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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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Are You Aware? My Complicated Life as a Transgender Latter-Day Saint
This is part II in our LGBTQ+ Education Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. Ever since I can remember, I have felt that I was somehow different. As I got older, I learned that the way I was different was not OK — even shameful. I hated this part of myself that made me different. I prayed and wished and hoped that someday I could be the same as everyone else. My name is Ann Pack and I am a transgender woman. It has taken decades for me to not only be OK with this part of myself but actually love and embrace this part of…
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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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Are You Aware? LGBTQ+ Education Introduction
This is part I in our LGBTQ+ Education Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. My husband and my oldest son have brown eyes, I have gray eyes, and my younger son has grayish-green and gold hazel eyes — I don’t have any other way to describe them. My husband has dark brown (almost black), salt-and-pepper hair. My hair is naturally brown, though I choose to highlight it to cover some of the gray that started showing up when I was 16 years old. My youngest has red hair, and I don’t even know what color to call my oldest son’s hair. Sometimes I say red or…
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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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Awareness Wednesday :: Unintended Consequences — War on Drugs
America’s war on drugs has now lasted nearly 50 years without success. This “war” began in 1971 with President Nixon’s declaration of a war on drugs soon after the passage of the Controlled Substances Act in late 1970. The act put a full prohibition on certain drugs, including marijuana, LSD, and heroin. This act declared that these drugs had high potential of abuse and had no valid medical uses. The prohibition of these drugs made it difficult to procure them, even for pure scientific or medical research. This act was not based on any scientific or medical studies. Supporters claimed it would reduce drug-related crime, drug overdoses, and disease. They…
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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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Awareness Wednesday :: Unintended Consequences — Ban the Box
It is no secret that an individual with a criminal background will struggle to find employment. It goes without saying that the majority of employers do not want to hire ex-convicts. Learning that a future employee once attempted murder, committed a string of robberies, or even sold drugs is an unsettling feeling for any employer. The stigma of a conviction and time served is not an easy obstacle to overcome. In order to lower the barriers faced by those who have been convicted of a crime to being offered a job, fair-chance policies or “ban the box” laws have been introduced. Ban the box is legislation that restricts employers from…
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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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A Visit to Our Congressman
On Friday, October 11, Traci Paice and I made a quick visit to Congressman Ken Buck’s office in Greeley, Colorado. A few days earlier, Traci had sent Congressman Buck an email expressing support for the impeachment inquiry, and she got a response wherein he claimed Speaker Pelosi “lacks the power to initiate such an inquiry on her own.” He said the House must pass a resolution. Concerned with this response, Traci posted his letter in the comments of an MWEG Discussion Group post about the White House’s intent to not cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. Because Congressman Buck is also my representative, her comment caught my eye, so I copied…
