On a recent morning walk, while listening to an inspiring audiobook about being a true disciple of Jesus Christ, a new thought trickled through my mind and heart: The Savior’s atonement heals sins, weaknesses, sorrows, and every wound of mortality. Sins, weaknesses, sorrows, and wounds of mortality are all part of the natural man. Cast off all of them. I literally stopped in my tracks and turned off my audiobook. “What?” I asked. Startled, I needed more information. Mosiah 3:19... Read more
How do you access the power of God during unprecedented times? President Russell M. Nelson warned that in coming days, we will need to know how to access God’s power. In like manner, it is now time that each of us implements extraordinary measures, perhaps measures we have never taken before to strengthen our personal, spiritual foundations. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures. My dear brothers and sisters, these are the latter days. If you and I are to withstand the... Read more
Names have always mattered to me, probably because my siblings and I have unique names that are regularly mispronounced. I remember learning that biblical names meant something and looking up their meanings frequently in the Bible Dictionary. Especially when names changed, the meanings caught my attention. For example, Abram means The Father is Exalted. His name was changed to Abraham which means father of a multitude, father lifted up. While both names seem to have the same meaning, entering into the new and everlasting... Read more
The power and command of God impacts our lives in both general and unique ways. I’ve spent a lot of time studying and pondering God’s power in my life, the lives of those around me, and the lives of people in scripture. The result is that I reevaluated what I knew and assumed about faith. This experience profoundly impacted that growth and I felt to share it again from LDSBlogs.com as I’m compiling what I’ve learned. Mom and I took... Read more
Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is 1o Tishri, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, the culmination of 10 days of repentance beginning at Rosh Hashanah, the New Year. All temple ceremonies were preparatory to and anticipatory for the Day of Atonement where the High Priest of Israel offered prescribed sacrifices petitioning God to redeem Israel’s sins. Leviticus 23:27 summarizes Jehovah’s instructions for a Day of Atonement given in Leviticus 16. Also on the tenth day of this... Read more
I’m memorizing the Oath and Covenant of the priesthood from Doctrine and Covenants 84 with much pondering of the last phrase of verse 33. For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. So I’ve noticed anytime the word sanctification is used in subsequent chapters, like in Section 100 from this week’s Come Follow Me sections Therefore, let your hearts be comforted; for all things shall... Read more
My all-time favorite Church class lesson from my teenage years (to be honest, I don’t remember any lesson at church as a child,) was a lesson on Light and Truth by my Aunt Maylene Call who was our young women president at the time. She told us her scripture study focused on light and truth and felt impressed to share what she learned with us. I remember feeling the irony of the subject because our classroom was in the darkest... Read more
And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones” (Doctrine and Covenants 89:18.) In seeking greater understanding about this phrase’s meanings, I searched the Bible for similar phrases. Proverbs 3:8 says, “It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.” What is “It?” My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: 2 For length of days, and long life,... Read more
I was 22 years old and inhaling everything I could about the physical and symbolic nature of temples when I checked out a gigantic book called The Hindu Temple from the BYU library. The nondescript book had no dust jacket or cover art. I had no experience with Hindu temples so knew I could learn a lot. I learned about dimensions and shapes and geometric patterns important to a Hindu temple that translated to temples I felt familiar with more... Read more
COVID-19 canceled church youth camps in 2020. As things opened up in 2021, our bishop wanted to plan a memorable camp for our congregation’s kids aged 12-18; so a youth camp was planned to Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio one day and tubing down a river one day. I attended as one of five adult leaders. I’d never been to Six Flags, or any large theme park for that matter, and was excited to try some of the... Read more
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