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Sabbath Devotional :: Loaves and (Gold)Fishes
Abbie is officially a nursery graduate! I could gush for a good long while about how my last baby is growing up way too fast, but I want to take a little different direction with this post today.For the last 28 months, when I’ve dropped Abbie off at nursery, probably half of the time she has been the ONLY child there. Our ward is small and just doesn’t have very many kids her age. So for over two years, two wonderful nursery workers were often tasked with caring for a single child. My child.Did I sometimes feel a twinge of guilt knowing that two adults were missing out on class…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Danger of a Single Story
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of my favorite thinkers, and one of her most well-known pieces is a talk she gave called “The Danger of a Single Story.” She discussed how powerful stories are — how they influence identity and belief systems, how we see the world, and how they help us learn empathy. She also warned us against the danger of a single story: “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” I think about this all the time. What stories am I telling about me? About my…
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Sabbath Devotional :: An Eye of Faith
For several decades the orchestra conductor Benjamin Zander has taught music to young people in various youth conservatories. On the first day of class he makes a promise and a request to his students: “Your grade for the year is an A with this condition: write me a letter in the first two weeks of the course, dated at the end of the year saying “Dear Mr. Zander, I got my A because _____,” outlining what you will be doing by then. Then fall in love with and believe that person.” He asks the students to behave as though they already have an A and trust the process from there. Zander…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Bells of December
I love the sequence of holidays in December — we celebrate Christmas, and then one week later, the arrival of the New Year. Our Christmas celebrations allow us to ponder the miraculous birth of our Savior and His miraculous life and mission that followed. This opportunity to ponder on Jesus Christ and His life lead straight into New Year’s, when we consider the coming year and typically resolve to improve and do better in our lives. The Savior’s example is our best guide as to how we ought to live and that we can ponder the greater meaning of these holidays in tandem shines a new light on the opportunity…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Journey to Bethlehem
There is so much that I love about the Christmas story. I love the humbleness and innocence, the inconvenience and chaos, the hope and promise. Such an unlikely gathering of people. Mary and Joseph alone in a stable with shepherds and angels in a nearby field and later three kings from a far away place. Over the years, I have identified with many of the players in the story. I have been the new mother, tired and bewildered but in love with my infant. I have been the good shepherd, abiding with my little flock — feeding them, keeping them warm and safe and counting them every night. I have…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Star of Bethlehem
“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him” (Matthew 2:1-2). The star of Bethlehem is one of my favorite Christmas images. I love the symbolism of light and I think the single star shining brighter than all the rest is beautiful in its simplicity. Although, I’ve been wondering if I imagine it wrong. Herod had not noticed a star. He was not the only one who…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Changing Seasons
I have been staying with my sister this weekend and watching as she expertly navigates her three young children and all that entails. There’s rarely a calm or quiet moment. If the kids are occupied, then she’s cooking or cleaning or doing any number of other tasks that needs done. At one point, I mentioned I needed to write a devotional today, and I asked her what she thought I should write it on, and she paused and asked me who the devotional was for. I said that a lot of the audience was just like her. She paused and then gave me an insightful idea. Then, as I tried…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Let Him In
When I was baptized I was given a generic copy of the Bible in Primary. It had a frontispiece featuring a glorious color image of Christ standing before a door and raising His hand to knock. I loved the image and looked at it often. It references a scripture in Revelations which says: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelations 3:20) This comforting promise communicates the essence of the Savior’s relationship with us. It is a scripture filled with active love — Christ is…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Hózhó (Balance and Beauty)
I recently attended an organ concert at the ASU LDS Institute and one of the pieces played was composed by a Navajo man named Connor Chee. The composer shares that in the Navajo culture the idea of balance and beauty “binds all things together in the universe.” I’ve always been drawn to the idea of opposition to keep balance in the world. We are reminded about this in 2 Nephi 2:11 “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. . . . neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Parable of the Sower
Earlier this year, as I read the Parable of the Sower, something new caught my attention. As the Sower went out to sow, it says that some seeds “fell by the way side,” some “fell upon stony places,” some “fell among thorns,” and others “fell into good ground.” It’s that word “fell.” It seems so arbitrary. The Sower, who is good, didn’t deliberately put the seeds in different kinds of ground. They fell there. In the past few weeks, I have felt overwhelmed and burdened by events in the world and in our country. I find myself grasping for any threads of hope to hang on to. I fear the…
