Mormon Bloggers

I keep noticing this phenomenon of a sudden appearance of charity for someone in particular from time to time, including this morning. I woke up with an extra dose of love placed in my heart for one of my daughters who needs it. Of course I already love her.  What I’m talking about is a BIG, heart-warming sensation which just presents itself for no apparent reason along with newfound energy and zeal to carry through with it. Not only that, charity comes with a deepened level of consciousness and awareness. It’s different than the everyday love I feel which causes me to do all kinds of mommy and wife things anyway. That’s a different kind of love. I would describe that love as more of a “I’m bound and bonded to you and care about you and belong to you” kind of love. On the other hand, what I’m attempting to describe this morning is more of a delicious passion which you can splash around in and revel in. In a way, it has... Read the rest of this entry »

Members of the Marysville Washington Stake are highly encouraged to adopt a family mission plan, read through and study the Preach My Gospel manual, and to prayerfully find ways to share the message of the Restoration to family, friends, neighbors and even strangers. It is quite the challenge because many of us (from young and … Continue reading »  Read More →

I had no plans to write about pants. In fact, were it not for the internet, I would know nothing about the pants thing from this past weekend. But after church as we drove to my BIL’s home for a second thanksgiving dinner, my 16-year old son brought it up. He had seen it on Facebook and read gazillions of comments. My 12-year old daughter was totally flummoxed. Why would women want to wear pants to church anyway? So we talked about some of the issues they were trying to address and what we all thought about this issues and how they were being raised. What irked my son is what irked me, and that is how supposedly otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints were talking to one another about the issue on line. The vitriol, while no longer shocking to anyone who spends more than 10 minutes reading comments on anything online, was disappointing among those who covenant to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort. He was the first to acknowledge that any... Read the rest of this entry »

Snippets for Relief Society 2012 Use search term George Albert Smith to view more for this week or for other weeks. It’s OK to be financially successful. It’s OK to be generous with our time, talents and means. In fact, it’s more than OK…they are the blessings and habits we were meant to have as followers and lovers of the Gospel of Christ. It doesn’t mean we won’t have times of financial challenges – it means that overall, more often than not – we were meant to be successful and generous. There are steps we each can take to become both prosperous and beneficent. President Smith sums it up nicely when he addressed the Relief Society during the Great Depression: “There never has been a time, in my judgment, when kindness was needed more than now. These are the days when people’s souls are being tried, and when their hearts are being wrung. These are the days when many are facing hunger and distress even among the Latter-day Saints.... Read the rest of this entry »

This video will make your day OK, so the last post mentioned our local LDS pear orchards and the picking our family has been donating time to. The pear orchard is a lovely place to be.  Located on a hillside above the town, it sits both peaceful, and scenic.  And every year I seem to have an epiphany while working there. This year, as luck would have it, my arrivals have been during the “ladder picking” phase.  Ladder picking is somewhat harder than ground picking.  The satchels we wear around our sholders get heavy, add climbing and descending the orchard ladder every few minutes – and even my teenagers work up a good sweat. Remember, we’re all amateurs in the orchard – it’s all volunteer.  The LDS community does not respect occupation nor church leadership nor any kind of status when it comes to pear picking (or any other church service).  We’re all out there on the ladders…doctors, millionaires, bishops,... Read the rest of this entry »

My daughter Shannon picking pears at the LDS Welfare Farm. How about that urban legend claiming Mormons are stingy and non-charitable?  It’s one of the more ignorant ones.  I can’t fathom the level of unprofessionalism in some journalists either.  Recently, Businessweek and others have written articles completely speculating on Mormon Church wealth figures, and then proclaiming how uncharitable Mormons are per member.  The usual trick?  They use only the dollar amounts spent on disaster relief (humanitarian aid) and ignore the LDS Church’s vast welfare system. So let’s look at the real picture.  The LDS Church has an amazing welfare system.  In fact, most Mormons don’t even know how much we have going on!  That’s partly because in the past, Church has only publicized the natural disaster relief efforts called “Humanitarian Aid.” The Mormon’s service and charity endeavors go incredibly... Read the rest of this entry »

A second in an occasional series (Part I here). It may come as a shock to some of you, but when we marry, we marry humans. Flawed, imperfect humans. I know that’s hard to believe. People who are courting tend to see fewer flaws (and work very, very hard to hide their own). And in those early honeymoon years of marriage, we tend to work hard to hide them, too. But sooner or later it will dawn on us: my spouse is as human as I am. Yikes! (Of course this thought, if we are lucky, might be tempered by the realization that our spouse has already figured that out about us.) Since we’re human, we will make mistakes. All sorts of mistakes. We’ll do the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, think the wrong thing. We’ll hurt one another’s feelings (whether we mean to or not), and we may take offense, even when none is intended. We’ll be judgmental. We may even try to change one another. How do good marriages survive those kinds of mistakes? I certainly don’t have all the answers,... Read the rest of this entry »

Continued from Part 1… Nephew Tanner – age 6 Part 2 has taken a whole week to appear!  My two nephews and niece have been here for five days and even with six children myself – I’ve forgotten how involved being with children this young truly is.  As in 24/7 – it never stops!  All my plans for this week flew at the speed of light, out the window.  So to all you moms with younger children – I salute you.  And you deserve it over and over and over.  Thank you for the essential, often unnoticed, service you give this world. Paul’s famous lesson on charity in 1 Corinthians 13 is so often quoted, perhaps it has lost some impact.  However, it is one of the most sublime check and balances on what spirituality really is and also what it is not. People proclaim all kinds of definitions of what being a Christian is now a days as well.  Some of which I find has nothing to do with the core of christianity,... Read the rest of this entry »

The last post had such a strident picture…I’ve thought about deleting it several times.  But its unpleasantness makes a point.  Have you ever seen a picture of yourself when you’re indignant, cross or angry?  I have.  Pretty shocking.  Pretty humbling. I have to wonder if Heavenly Father didn’t design us all to look completely awful when full of those emotions for a reason.  A built-in warning to let us know we don’t really want to be there.  AND a warning to run from others when they’re full of it too. It appears to be a cultural anomaly and farce that indignation, disrespect and piety ever made it as worthwhile “christian” duties.  And that goes for every one of us who follow Christ, not just the self-appointed Jesus police.  (Though truthfully, they’re the ones who prompted this post and the last – it’s seems we sometimes learn by opposites and contrasts). So today…a breath... Read the rest of this entry »

In a Gospel Doctrine class the other Sunday our instructor led a great discussion about the choice by the Anti-Nephi-Lehis to bury their weapons of rebellion. We discussed what our modern-day weapons of rebellion might be, and we discussed the value of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis’ act of burying their weapons. It was a really good lesson, and I left with lots to think about. Including this: Our instructor suggested that one of the qualities of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis was that they were peacemakers. I took exception to that idea in the class (and I still do). Another class member jumped in to focus on the individual peace that must have led the Anti-Nephi-Lehis to their choice to bury their weapons as token of their covenant with God. Not wanting to derail the lesson, I let it go. But what ran through my mind was this (despite my own anti-war pre-disposition): by burying their weapons of rebellion, they also buried their weapons of self-defense, as they then almost immediately (in the account,... Read the rest of this entry »

~by Michelle Years ago, when I was a teacher in the Young Women program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I attended Young Women Camp. I don’t remember the exact theme, but I think it had something to do with angels, because I remember singing the song, “Angels Among Us” around the campfire. I was reminded of this song last night. It was dark and late, but I needed to run to the store to get milk for the kiddos. Sunday night, I had driven around a bit and run the air conditioner, and before I knew it, I had run my car nearly to empty — to the point where I wasn’t sure I’d make it home. We typically try not to purchase things on Sunday, so I’d waited until last night to deal with it. I had a nervous knot in my stomach as I started the van. I hoped that I had enough “fumes” to get me the half mile to the gas station by the grocery store. I turned the ignition. (Good start … at least it started!) But then I watched... Read the rest of this entry »

What goes around… About a year ago, I posted about karma, and its references in the Book of Mormon. This morning it appeared again in 2 Corinthians. It isn’t as “karma” as the Book of Mormon reference, but it’s definitely from the same genre. “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6) This is from a letter written by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians and he’s mostly addressing karma as it relates to generosity and charity. In fact the next verse has its own mini-sermon…do I dare? Why not? It’s Saturday and I’ve got a little time and the verses are beautiful together. “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (verse 7) “…for God loveth a cheerful giver.” I know what this means for... Read the rest of this entry »