"Living After the Manner of Happiness"

http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2014_09_23_holland.htm

So beautiful

I'm teaching on Sunday, and in doing some last-minute preparations I came across this beautiful talk from Elder Scott. It touched my heart: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/04/temple-worship-the-source-of-strength-and-power-in-times-of-need?lang=eng

Culture, Law, and Religious Liberty

BYU Magazine arrived today. I really liked this commentary: https://www.mesacc.edu/students/tutoring/online-tutoring. I especially like the way the author compared Brown v. Board of Education with Roe v. Wade and drew implications from it.

Ponderize Week 2

This week I will be ponderizing Alma 12: 33-34.

Let's Ponderize together!

Let's share the verses we choose to "ponderize" and insights or experience we experience as a result!

I plan to ponderize Alma 12:14-15 this week.  :)

Keeping Covenants

I'm giving the presidency lesson in Relief Society on November 1, and I plan to teach about keeping covenants (both baptismal covenants and temple covenants). I don't have any favorite talks on the subject that immediately come to mind, but here is a list I've compiled after doing a basic search. Do any of you have any favorites that I should add to the list as I begin my study?

Keeping Covenants Prepares Us, Protects Us, and Empowers Us

• Rosemary Wixom
• https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/keeping-covenants-protects-us-prepares-us-and-empowers-us?lang=eng

Keeping Covenants: A Message for Those Who Will Serve a Mission

• Elder Holland
• https://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/01/keeping-covenants-a-message-for-those-who-will-serve-a-mission?lang=eng

Keeping Covenants and Honoring the Priesthood

• President Faust
• https://www.lds.org/ensign/1993/11/keeping-covenants-and-honoring-the-priesthood.p1?lang=eng

Keeping Covenants

• M. Russell Ballard
• https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1993/04/keeping-covenants?lang=eng

Keeping Our Covenants

• Richard Maynes (Seventy)
• https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/10/keeping-our-covenants?lang=eng

The Covenant Path: God's Plan for Me

• Rosemary Wixom
• https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/rosemary-m-wixom_the-covenant-path/

Making Covenants with God

• President Eyring
• https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/henry-b-eyring_making-covenants-god/

Cleave Unto the Covenants

• Daughters in My Kingdom, Chapter 3
• https://www.lds.org/relief-society/daughters-in-my-kingdom/manual/cleave-unto-the-covenants-exodus-migration-and-settlement?lang=eng

Must Read!

Elder Ballard talks about how--in the last days--even some of the very elect will be deceived. (I love his analogy of the sequoia tree on BYU campus.) He tells us how we can avoid the deception of false teachers with some essential habits. (Nor, he even specifically mentions "making the Sabbath day a delight"!)

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/to-the-saints-in-the-utah-south-area?cid=HP_TH_9-17-2015_dCN_fCNWS_xLIDyL2-1_&lang=eng

Sabbath Day a Delight

I am giving a talk next week on making a Sabbath day a delight.  I think I want to focus on preparing for the Sabbath day and the Sacrament.   Let me know if you have any thoughts on the topic.

Guilt, Shame & the Atonement

I have been asked to present a fireside for the Single Adults in my stake next month and chose to speak on Guilt, Shame & the Atonement.  I'm still in the "seek diligently/preparation" phase of my preparation and wanted to know if anyone had any talks, scripture verses, insights or stories about the topic that they would care to share.

Elder Bednar

I'm glad you brought this up, Nor. Because I came across a great Elder Bednar talk this morning that I'd never read before. He talks about how we receive revelation--that it's often a subtle process instead of a big event. One of my main take-aways is that if we wait around for a big, spectacular answer to our prayers, we may be misled into thinking that our prayers aren't being answered--when, in fact, we just aren't in tune to the way Heavenly Father communicates with us.

Elder Bednar gave several examples, but I especially liked this one:

Sister Bednar and I knew each other for 19 months and dated for 15 months before we were married. I do not recall ever receiving a single, overwhelming spiritual confirmation that she was “the one.” I do recall that as we dated, as we talked, as we became better acquainted, and as we observed and learned about each other in a variety of circumstances, I received many small, simple, and quiet reassurances that she was indeed a remarkable and spiritual woman. All of those simple answers over a period of time led to and produced an appropriate spiritual reassurance that indeed we were to be married. That reassurance did not come all at once; rather, it was spiritually subtle and gradually distilled upon our minds as the dews from heaven, as described in the 121st section of the Doctrine and Covenants (see verse 45).

https://www.lds.org/new-era/2010/09/line-upon-line-precept-upon-precept-2nephi-2830?lang=eng

I'm sad that this blog died...

I have really loved this blog and I hope that it hasn't completely died.  I just wanted to publish something in hopes that others will remember the blog and we can start posting again.

So here we go, I wanted to post my all-time favorite talk/devotional and I listen to it every year.  I recently listened to it again because I need the extra help with moving and the new changes in my life.  It's Elder Holland's "Remember Lot's Wife."

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland_remember-lots-wife/

Here's my favorite quote, "I just want to talk to you for a few minutes about looking back and looking ahead.  One of the purposes of history is to teach us the lessons of life. George Santayana, who should be more widely read than he is on a college campus, is best known for saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (Reason in Common Sense, vol. 1 of The Life of Reason [1905–1906]).  So, if history is this important—and it surely is—what did Lot’s wife do that was so wrong? As something of a student of history, I have thought about that and offer this as a partial answer. Apparently what was wrong with Lot’s wife was that she wasn’t just looking back; in her heart she wanted to go back. [...] In short, her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future."

Alarming Cultural Trends

I read this Ensign article a week or two ago, and I have found myself reflecting back on it occasionally since. It was originally given by Elder Oaks at a BYU-I devotional. If you haven't read it yet, I definitely recommend it: https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/03/stand-as-witnesses-of-god?lang=eng

Today I was listening to a talk by Elder Holland, given at a private Christian university a few weeks ago, and there is some thematic crossover with Elder Oaks's talk: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-apostle-delivers-message-on-faith-family-religious-freedom-at-california-university?cid=HPTU031015744. (If you scroll down, you can watch the entire speech.)

Both Elder Oaks and Elder Holland talk about the scary cultural trend away from religion--and what we can (and should) do about it as witnesses of Jesus Christ.