Category Archives: Uncategorized

“If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.” — Jeffrey R. Holland, An Ensign to the Nations, April 2011 In my last post, I referenced a 2006 conference talk by A. Roger Merrill, who atContinue reading “General Conference Prep, Day 3: Intend to Act”

“If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.” — Jeffrey R. Holland, An Ensign to the Nations, April 2011 I know, from countless repeated experiences, that the readiness of my heart is the mostContinue reading “General Conference Prep, Day 2: Ready to Receive”

“If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.” — Jeffrey R. Holland, An Ensign to the Nations, April 2011 I have a goal this week of studying each day specifically in preparation for GeneralContinue reading “General Conference Prep, Day 1: Chosen Vessels and The Residue”

A short thought as we approach the sacrament on the Sabbath day. During the sacrament prayers, the priest acts as voice for the entire congregation. Thus the plural pronouns throughout: “We ask thee…,” “That they may…,” “That he has given them…” One simple way to increase the sacrament’s power to draw me to the SaviorContinue reading “As Now We Take The Sacrament”

From President Harold B. Lee: “Your testimony is something that you have today but you may not have it always. Testimony is as elusive as a moonbeam; it’s as fragile as an orchid; you have to recapture it every morning of your life. You have to hold on by study, and by faith, and byContinue reading “Testimony is Elusive”

Recently my wife Lisa was volunteering in our daughters first-grade class when the school held a lock-down drill. Schools hold these drills so teachers and students can practice what they would do in the case of a criminal act or intruder in the school. Lisa told me about the drill; how they turn off theContinue reading “Suffer the Children”

I love the Proclamation to the World on the Family. Twenty years after being delivered by President Gordon B. Hinckley in a General Relief Society Meeting, I cannot think of a single issue facing the family today that it does not address. Many of those issues were barely on society’s radar twenty years ago andContinue reading “Happy Birthday, Family Proclamation”

I went to LDS.org just an hour or so after Elder Richard G. Scott passed away and the Church posted the announcement. Not long after that, I received a few texts from friends and family as word started to make its way around. His passing was not a surprise (he’d been incapacitated for some time),Continue reading “The Passing of a Prophet”

Sometimes I get frustrated by the nature of prayer. The harder I try to please my Heavenly Father, the more personal prayer feels like the mental and emotional equivalent of swimming through peanut butter. My own weakness and failure, along with the needs of so many people around me (let alone the world at large)Continue reading “Wrestle with God”