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Sabbath Devotional :: A Testimony of Fasting
I just gained a testimony of fasting. But it happened backwards. My mom always told me about how fasting made her feel a sort of mental and spiritual clarity, that it amplified her ability to tackle important ideas and challenges. To me it always seemed like going hungry, book-ended with prayer, and accompanied by a donation slip. Except for those first Sundays when I remembered not to eat, but forgot to pray. Then it was just going hungry. And sometimes, having forgotten to pray, I would throw my hands up, declare a “failed fast,” and write my check for fast offerings, resolving to do better next time. I’m a foodie.…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Thistling
My husband and I have a routine in July. At 5:30 pm we deck ourselves out in rugged clothing from hats to thick gloves to boots. We climb into our UTV (Utility Terrain Vehicle), arm ourselves with sturdy, sharp little clippers and drive on our acreage (which includes a lot of wilderness land) until we find a batch of thistles. In sunlight, thistles can look dazzlingly beautiful — like a hundred proud purple heads surveying their domain. In Scotland the thistle is the national flower. In some areas thistles are used for teas and some say dried out thistle heads can be used for horse fodder. For New Age mystics,…
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Sabbath Devotional :: A Delightful Sabbath
In Exodus 20:8-11, Moses gives the sabbath day commandment to the children of Israel: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day; and hallowed it.” In Ezekiel…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Charity: More Than Simply a Good Idea
Saturday — yesterday — was the funeral of a good friend. Her words go with the Sabbath devotion I prepared and I want to dedicate this devotional to her. I also want to thank the many women of MWEG for your remarkable examples of using love and peace to affect powerful change. From Berta: “Please remember those who are the unwashed, the Samaritan, the other. If you can please mourn with us, for we are mourning. Please remember us in your Sunday worship. Remember the leper who would worship beside you in the pews but is now consigned to a distant colony. Please do not cross the street or avert…
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Sabbath Devotional :: An Anniversary
Yesterday, June 16th, was the anniversary of my baptism. I remember being the nervous young college student who (after two years of being a “dry Mormon”) had finally persuaded my parents that what they feared was an “adolescent whim” was in fact a stable commitment to follow the path I sensed God calling me to. We gathered at the mission home in Mt Prospect, Illinois, and I was baptized in their small kidney shaped backyard pool. I remember clutching the poor missionary’s arm so tightly it probably left marks. I remember being nervous while changing into dry clothing, hoping I’d done the right thing — or at least a right…
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Sabbath Devotional :: But Now He is Comforted
The past few weeks have been pretty heavy. This is for anyone who, like me, sometimes wants to turn away altogether so as not to be crushed by the weight of it all. “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom:…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Be One / There is a Place for All
Be One, by Chante’ Stutznegger On Friday night, I had the opportunity of being part of the Be One choir at the 40th anniversary celebration of the 1978 revelation on the priesthood. The weeks leading up to this celebration were a roller coaster of emotions, to say the least. The fake apology letter that surfaced had many of us raw and so emotionally vulnerable that it was hard to swallow the word “celebration” as it relates to such a difficult and heartbreaking topic. Yet, my hope for what this monumental occasion could mean for us stayed strong. I continually fought the thought, “how can we celebrate so much pain?” Each…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Wounds, Doubt, and Hope
Introduction from Linda Hoffman Kimball: This has been a week of trial and heartache for many. How do we face the incomprehensible reality of another school shooting, plane crashes and bombings? How do we process the injuries set off by hoaxes, prejudice, cross-purposed journalism, intractable social issues and our own sometimes overwhelming brokenness? Today’s Sabbath Devotional comes from Erika E.p. Munson whose inspiration is drawn from the fine arts and her own heart of depth and compassion. She suggests that there is something miraculous about true discipleship that “involves a creative blend of deep pessimism and buoyant hope.” *************************************** At Temple Square last April I heard the Tabernacle Choir perform…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Spiritual Brothers and Sisters
When asked what I do for a living, I often give the tongue-in-cheek answer of Professional Volunteer. Whether it has been wearing multiple volunteer hats in my children’s school days or costuming shows for our local civic theatre, volunteering has pretty much been my vocation for the past 20+ years. One place in which my volunteering soul has found a home has been Stone Soup Community — a local organization in my city that assists those in need with paying their utilities, finding jobs, budgeting money, and family development. In my capacity as a volunteer, I sit and talk with clients about their emergent needs. Much of what I do…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Shipbuilding and a New MWEG Tree
The account of the Brother of Jared in the book of Ether is one of my favorite Book of Mormon stories because the Lord has used it over and over again to teach (and sometimes correct) me. A few years ago, I found myself thinking about scriptural shipbuilding and wondering why God had not told the Brother of Jared to build an ark like Noah’s or a ship like Nephi’s. Then I heard these words in my mind’s ear: “What do you think I was doing for those four years?” It was perplexing to think that the people of Jared, whom the Lord had guided in a cloud and given…
