It wasn’t the first time I felt mortified because of an expectation gone awry, but these circumstances made the sting really sting. A friend asked me to play the hymns for their grandfather’s funeral. Anthony and I have known this family for 20 years, and I felt honored to pay my respects this way. When I arrived at the church, I found a large, dilapidated hymnal missing its binding. I preferred the size of that book to my smaller hymnal,... Read more
Have you ever felt immobilized by fear and lack of conviction? I have. It’s usually not a comfortable place to be; however, I’ve noticed that state of mind can become a comfort zone. I appreciated these thoughts my brother Dannen shared with me about being aware of the “security of not doing, the security of not being,” of being willing to go, know, and be. Compilation of Thoughts about the effects of being Immobilized by Fear and Lack of Conviction... Read more
“Thanksgiving in and for the Gospel” by Destinee Bushman I have prayed that each of us may hear the sweet voice of the Spirit. My thoughts have taken a different turn than I expected so I hope that He will relay this message in a clear way to your minds and open hearts. Review and Revise I am thankful for and feel blessed to have such a beautiful holiday set aside in our religious and secular world – Thanksgiving –... Read more
In continuing my efforts to understand the Lord emphasizing our relationship as being in and through, (click on this link for Part I In and Through: In a Lions Den and a Fiery Furnace), I followed the thought to look at Jonah. Initially, I’d just expected to review Jonah’s experience in the fish. But I was drawn to other parts of his story—in a ship, in the waves, in the fish, in Ninevah, in the shadow he sought from the heat.... Read more
Prisons and Perspectives by Kurt S. Johnson How many of you, of your own free will and choice, would willingly decide to use one-third of your yearly time off work, not to go to Disneyland or the beach, but to pack up your entire family in a car and travel over 2,000 miles, crossing through 8 states, with gas prices close to $5 dollars per gallon, with a toddler needing to stop for a potty break seemly every thirty minutes,... Read more
Happy November! I love exploring the root meanings of words in the scriptures, and the Greek definitions of thankfulness are some of my favorites. Translators used thanks and thankfulness when translating several different words from Greek to English. Two of the coolest root word definitions (to me) are for eucharistos and chariti (found on BibleHub.com.) Eucaristos essentially means “to be grateful, express gratitude towards, to say grace at a meal, to give thanks, thanksgiving.” Today Eucharist is the ritual commemoration... Read more
We all find ourselves in life’s crucibles—at the hand of others, as a part of life, or sometimes because of our own choices. Those refining times in a fiery furnace reveal so much about who we are and can help us determine our spiritual trajectory. Next to the Savior’s atoning sacrifice, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego’s crucible story is my all-time favorite. I imagine them standing in a huge throng before the 90-foot version of Nebuchadnezzar. They’d gathered by order of... Read more
By Daylen Bushman, written after sending his second son on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “I am a child of God, and He has sent me here.” Our Heavenly Father knows who we are and what we did before we came to earth and our potential and growth opportunities we have while we are in this mortal life. Over the past few months, I have reflected on the love that our Father in Heaven... Read more
Niagara Falls astounded me! What an awe-inspiring force of nature with its 5.9 million cubic feet of water rushing over the falls every minute. On another day, I stumbled upon a little spring in a Scottish field. The water bubbled gently at the surface then flowed in an almost imperceptible rivulet through the field. Both the little spring and Niagara Falls perpetually flowed as fountains of water. Fountain of Living Waters What image comes to mind when you visualize the... Read more
I’m sitting here with a chance to testify that the Lord never fails me when I’m reaching for the hem of the Healer, and I will do that. While visiting family in Utah three weeks ago, I noticed a little painful twinge in my left ear. I shrugged it off to any number of innocuous causes. I hit the ground running when I arrived home; stress levels increased, sleep levels decreased. Four days after returning home, while playing at a... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In