Mormon Bloggers

There was a family in the store the other day.  They had a 2 year old that was whining and crying.  “I want candy! I want candy!”  And the mom kept telling her no.  I passed them in several aisles and the little girl was still crying.  Finally, the dad said, “We will get some candy when we get to the candy aisle.”  The look on the mom’s face was absolute defeat.  Her husband just undermined her authority, and the child just learned that crying and whining work.  I wanted to go up and first, shake the dad and explain to him what he just did.  And then I wanted to go to the mom and tell her to stick to her guns. It’s okay to tell your kids no!  Read More →

Filed under: Apologetic Article, Youtube Video Tagged: Apologetics, Book o, Book of Mormon, Christ, Christianity, Church of Jesus Christ of … Continue reading »  Read More →

“Not My Will be Done, But Thine, be Done”         New Testament Lesson #25 Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46   … Continue reading »  Read More →

New Testament Lesson #24                      “This is Life Eternal”                                     John 16-17 Study outline: John 16:1-15: Jesus prepares his Apostles for the … Continue reading »  Read More →

Getting in a scuffle… A couple of verses in Matthew 12 really caught my attention this morning: 36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Idle words = Gossip (from scripture footnotes) I am guilty of gossip from time to time. Not a lot. But once in a while, I let it roll. Especially if someone repeatedly says or does something that is irritating. I have a prayer I often say in my heart: “Help me to just be Christ’s”. I normally say it when teaching a lesson or giving a talk or leading a group discussion. This morning, the understanding hit me: this same prayer would be very helpful in social situations too. There is so much temptation to vent our frustrations with people. But in doing so, we might want to remember a line from the Lord’s prayer (Aramaic version): Waschboklân chaubên... Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I came across this phrase in Jacob: “…and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you” (Jacob 6:5). Jacob has already delivered his I-wish-I-didn’t-have-to-talk-about-this speech, and he already shared Zenock’s allegory of the olive trees. His whole book seems to be about returning. Return from sin. Return from the diaspora. Come home to God. In this verse, he reminds us that God already cleaves unto us. In the next sentence in this verse, he reminds us that God’s arm of mercy is extended toward us. (And all this prophetically spoken since the Atonement is still to come.) How do I cleave unto God? Well, studying his word is a great place to start. I had gotten out of the habit of daily personal scripture study and a few weeks ago, egged on (inadvertently, I’m sure) by my teenaged son, I set about to re-read the Book of Mormon again. (I have no idea how many times I’ve read it, but this time is a “fast” read where I’m trying to read multiple chapters... Read the rest of this entry »

I have a chocolate lab named Tess.  We love her and she is madly devoted to us. She is a sweet dog that has moments of brilliance, but for the most part is not that bright.  For example, often times when open the back door to let her outside, she will walk onto the patio, then turn around and come right back into the house – even when I know she needs to “go potty” (yes, we talk to our dog like  Read More →

As we were finishing up supper last night (at 5:00), The Teenager remembered that each boy was supposed to bring a dozen cookies to the fireside (which starts at 7:00).  Grrr! So I jumped up and started making the dough. I scooped up 2 trays and then tasted the dough. It was salty! I looked back over the recipe and realized that with the salt and baking soda, instead of tripling the recipe, I multiplied it by 9. Nine!  Grrrrrrr! I was going to dump it and start over, but The Teenager said we could fix it. So we started gathering up ingredients and mixing. The Teenager then made an interesting observation. He said, “It’s a good thing we’re Mormons.” I asked him why, and he said because we have a big food storage and had all the ingredients so we could multiply it all by 9. I said it’s not just because we are Mormon, but because we follow the advice of our prophet. But he was right. I had everything I needed. Sometimes we find that our food storage saves us in the small... Read the rest of this entry »

The following I share, upon request, as a Sacrament talk offered in my current capacity as Second Counselor in the Stake Young Women’s Presidency. “You Can Make It.” When I was a teenager, the thought occurred to me, “What if my parents meant well in raising me as a member of the LDS Church, but what if they were wrong, and the whole thing is some kind of fairy tale? How will I know if it’s true, and if it is, how am I doing?” Dallin H. Oaks spoke about the difference between testimony and conversion, “Testimony is to know and to feel; conversion is to know and to become.” As w/ most members of the church, my conversion process began in the manner described by Alma: 26-27. The answer to my question, “Is this the true Church?”, has distilled as it did for Peter: Matt. 16:17 “For flesh and blood hath not brevealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” As I have “proved” the Lord, my confidence in its truthfulness... Read the rest of this entry »

“They Straightway Left Their Nets” – Historical Context Gospel Doctrine Class – New Testament, Lesson #6 Luke 4:14-32; 5; 6:12-16; Matthew 10 The purpose of this week’s study is to help individuals understand that the Apostles were called to be special witnesses of Jesus Christ. Because Apostles are divinely called of Christ, we are blessed [...]  Read More →

    God Is Your Loving Heavenly Father God is your Father in Heaven. He knows you personally and loves you more than you can comprehend. He wants you to be happy in this life and in eternity. To accomplish this purpose, Heavenly Father provided a plan called the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ [...]  Read More →

In various work environments have established safety policies and procedures. In my former place of employment, an employee had to be cognizant of his/her surrounding areas. If something went wrong, there are specific Lock Out Tag and Try procedures that must be performed in order to safely work on the machine, remove any fiberboard that [...]  Read More →