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Awareness Wednesday :: Are You Aware of Water?
Water is the essential compound that sustains our lives. Our bodies are 60% water, but without replenishment of water we die in about three or four days. We rely on water to clean our homes and bodies. Water is so vital that in the scriptures we find it used to represent ideas such as salvation and eternal life. The Bible contains many powerful images of water. “With joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). Water signifies remission of sins through baptism…
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How MWEG Members Engage
Throughout the year members of Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG) have been engaging in proactive advocacy, attending rallies, sending emails and making phone calls to their representatives, writing op-eds to their local newspapers, and more! The women of MWEG have included their family members and friends in their efforts to serve in their communities. No matter how big or small the contribution, our members are doing magnificent work. Take a look at some of your successes from the spring and summer: Many of you have been gathering with members of your state chapters and building relationships with state and federal representatives. For example, members of the Nebraska chapter met…
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Immigration Information :: An Asylum Law Update
The Supreme Court recently allowed the Trump administration to prevent most Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the United States. Current threats to U.S. asylum law are complicated, but we feel compelled to make every effort to understand the issues. Because of the complexity of the matter, even this summary is lengthy. I strongly encourage everyone to read — in full — each source referenced here. Every link included in this summary provides more information and detail. Supreme Court Ruling in Barr v. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, issued Sept. 11, 2019 BACKGROUND: Asylum Law United States codified asylum law is that, “in general, any alien who is physically present…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Turning to the Hymns for Peace
I spent the last few years as a primary teacher. In addition to interacting with the sweet and adorable sunbeams, the calling meant that I spent a lot of my Sunday worship singing at church. While the children’s songs were often in so high a register that I could only squeak out a few of the notes, the messages of the songs and the enthusiastic singing of beautiful truths by my little primary friends provided profound and enduring lessons in the truths of the gospel. I felt so grateful that these little brothers and sisters were learning the pure truths of the gospel – that we are children of Heavenly…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Infinite Loop of Agape
“An infinite loop (sometimes called an endless loop) is a piece of coding that lacks a functional exit so that it repeats indefinitely.” I have a faint recollection of the concept of an infinite loop from an undergraduate computer coding class I took over 20 years ago. When a young man in my ward used the phrase in a gospel context during his missionary farewell recently, I felt a jolt of recognition as it related to some of my personal spiritual experiences over the past few years. It was a way to describe a state of being that I felt gloriously “stuck” in. It began with love, then became marked…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Pursuing Peace on the Train
About a week ago my family and I were stuck on a very overcrowded train on a holiday weekend in a foreign country. People were behaving badly. There weren’t enough seats on an inadequately staffed train, and the descent into chaos was quick, with many individuals refusing to honor the seat assignments of others. There were fights, and some punches were actually thrown. Long story short, in spite of having pre-booked the journey and paid for reserved seating, my family of six was left standing for much of a seven-hour journey. We were understandably a bit stressed and peeved. A few hours in, we were able to get into some…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Leap of Faith
While we were on vacation recently, my daughters and I spent an afternoon at an outdoor swimming pool. Of course, we were not the only ones who had decided to enjoy the sunshine and water on this hot summer day. There were at least a couple hundred other people there with us. The pool was enormous. Every area of the pool was crowded with bodies, swimming and splashing and shouting. More people were all around the outside of the pool, laying on the grass or stretched out on lounge chairs; soaking up the sun or enjoying the shade of the large oak trees. The pool curved from one end to…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Praying the Beatitudes
I have been using a scripture study practice called lectio divina to ponder the Beatitudes. (I learned about this practice from the podcast, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.) Recently, I studied Jesus’s saying, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” First I read the verse. Then I read it again, slowly, listening for the meaning that the Spirit might wish to impart to me. Then I reflected on the meaning that came to mind. I felt prompted to work for a better understanding of the phrase “pure in heart.” After consulting the concordance, I found that another way to understand “pure in heart” is “clear in…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Higher Ways
Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. These scriptures were my constant companion for about a decade. During those especially difficult years, I would read the verses over and over again, looking for meaning, support, and strength. I learned two broad lessons from…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Come, Come Ye Saints
Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear; But with joy, wend your way. Though hard to you this journey may appear, Grace shall be as your day. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of participating as a Ma on a trek with our stake. I must admit that I hadn’t approached this assignment as a privilege, but rather an obligatory chore. I wasn’t looking forward to wearing voluminous clothing and slogging along old rail paths in the humid New England heat with a bunch of teenagers. The privilege part snuck up on me. My focus going in had been on the discomfort and work, which is…
