The Light of Suffering Made White
Let Your Light So Shine I have been pondering a question for a while. How does suffering enhance our human experience? How does God transform a tragedy into a miracle on our own behalf? If death, sin, mistakes and loss cause us pain, how come we are required to pass through earthly tribulation in order to become refined, as he would have us be? Talking to friends, acquaintances, members of my faith community, and family, I do not know...
Prepared in a manner that had never been known
Last night the ladies from my church group, known as the Relief Society, gathered for an activity. My new volunteer assignment is to help lead this group in our mission of compassion, service and enrichment for the women over 18 in our area. I love it! I love working with the women of our ward. I love working with our Relief Society presidency! I love the opportunity I have to plan activities with our committee, and the chance to be...
Doing What You Love
When I was a little girl my grandparents lived in a closed subdivision called North Point up in the Avenues by the old Primary Children’s hospital. Up on top of the northern Salt Lake Valley mountains, on the western edge of the neighborhood you could look over Memory Grove, from way up high. One day my mom brought our little family up for a visit. Leaning up against the front entry closet were two small pairs of skis, poles,...
Is the journey THAT important?
Salmon hatch from eggs in streams. They are born quite small and after a time have an urge to swim down stream. They swim to the ocean, sometimes as far as 100 miles, and others swim more than 2,500 miles, where they live for five years! They again have an urge to return to their birth place. Only now they have grown 100 times their size at birth. Traveling upstream is difficult. They become strong. The salt water mixed with the fresh...
The Second Gift of Christmas – Shining Bright
Mathew 2: 1-2 reads, “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” This star was planned, created, and set into motion, not on that Christmas day, but before then. It’s shape, position, brightness, movement and...
My First Gift of Christmas – Letting Go
In my front yard is a row of trees, three to be exact. I love these trees! In the spring they produce the most glorious pink blossoms! As they fall to the ground at the onslaught of summer, the gently wafting pedals look like a pastel snowstorm, blanketing my newly emerging grass with a layer of spring. Last year the middle of the three trees took began to decay. The life force of tree has cut off several large branches, which has in...