In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord uses the phrase “innumerable as the stars” (D&C 132:30). Two nights ago, my husband Josh and I just caught just a small glimpse of what that means. We were fortunate to go on a stargazing and telescope tour near Bryce Canyon National Park, which has some of the darkest skies in the world. Far away from the light pollution of cities, the stars...
If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived. Jeffrey R. Holland The Inconvienient Messiah, 1982 Have the Lord’s promises to you ever felt painfully out of reach? Have you ever felt that your current circumstances don’t match what you expected- despite your righteous choices? If so, the Old Testament has a...
The story of Noah fascinates me. Noah (and his wife) did hard things! It could not have been easy for Noah to declare repentance unto a people so wicked that they desired “only evil continually” (Moses 8:22). It could not have been easy for Noah to prophesy of a forthcoming flood to a people that “hearkened not” (Moses 8:24). It could not have been easy for Noah that many...
Canyonlands National Park, Utah One sobering pattern that has emerged in the opening chapters of the Old Testament is the reality and proximity of Satan. Wherever the Father and the Son work in righteousness, there Satan wages war in wickedness. In the pre-earth life he rebelled against the Father’s plan and sought to destroy our agency (Moses 4:3). In the Garden of Eden “he sought to...
As a mother of young children, it can be easy for me to feel that my daily work is insignificant. Sweep the floor and repeat. Fold the laundry and repeat. Change that diaper and…repeat. The world that we live in recognizes business success, civic service, and athletic performance, but it rarely acknowledges or applauds mothers and their work. I remember when my husband and I moved to Minnesota...
At times I have felt that the metaphorical mountains before me were too steep and too rugged to climb. At times I have felt that I was at an impasse-with no way to continue upward, despite my best efforts. This week as I have studied the accounts of the creation, I realized that because Christ is the Creator of all things, He knows exactly how to climb and conquer my mountains. If I really...
“Great men climb mountains,” my Grandfather was known to say. This adage has always stirred my soul; mountains inspire me. First, there’s the climb. There is something ennobling about making an ascent. One knows the hike will be difficult, but that is precisely the point-it is a chosen challenge, a deliberate decision to do something hard, to push one’s self from a lower...