigger, the asks have, too. And suddenly, we risk losing our reasonable Christmas. This year, to stave off the gimmies we asked everyone to start the season by producing a list of 25 things they want but already have. It took my boys a while to get their heads around that. Once…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Loaves and Fishes
Last Sunday my nine-year-old daughter gave a talk in sacrament meeting as part of our ward’s Primary program. She prepared her own talk and bravely stood at the pulpit in front of the congregation to share some of the things that she has learned from the scriptures this year. During her talk she shared that one of her favorite stories from the New Testament is when Jesus fed a multitude of five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes (Matthew 14:15-21; Mark 6:34-44; Luke 9:13-17; John 6:9-13). After commenting on what an amazing miracle this was, she said: “How this applies to my life is that whatever small…
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Sabbath Devotional :: His Grace Is Sufficient (Even When We Are Not)
This fall, our stake leaders made a great effort to prepare members to receive personal revelation at the upcoming stake conference. A member of the Seventy would be presiding at the conference, and he had recommended four general conference talks for us to study beforehand. Stake members received these talks in advance on a Sunday when high councilors spoke in sacrament meetings about the blessings of attending stake conference. Wards reached out to help organize babysitting so parents could attend the Saturday evening session. We were asked to prayerfully come with personal questions — with the promise that they would be answered. We were supported and encouraged in making ourselves…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Power of Words
In many Native American creation stories, and indeed, in our own creation story, the world comes into being in part because the Creator spoke the words to create it. Genesis tells us that “God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Jacob taught that “by the power of his word, man came upon the face of the earth, which earth was created by the power of his word” (Jacob 4:9). God cannot lie (Ether 3:12). All his words must be fulfilled (D&C 1:38). Just as his word created the earth, it can cause the earth to pass away, the rough places to be made smooth, and…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Conversion — Are We There Yet?
I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 38 years — since Elders Bishop and Christensen knocked at our door. I was baptized in the Baptist church at age 10. After my baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1981, I have grown as a disciple of Christ. My course has more firmly been set on the conversion path. Last year, I had to prepare a presentation for a missionary conference. It gave me an opportunity to search King Benjamin’s address to his people, found in Mosiah 4. The doctrines and principles he outlines have become a greater guiding…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Upon the Rock
Lately it feels like everything in my life is on fire. Simultaneously. Not a small brush fire here or there that needs a bit of quick attention and management, but frightening conflagrations that threaten to consume and destroy. There is a lot of fight and flight and not enough peace and quiet. And for me it means feeling tired and unsettled is the default. In my more objective moments, I realize some of this is just a feature of my personal phase of life. But there is something else at play. So many others seem to feel the same, as if we are all being pushed to the edge of…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Where Can I Turn for Peace?
The unrelenting turmoil I see and hear about day after day on the news takes a toll. Where is peace? Where is civility? What sources provide authentic — not “fake” — news and truth?
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Sabbath Devotional :: Spiritual Gifts
For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God (Doctrine and Covenants 46:11). Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4). There are many people in my life who would tell you they have always had a testimony of the truthfulness of the restored Gospel. They have always believed or known the Church is true. They have never wrestled with overwhelming doubts or experienced a crisis of faith. This doesn’t mean they are blind followers or their testimonies aren’t valid. Rather, it indicates some of the beautiful…
