Mormon Bloggers

This is an odd blog post title! Not the typical Molly Mormon Mommy Blogger topic. I have several of those different topics I’m contemplating. Yesterday I mentioned this to a dear friend of mine and it was something she needed to hear right then. Turns out she was depressed over how rotten some people are (actually, a particular person in her case) and how they always seem to get away with their rotting-ness and “nothing ever happens to them”. We’re talking the predators of the world. This wasn’t the gist of my response to her, but I recently had one of those spiritual “a-hah!” moments where something I’ve heard over and over, that I get intellectually, sank deep down into that inner heart shrine and now I get it spiritually. Which is a huge step up. In fact any and every simple principle of the Gospel works that way. It’s one thing to know about it, it’s another thing to really feel it deep down. Makes a world of difference.... Read the rest of this entry »

I like a great bargain as much as the next girl, but I am not a fan of shopping in general. There are too many choices – and I always seem get the dressing room furnished with the circus mirror. This Christmas I won a gift card to a fancy department store at my husband’s work party.  I had been inside this store three in my life – never once buying anything. This particular store had an outlet  Read More →

My girlfriend emailed back a question in response to a quote. Here it is: Q. …So what I am getting out of this is when we want to control people we are in a sense acting like Satan. I think that it is hard to allow people to do wrong to us, like allowing someone to break one of the ten commandments against us. But what are we supposed to do? Just allow them to make wrong choices and know that God will be their judge in the end and they will have to answer to him not us? But why would we want to enable others to keep making wrong choices that hurt us others and themselves when we could help them to see that what they are doing is wrong? I welcome any feed back! A. I’ll take a shot at this. Without knowing the details, I’m guessing this is a tough situation, like one of those Tar Baby kinds. There are several gospel principles to keep in balance here: Love of Christ, love of thy neighbor and love of yourself. Elder Uchtdorf just reminded us in conference how important... Read the rest of this entry »

Someone sent this to me on Twitter today and I really needed to hear this: Mediocrity will always try to drag excellence down to its level. Don’t trade your superiority for their inferiority. – Anonymous That is repeating human nature you can count on!  I’ve also heard this social behavior described as the “crab in the bucket” syndrome.  You can fill a pail with live crabs and none of them will get out, because as soon as one starts to climb higher and pull itself out of the mess, another crab will grab onto its leg and yank it back.  Has this happened to you, or is it happening and you haven’t been able to put your finger on it? All this reminds me of a quote from Marianne Williamson: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are... Read the rest of this entry »

Life ebbs and flows.  Sometimes we are victorious and feel like we’re on top of our game.  Other days we concentrate on those “where I fall short” lists and wonder if we’re ever going to get to heaven. Sometimes life just goes wrong: unexpectedly, undeservedly.  Or perhaps, maybe we helped those bad times along a bit. Today, I ground up the VitaMix tamper while making a smoothie.  I had to choose between a great smoothie recipe with bits of black plastic or throw the whole thing out.  I think I even swore in front of my daughter.  Of course this is not that major, I’ve done much worse things, but have you ever noticed once you screw up, you can’t limit it to just one thing going wrong?  Nope, instead we get on a roll and make sure to dig our holes nice and deep.  Somehow we feel more accomplished if our mess is messier.  So I ground up the tamper, wasted a large batch of smoothie and set a cruddy example for... Read the rest of this entry »

My heart literally sank when I read about Edie’s tragic loss of her home just before Christmas. If you read Life in Grace, then you must already know about this sad event. I stumbled across Edie’s blog several months ago and have enjoyed reading her heartfelt posts detailing her deep love and passion for her family, her homeschooling adventures, beautiful home decorating ideas and so many other tender musings about life in general by this talented and classy lady. I wanted to take a moment today to send Edie and her dear family some heartfelt hugs from our family and to let her know that she and her loved ones are in our prayers. I came across two quotes that I wanted to share with Edie… “It is not on the pinnacle of success and ease where men and women grow most. It is often down in the valley of heartache and disappointment and reverses where men and women grow into strong characters…every reversal can be turned to our benefit and blessing and can make us... Read the rest of this entry »

As testimony fills my heart, It dulls the pain of days. For one brief moment, Heaven’s view Appears before my gaze. (“Testimony”, Hymns, 137) A friend quoted this verse in her testimony yesterday in our sacrament meeting and it resonated with me. Given enough time our hearts heal. That healing may be aided by the support of loving friends and family. And by the help of professional counselors or even medication. But also by the growth of testimony in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His gospel – the good news of His atoning sacrifice and its implications for us in this life and the next. We spoke about Exaltation in our Gospel Essentials class yesterday. It was a lesson that brought together a year of study of the Lord’s Plan for us. That Plan of Redemption, of Happiness, of Salvation is our Father’s gift to us, a means of our returning to His presence. And a testimony of that Plan helps my heart to heal. It gives me hope, even in the face of what otherwise... Read the rest of this entry »

All my life in the church I have heard the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  These are held out as motivating ideas that are intended to help us resist the pull and attraction of worldly pleasures.  In this short essay, I would like to consider just one of those promises and the power for good that it should have in our lives. Of course, the attraction of promises pre-supposes that you are the kind of person that is motivated by the “moving-toward” model.  If you’re not familiar with the idea, it comes from the book Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins.  He states, “All human behavior revolves around the urge to gain pleasure or avoid pain.” Tony’s shorthand for this is “pain or gain.”  Which one drives you?  Of course the concept is not original with Tony but he made it a focus of his seminars and books.  The idea has been around forever and stated in different ways by various thinkers.  The process is not absolute.  We move toward some things and away from... Read the rest of this entry »

~ by Rene’ Sometimes, when I look at family photos taken when our six children were small and under our direction, I cry for dreams lost and expectations dissolved. Our oldest child was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and has other problems that continue to this day and continue to affect our family even as he is an adult. Our youngest child has cerebral palsy and demands one-on-one care and will live with us for our lifetime. Having a child with disruptive behavior at the beginning of our family and a child with mental and physical problems at the end has made for a life that I did not envision or plan for. In Luke 8:43 we read of a woman who had a blood disease and had faith that Jesus could heal her. This account has been taught to students and believers in the power of prayer that faith in Jesus Christ will heal our hearts and our bodies. The story reminds us to have perfect faith and that Christ’s blessings require small acts on our part with great... Read the rest of this entry »

The Old Testament is teaching me valuable awareness – “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.  The Children of Israel go through repeating patterns that match the people’s experience in the Book of Mormon and they are the same cycles we go through today.  This is the first time I’ve been fully conscious that Old Testament history repeats itself too.  We mortals have been at it a long time, with the same old devastating results! From the looks of things, I’d conjecture that we’ve started the deterioration cycle.  The loss of peace, the loss of well-being and the loss of prosperity.  Right now, today, the concept of God is either rejected or distorted.  The label “religious” has become a condescending description.  Politically correct is frequently morally disastrous.  Fighting for what is right is fully opposed and corrupted on the political and civic scene.  A tidal wave of... Read the rest of this entry »

~by Annelise There are many women in my circle of interaction who are in the throes of severe financial duress.  After praying, fasting and begging the Lord for this cup to pass, relief has been slow. Couples have been stretched to the limit, children have been caught unawares, and the faith of good people is being tried. In my conversations I’ve caught glimpses of their suffering: “We prayed to know if this was a good investment. We thought we felt the Lord’s approval.” “I didn’t even know we had an interest-only loan. I guess I didn’t understand what I was signing.” “My house is being auctioned today on the courthouse steps.” “My husband just told me we haven’t been paying our property taxes or mortgage payments for the last six months.” “We took the money out of our retirement to pay for college and weddings. How could we pay for one child’s education and not the others’?” “Sometimes... Read the rest of this entry »

~by Marsha Steed Keller Sometimes we do it all. Sometimes we think we can do it all, and sometimes the ‘all’ falls into a pile of broken dreams, shattered promises and difficulties at our feet. Once I had it all, and then one day I woke up to the realization that nothing I thought I had existed any longer. Now that I have a degree in Psychology, I realize I was in a major depression, but at the time, I just thought that I wasn’t ‘good enough’ and needed to ‘try harder.’ I hung on with my bare fingernails teaching Seminary and clinging to my sanity through gospel study. It was a slow and painful personal climb back to joy. It took at least a year and at the end of it, my marriage was a casualty. That thin glimmer of hope was what I clung to, what pulled me from the depths of my personal hell back to the light of faith and wholeness. I wrote this at the time, and even as I read it from the present where I have returned to a solid foundation and a joyful life,... Read the rest of this entry »