Saturday, November 20, 2021
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Thursday, June 10, 2021
Strengthen Your Faith
Sunday, May 9, 2021
Happy Mother's Day 2021
“How is it that a human being can love a child so deeply that you
willingly give up a major portion of your freedom for it? How can mortal love
be so strong that you voluntarily subject yourself to responsibility,
vulnerability, anxiety, and heartache and just keep coming back for more of the
same? What kind of mortal love can make you feel, once you have a child, that
your life is never, ever your own again?
“Can you hear in this language [why for mothers] we use words
like bear and borne, carry and lift,
labor and deliver?
“This kind of resolute love ‘suffereth long, and is kind, … seeketh not
her own, … but … beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things.”
--Elder Jeffrey R Holland
Saturday, April 3, 2021
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Faithfulness
The question is not whether we will be faithful when things go well; rather, will we be faithful when they don’t? Faith is faithfulness in uncertainty and disappointment, faithfulness not to get one’s way, faithfulness regardless of the outcome. --Elder Lawrence C Corbridge, Jul 2019
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Painful things happen even to the pure and the perfect....pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn't love you....
Sunday, January 17, 2021
How does a group of individuals, all with different backgrounds and different perspectives on life, become a united community?
by Lloyd
Newell [19 Jan 2020]
How does a group of individuals, all with different backgrounds and
different perspectives on life, become a united community? Well-known author
and newspaper columnist David Brooks believes that the answer lies in how we
see each other. “That’s what a community is,” he says, “a bunch of people
looking after each other. A bunch of people seeing each other, and seeing each
other deeply. Taking the time to really enter into relationships with each
other and to depend upon one another. … That’s the glue that’s holding us
together” (see “BYU Forum: The Lies of Meritocracy,” by Kaylee Esplin, Brigham
Young University News, Oct. 22, 2019, news.byu.edu/intellect/byu-forum-the-lies-of-meritocracy ).
Can that really happen? Brooks believes it can and it
does — when great teachers see deeply into their students, when loving spouses
see deeply into each other. This kind of seeing goes beyond stereotypes and
outward appearances, building bridges of understanding.
The aspen tree is an excellent metaphor for the unity and
strength that can come from community. Above the ground, each aspen may appear
solitary and strong in its beauty and majesty. Yet if we could see deeply,
below the ground, we would find that each tree is connected with its neighbors
through an enormous root system. An aspen gets its strength from its connection
with the aspens that surround it. In a sense, the entire aspen forest is really
one plant — one of the largest living organisms in the world. A single grove in
central Utah, called Pando or “the trembling giant,” spans 106 acres, weighs an
estimated 13 million pounds and consists of over 40,000 trees, all with the
same genetic makeup (see “Pando (I Spread),” United States Department of Agriculture, fs.usda.gov).
If we open our eyes to see and our hearts to understand,
we can build a community in a similar way. After all, we all share, if not the
same DNA, then a common humanity. We all want happiness and peace; we all want
to make a difference. Because we’re more alike in important ways than we are
different, we already have it in us to see and know each other deeply, to look
after each other, to build a strong community.
None of us is truly solitary, alone in this
world. We are more like aspen trees. If we see and know each other deeply, we
will come to understand that we all share common roots. We all need each other.
That’s where we get our strength. That’s what a community is.
Goodbye Mr Chips by Leslie Bricusse
In the morning of my life I shall look to the sunrise.
At a moment in my life when the world is new.
And the blessing I shall ask is that God will grant me,
To be brave and strong and true,
And to fill the world with love my whole life through.
(Chorus)
And to fill the world with love
And to fill the world with love
And to fill the world with love my whole life through
In the noontime of my life I shall look to the sunshine,
At a moment in my life when the sky is blue.
And the blessing I shall ask shall remain unchanging.
To be brave and strong and true,
And to fill the world with love my whole life through
(Chorus)
In the evening of my life I shall look to the sunset,
At a moment in my life when the night is due.
And the question I shall ask only God can answer.
Was I brave and strong and true?
Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?
(Chorus)
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Friday, December 18, 2020
Friday, December 11, 2020
Sunday, November 29, 2020
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Saturday, September 19, 2020
Friday, September 18, 2020
Friday, August 28, 2020
What Seek Ye?
First and last words have always intrigued me. Their positioning adds a
dimension of importance. The first and last words of Jesus in the Gospel of
John are questions—very relevant questions for us all, very simple questions,
which is wonderful to me. Let’s look at Jesus’s first three words. John the
Baptist was standing with John the Beloved and Andrew by the Jordan River just
north of the Dead Sea when Jesus walked by, drawing from the Baptist the words,
“Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they
followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?” (John 1:36–38; emphasis added).
There is an essential daily question Jesus asks all of
us! “Michael,” He says to me, “what seek ye? What do you desire of life?” At
different points on my earthly climb, I might have answered that in various
ways. How would you answer it? What are
you seeking—really, truly, deeply seeking? Andrew, John, and John the Baptist
don’t quite know how to answer that question on the deeper level, but they want
to know where to find Him, so they ask Him where He dwells. This brings from
Jesus what I call “the Great Invitation”—three simple words: “Come and see” (John 1:39). These words are echoed later by Philip to
Nathanael, “Come and see” (John 1:46); by the woman at the well, “Come, see a man, which
told me all things that ever I did” (John 4:29); and even by Pilate at the trial of Jesus: “Behold
the man! . . . Behold your King!” (John 19:5, 14).
What is it that we truly seek in life? Notice also that the word seek suggests effort
and commitment. I remember that when I or the children lost something in the
house and could not find it, we always turned to Laurie, my wife and their
mother. She would inevitably find the missing item fairly quickly, then add in
a humorous but emphatic tone: “Move something!” We were hoping things would
just turn up. I can hear the Lord occasionally say to me, when I am looking and
hoping for some soul-blessing gift that doesn’t come right away: “Move
something!”
Lucifer usually approaches us with a similar question:
“What do you want?” But he can only offer what money or power can obtain. He
tried this approach on Jesus during His preparation in the wilderness. I can’t
help but compare the implied efforts of the word seek with
the effortlessness of the word want.
Do we seek truth? The Spirit? Do we seek comforts? Pleasure? Friendships? I
think most of us would say to Jesus, “Lord, I just long to be happy! I just
desire peace! I need love! I want to feel good about myself.” To these
essential desires, Christ responds, “Well, if you want joy, peace, love,
serenity, truth, or the Spirit, come and see. Follow me and you shall have all
you seek.”
I have taken many long walks with Jesus’s first three
words revolving through my mind. Many people I meet are in doubt about what
they really hope for in life; or they want certain things but may not realize
the need to seek them or how to do it; or cannot perceive that what they are
currently seeking will not give them what they really desire. I remember a
little book I used to read to my children called The
Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. It was a simple and delightful
but thought-provoking book about a boy who spent his life trying to figure out
what he really needed until, in old age, he was happy to just rest. Well,
“rest” is also something the Savior promised to those who follow Him: “Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
In section 7 of the Doctrine and Covenants, Jesus asked, “John, my
beloved, what desirest thou?” (Doctrine and Covenants 7:1). In the Book of Mormon, Jesus asked
each of His twelve disciples “one by one” as He was preparing to return to His
Father, “What is it that ye desire of me, after that I am gone to the Father?” (3 Nephi 28:1). I am sometimes tempted to ask, “Lord, isn’t
this backward? What do you want me to
do for you?” But He is the Giving
God and gently holds to His question: “No, Michael, what can I do for you? What is it that ye
desire of me?”
In high school, for reasons I could not have explained
then, I was profoundly moved by the experience and words of Henry David
Thoreau, who built a small cabin by Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts.
He, too, was seeking, and concluded: “I wished to live life deliberately, to
front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it
had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did
not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear. . . . For most
men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it.” The first
three words Jesus spoke in the Gospel of John are designed to move us to
thought, so we will not have a “strange uncertainty” about life and what we
hope to gain from it. To be totally honest, at this point and situation in my
life, since my wife, Laurie, passed nine years ago, I tell my Savior: “I seek
Laurie. Can you give her back to me, Lord? As lovely as my mind remembers her?”
And even in this, He replies, “Come and see.”
I hesitate to suggest a particular answer to any of Jesus’s questions,
but He does give us more than a hint about at least one way we may answer those
initial three simple words. We do know what He sought—how He would have
answered His own question. “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the
Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). That was the essence of His life: “For I do always
those things that please him” (John 8:29). This would carry through to the last bitter cup He
was asked to drink when, in Gethsemane, He prayed, “O my Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou
wilt” (Matthew 26:39).
“What seek ye?” Just recently, my five-year-old
granddaughter Abigail taught me a beautifully simple and poignant lesson about
answering this question. It was Christmas Eve. Abigail and her sister had
prepared a nativity for the family. She assigned us all our parts: shepherds,
wise men, the holy family. Which part do you think she wanted to play? Isn’t it
usually Mary? Not this time. She wanted to be Jesus! There would be no doll in
this nativity, but an actual child, innocent as was the infant she wanted to
emulate. She wrapped herself up in a blanket for “swaddling clothes,” curled up
as small as she could on a cushion, and was as contented as a child could be.
She lay there very still, because, of course, the baby Jesus would not cry—but
I did, and I have often wept again when the memory returns. “What seek ye?” I
believe that somewhere in the many ways we answer that question throughout our
lives is a constant ardent desire to “be Jesus,” not to just be like Him, to soak ourselves
so fully in His life, thoughts, teachings, and attributes that we—as He invited
us to do during His ministry—become one with Him as He is with the Father.
For me, life is not a test, but a journey toward a certain destination—so
I’ll conclude these thoughts on this first, so-needful question of our Savior
with an experience by Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian writer of War and Peace. He spent
most of his life trying to answer Jesus’s question and created memorable characters
in his books who also try to answer it. At one point in his life, he was in
such despair about the purpose of living that suicide seemed a desirable
option. He wrote A Confession, a story of his
search for meaning, which included the following experience:
“What happened to me was something like this: I was put into a boat (I
do not remember when) and pushed off from an unknown shore, shown the direction
of the opposite shore, had oars put into my unpracticed hands, and was left
alone. I rowed as best I could and moved forward; but the further I advanced
toward the middle of the stream the more rapid grew the current bearing me away
from my goal and the more frequently did I encounter others, like myself, borne
away by the stream. There were a few rowers who continued to row, there were
others who had abandoned their oars; there were large boats and immense vessels
full of people. Some struggled against the current, others yielded to it. And
the further I went the more, seeing the progress down the current of all those
who were adrift, I forgot the direction given me. In the very center of the
stream, mid the crowd of boats and vessels which were being borne downstream, I
quite lost my direction and abandoned my oars. Around me on all sides, with
mirth and rejoicing, people with sails and oars were borne down the stream,
assuring me and each other that no other direction was possible. And I believed
them and floated with them. And I was carried far; so far that I heard the roar
of the rapids in which I must be shattered, and I saw boats shattered in them.
And I recollected myself. I was long unable to understand what had happened to
me. I saw before me nothing but destruction, toward which I was rushing and
which I feared. I saw no safety anywhere and did not know what to do; but
looking back, I perceived innumerable boats which unceasingly and strenuously
pushed across the stream, and I remembered the shore, the oars, and the
direction, and began to pull back upwards against the stream and toward the
shore.
That shore was God; that direction was tradition; the oars were the
freedom given me to pull for the shore and unite with God. And so the force of
life was renewed in me and I again began to live. . . . I returned to the
belief in that Will which produced me and desires something of me. I returned
to the belief that the chief and only aim of my life is to be better, i.e. to
live in accord with that Will.”
So let us “come and see.” Let us “behold the man!” For
in the life of this beautiful man we worship, and in those things He asks us,
we will eventually find all we seek.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Testimony of Elder Jeffrey R Holland
Now, with the advantage that nearly 60 years give me
since I was a newly believing 14-year-old, I declare some things I now know. I
know that God is at all times and in all ways and in all circumstances our
loving, forgiving Father in Heaven. I know Jesus was His only perfect child,
whose life was given lovingly by the will of both the Father and the Son for
the redemption of all the rest of us who are not perfect. I know He rose from
that death to live again, and because He did, you and I will also. I know that
Joseph Smith, who acknowledged that he wasn’t perfect, was nevertheless
the chosen instrument in God’s hand to restore the everlasting gospel to the
earth. I also know that in doing so—particularly through
translating the Book of Mormon—he has taught me more of God’s love, of Christ’s
divinity, and of priesthood power than any other prophet of whom I have ever
read, known, or heard in a lifetime of seeking. I know that President
Thomas S. Monson, who moves devotedly and buoyantly toward the 50th
anniversary of his ordination as an Apostle, is the rightful successor to that
prophetic mantle today. We have seen that mantle upon him again in this conference.
I know that 14 other men whom you sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators
sustain him with their hands, their hearts, and their own apostolic keys.
Friday, July 3, 2020
Spiritual Survival Past 4 Months
4
things I’ve learned about spiritual survival in the last 4 months
If you’re like me, you have probably had
someone tell you recently—or perhaps you have said it yourself—that 2020 has
been a total wash. Just look at some of the major events of this year: devastating wildfires in Australia, the eruption of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines, the third impeachment trial in US history, the killing of George Floyd, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico, and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said in April 2020 conference,
COVID-19 is “a solemn reminder that a virus 1,000 times smaller than a grain of
sand can bring entire populations and global economies to their knees.”
But the
effects of the pandemic are not only seen in the number of cases or the tragic
loss of lives. The mental, social, and spiritual effects cannot be
underestimated.
The Washington Post released some staggering statistics in May regarding
mental health:
• A Kaiser Family Foundation poll showed nearly half of
Americans reporting the coronavirus crisis has harmed their mental health.
• A 1,000 percent increase was seen by a federal emergency
hotline for people in emotional distress.
• Talkspace, an online
therapy company, reported a 65 percent increase in client usage since February,
with coronavirus-related anxiety being a top patient concern.
Personally, I also feel the
pandemic has caused a surge of social opinions, and as technology has become
the default method of communication, my social media feeds have been inundated
with more polarizing posts than I know how to handle.
This “war of words” is
something the Prophet Joseph Smith also knew well, as evidenced by what he
wrote in his personal history, “Great multitudes united themselves to different
. . . parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people,
some crying, ‘Lo here!’ and others, ‘Lo there!’ . . . A scene of great
confusion and bad feeling ensued . . . so that all their good feelings one for
another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a
contest about opinions” (Joseph Smith—History 1:5-6).
Despite all of the voices
and through all the noise, there was one voice that mattered most to Joseph,
and it’s that voice that should matter the most to us in our time of strife—the
voice of the Lord.
President Russell M. Nelson has invited each of us to
“think deeply and often about this key question: ‘How do you hear
Him?’”
The year 2020 likely won’t be one that pops
up in my Facebook memories with glorious travel pictures or awesome hangouts,
but I think 2020 will be memorable for a different reason—how I’ve focused more
on hearing the voice of the Savior during “a scene of great confusion and bad
feeling.”
Here are
four lessons I’ve learned in the last few months about spiritual survival in
tumultuous 2020.
1. Nothing is more important than love.
I sometimes
think about the people who heard the Savior’s voice firsthand. In 3 Nephi 11:29–30, the Savior instructs the people in America
and says:
“For verily,
verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but
is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts
of men to contend with anger, one with another.
“Behold,
this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against
another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.”
In a joint statement with the NAACP, President Nelson wrote, “Jesus
Christ taught an inspired model that leads to peace and harmony—to love God
first, and then to love our neighbor as ourselves. We don’t pretend that either
of these pursuits is easy, but we do declare that they yield the fruits the
Lord promised.”
Perhaps when Christ called
these the two great commandments, they were great not only because of their
importance but because of the effort required to achieve them. In this time of
division, perhaps we can all find ways to show greater love, both love of God
and love of our neighbor.
As Elder Holland said in general conference, “These
two divine directives are still—and
forever will be—the only real hope we have
for giving our children a better world than the one they now know.”
So how do we show love?
Through our actions. To combat the evil of racism, President Nelson said, “We need to foster a fundamental respect
for the human dignity of every human soul, regardless of their color, creed, or
cause. And we need to work tirelessly to build bridges of understanding rather
than creating walls of segregation.”
To show love during a
pandemic, Utah faith leaders recently encouraged people to wear
masks. Perhaps love can be shown in the simple way of wearing a mask in public,
and perhaps service can happen in those simple ways too, which brings me to my
next lesson.
2. Ministering can happen in really simple ways.
I love to
travel, especially around my birthday in May. This year I had a wonderful trip
planned. My birthday was going to be spent in Nauvoo, exploring Church history
sites and attending the Nauvoo Illinois Temple (one of the ones on my bucket
list). The week was to conclude with my brother’s wedding in Iowa.
Of course,
those plans were canceled, and I ended up watching my brother get married
through a Zoom call. I started to think of backup birthday plans and ended up
crafting a “treat yourself” birthday, which was going to include a stop at my
favorite spa. But of course, it’s 2020 and the spa wasn’t going to open in time
for my birthday. One day I was bemoaning this situation to my ministering
sister. A few days later I got a text from her. She had just gotten an email
about a spa that had opened and wanted to forward it to me so I could fulfill
my backup birthday plans. It was such a simple thing, but it meant the world to
me.
Her simple
act of service reminded me of a teaching from President Jean B. Bingham:
“Sometimes we think we have to do something grand and
heroic to ‘count’ as serving our neighbors. Yet simple acts of service can have
profound effects on others—as well as on ourselves. What did the Savior do? Through
His supernal gifts of the Atonement and Resurrection—which we celebrate on this beautiful Easter
Sunday—'none other
has had so profound an influence [on] all who have lived and who will yet live
upon the earth’ (The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles). But He also
smiled at, talked with, walked with, listened to, made time for, encouraged,
taught, fed, and forgave. He served family and friends, neighbors and strangers
alike, and He invited acquaintances and loved ones to enjoy the rich blessings
of His gospel. Those ‘simple’ acts of service and love provide a template for
our ministering today.”
Service definitely looks different
during coronavirus. There is always great power in face-to-face interactions.
As Elder David A. Bednar recently said during a landmark address on religious
freedom, “Gathering for worship, ritual, and fellowship is
essential; it is not merely an enjoyable social activity.”
Truly, we need each other. And now as
pandemic restrictions ease, perhaps we can look for more physically-distant
ways to serve each other. As congregations begin to return to worship services,
we can take note of people who aren’t attending, especially our ministering
brothers and sisters. I hope that we do our part to account for the Lord’s
sheep, because as Elder Bednar said, “Indeed, if the faithful are not
gathering, sooner or later they will begin to scatter.”
And if your
ministering brothers and sisters aren’t attending because of health concerns
for themselves or the high-risk individuals they live with, imagine the
isolation they must feel right now as they’ve been strict social distancers for
months. Perhaps now, more than ever, these people need to hear our voices.
My next
takeaway ties into this one.
3. Sometimes you have to be the one to reach out and ask
for help.
In the Book
of Mormon, we learn that “the church did meet together oft . . . to speak with
one another concerning the welfare of their souls” (Moroni 6:5).
As I
mentioned before, there are serious mental health concerns emerging due to
coronavirus. And if you are struggling with something, whether it’s
emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, sometimes you have to be the one to
speak up about it.
This is a lesson I feel
like I have to learn over and over again in life. I love my independence and
it’s really important to me, but I think part of “comforting those that stand
in need of comfort” is realizing sometimes it takes a bit of vulnerability to
say that you are the one that stands in need (Mosiah 18:9).
Most recently I learned
this lesson when my grandpa passed away a few weeks ago. Though he was 90 years
old, his death caught me off-guard. I had a physically-distant lunch with him
on the Saturday prior and we ate lunch together and joked about whether we’d
ever make it back to Disneyland, his favorite place. Just three days later, I
got the call saying that his health had taken a sudden turn for the worse.
After spending one last day with him, he passed away that night of natural
causes.
I spent almost every
Saturday of my adult life with my grandpa, and suddenly not having him around
has increased my own feelings of loneliness during a time of isolation.
But I have been really
blessed that when I’ve reached out to others in my moments of mourning, they
have been there to mourn with me. On a work call the day after my grandpa’s
passing, I was embarrassed when I choked up after someone asked me how I was
doing, but instantly I got so many messages of love and support. I asked some
friends if I could just sit with them for a while, and their company made a
world of difference. But in order to receive those blessings of comfort, I
first had to “speak with [them] concerning the welfare of [my] soul” (Moroni 6:5).
Elder Robert D. Hales has taught, “When you attempt to live
life’s experiences alone, you are not being true to yourself, nor to your basic
mission in life. Individuals in difficulty often say: ‘I’ll do it alone,’ ‘Leave
me alone,’ ‘I don’t need you,’ ‘I can take care of myself.’ It has been said
that no one is so rich that he does not need another’s help, no one so poor as
not to be useful in some way to his fellowman. The disposition to ask
assistance from others with confidence, and to grant it with kindness, should
be part of our very nature.”
Sometimes you have to be the one to reach out
and ask for help—and it’s terrifying. But there is a power in the covenant
community of Christ and inviting that community into your life.
4. We need the Spirit to survive.
We often
talk about our physical health. And thankfully, conversations of mental health
are beginning to happen more regularly. Yet we rarely talk about our spiritual
health—which might be one of the most important health aspects to talk about.
Two years
ago, President Nelson said, “In coming days, it will not be
possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and
constant influence of the Holy Ghost.”
Has your
spiritual health survived coronavirus? Or do you maybe feel that the constant
influence of the Holy Ghost has eluded you during this time? Perhaps without
the strengthening influence of temple worship, the weekly renewal of covenants
through the sacrament, or simply being able to gather together, you have taken
a detour off the strait and narrow path.
Gospel
translates to “good news,” and the good news we know as Latter-day Saints is
that a detour is just that—a detour. The Savior not only provides a way back to
the strait and narrow path, He is the
way. He will lift us and carry us back. He has walked that treacherous road so
He knows how to bring us safely home.
In a recent Church News video, President Nelson said, “The road ahead will always be
bumpy, but the destination will be serene and secure. So, fasten your seat
belt, hang on through the bumps, and do what’s right, and your rewards will be
eternal.”
The Savior
wants us to survive spiritually and will be with us on that bumpy road. He is
our Redeemer. As we hear Him and hearken to His counsel, we will be led to
eternal rewards.
Looking forward
In an
interview with Church News about COVID-19, Elder Quentin L.
Cook said, “We will look back on this as a foundational time of preparation and
not just something we had to endure.”
Our living
prophet has encouraged us to “hear Him”—our Savior. And just like Joseph Smith,
we might have to sift through “a contest about opinions” to find His voice.
Perhaps circumstances are allowing us to find our own Sacred Groves to commune
with Him, and a bedroom closet might be a substitution for a forested wood.
I believe
that as we consider how we “hear Him,” even amidst the turmoil of 2020, we
truly will find this to be “a foundational time of preparation.”
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Friday, May 1, 2020
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