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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…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Waiting on the Lord
We knew exactly where we were going. When my husband and I were newly married, we had our whole life mapped out. I felt like I had known my own course from an early age, but we based our plans for my husband’s career on a very specific promise in his Patriarchal blessing. He had a work to do, and in order to accomplish that work, he would need to have a Ph.D. We were sure we knew what God expected of us. It would be a long road. We already had three little ones by the time James (my husband) completed his Master’s degree in International Relations at BYU…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Earth Day Perspectives
“But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.” (Job 12:7-8) Has the Earth “taught thee”? Has God spoken to you through His creations? How about sunsets? The lull of a river, the crash of waves? The majesty of mountains, the drama of a thunderstorm? The intricacy of a flower, the melody of birdsong? In tumultuous periods, I seek refuge in the natural world. Even day to day, I need regular, restorative outdoor experiences (and I think we…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Parable of the Power Wash
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they that labor build it in vain.” (Psalms 127: 1) During the late winter of 2016-2017 lots of things were running amok. The government, yes, but also personally for our house. That season we had a series of ice dams and gigantic icicles from our deck dripping into the walls and ceiling of the family room just beneath it. Fixing this situation was an expen$ive project that took most of the Spring and Summer of 2017. The contractors had to remove the stone surfaces on the deck, strip off the siding of the house between the main and second floors, fill every crack in…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Into the Storm
I was struck by Elder Larry Y. Wilson’s talk last weekend while listening to General Conference. In it he told a story about a young chaplain sailing with his crew on a distressed ship. The concerned captain had approached him and asked him to pray for the ship. Willingly this young sailor retired to his room and instead of praying for the storm to abate, asked the Lord, “What can I do?” He was prompted to venture out of his living quarters not once but twice. The second time the Spirit told him to go out into the storm to make further assessment. Obediently, he tied a tether around his…
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Sabbath Devotional :: A Message of Hope on Easter
Today we celebrate the day that the resurrected Lord broke the bonds of death, arose from the grave, and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind. It is considered one of the greatest moments in all of human history. And yet I must admit that the glory of it sometimes feels a bit out of my reach. In the past few years, I have tried to be better about celebrating Easter more deliberately and incorporating holy week traditions that help me prepare. This year though, I’m sorry to say that it has crept up on me without much preparation at all. In the process of attempting to correct…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Musings on Palm Sunday
All glory, laud, and honor to thee, Redeemer, King, To whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring. Thou art the King of Israel, Thou David’s royal Son, Who in the Lord’s name comest, the King and Blessed One. On a donkey he came to the Holy City. Such an odd war horse. And strangely there’s no weapon of vengeance. This healer, this miracle man, this strange talking Galilean who promised upheaval, overthrowing of false authority, a new world. Surely this was the long awaited King, come to save the people of Israel from the brutal grip of Roman oppression. As Moses delivered the forefathers from slavery in Egypt,…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Seller of Purple
One of my favorite stories in the scriptures is the story of Lydia, or the woman from Lydia. Lydia was a region of Turkey (Asia) and the apparent place of origin of the woman referred to in Acts 16:14, now living in Philippi, Macedonia. She sold “purple”, which meant she was a business owner and could have sold dye, fabric, and/or finished garments. The type of “purple” she sold was the kind used by the highest courts in Rome and also symbolic of royalty. She had a household, meaning she was the head of a group of people living in her house, although the scriptures are not specific about whom…
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Sabbath Devotional :: French Fries, Fear, and Faith
In December 2016 I sat across from my 30-year-old son Chase at a table in the cafeteria in Chicago’s Art Institute. While he dipped his fries in ketchup and mayonnaise (a taste treat he acquired on his mission to the Netherlands), he reached for my phone. “Here, Mom, I’m going to put the phone numbers of your state representatives into your phone. Who are they?” he said. “I have no idea,” I answered. I was a new citizen of Utah and really didn’t pay attention to such things. Tapping away at other buttons on my phone he pulled up a site that tells you who your representatives are by your…
