Living After the Manner of Happiness

Photo by   Em bé khóc nhè  on  Unsplash It seems 2020 has been a year of mourning. The past few weeks I found myself once again mourning what was supposed to have been a time of family … all together at last. We’ve had a couple of these trips planned this year only to have them all canceled. I’m sure you have had similar experiences of anticipating and planning only to have them canceled.   I have seen such parallelism to the private and public battles we are dealing with this year woven throughout the war chapters as I’ve studied the last couple of weeks. Have you recognized them as well? I’ve had the overwhelming feeling the Nephites completely understood what it means to have a tough year (or years). Yet, tucked in the middle of their difficult years is this nugget:   “… there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than the days of Moroni; yea even at this time, in the twenty and first year of the reign of the judges” (Al...

Eleanor Roosevelt's Book Of Common Sense Etiquette (1962) photo obtained from https://pin.it/2ui32Dj Five years ago, we gathered in a remote town in southern Texas to celebrate the latest group of Air Force officers to earn their wings. Our own pilot would head off in just a few short weeks to begin living his dream: flying an F-16. This dream began fourteen years earlier while working on a merit badge. All the preparation suddenly became very real that day, and we now find ourselves watching military news closely, especially fighter squadrons. This morning I awoke early to a text that simply said there’s been a crash on base. He was not involved and is safe at home right now. Following this text was a myriad of others from worried family members. I breathed a sigh of relief in hopes of calming my racing heart. My heart aches for the family and friends of this pilot – a feeling I have had several times over the last several weeks. Times like this bring reflection on why my so...

photo credit: Becki Simonsen I am a lover of light! I decorate more with light than things. I eagerly throw open the shutters each morning allowing the morning sun to fill our home with light! Sitting with the majestic view of Mount Timpanogos in front of me studying my Come Follow Me one morning this week, I was reminded of my first visit to her cave many years ago. Have you ever visited a cave? The darkness, the change in temperature, and the unique formations can make you feel as if you have entered another world. The only way to see the Timpanogos cave system is on a tour. There are lights highlighting the cave formations and helping to light the way. Many of the walkways and staircases are narrow with very low ceilings. The natural beauty inside the cave is breathtaking. On my last trip, I remember thinking this must be the “awesome wonder” the familiar hymn describes (“How Great Thou Art,” Hymn #86). At one point, in the middle of the tour, the rangers turn off all the ...

We set out early that fall morning wanting to get the bulk of our hike in before the heat of the day set in. It was fall break, and we were camping at Zions National Park with two other neighbor families. Our youngest was seven, and we decided he was finally old enough to tackle the Angels Landing trail. The first couple of miles was a steady, uphill climb on a wide, paved trail. Then, the trail enters Refrigerator Canyon. Carved between Cathedral Mountain and Angels Landing, it is the only shaded part of the hike. Exiting the canyon, you begin the ascend known as Walter’s Wiggles. The series of twenty-one switchbacks at 19% grade gets your thighs burning and heart pumping. At the top, we stopped to rest at Scout Lookout. One of our neighbors, realizing the difficulty of what lay ahead, decided it would be best for them to turn around. So, they took their youngest two children, and the other neighbor’s youngest, and left their oldest to finish the hike with the rest of us. Wa...

As Conference ended Sunday evening, I sat for a time trying to make sense of all the thoughts running through my head. I believe COVID-19 has everyone mourning something right now. It might be your daughter’s last prom or your son’s graduation. Perhaps it’s a canceled wedding reception or missing the birth of a grandchild. All of us are feeling the ache of missing out on something. We all are feeling cut off from the people and things we love. There is so much to mourn right now. Yet, as I sat there Sunday evening trying to unravel my thoughts, the only words that came to me were HOPE and LOVE. Not just any love, but the all-encompassing love that comes only from our Father above. I have found these two words woven throughout my studies this week as I have focused on the people who witnessed the events of the Holy Week firsthand. Yesterday I studied the story of Thomas (see John 20:24-29). Like all of us, he felt the ache of missing out on something big. Des...

Several years ago, before he became President of the Church, then Elder Nelson gave a talk in General Conference titled “A Plea to My Sisters.” I have had the words of this talk etched in my soul since then. “Today, … we need women who know how to make important things happen by their faith and who are courageous defenders of morality and families. … We need women who are devoted to shepherding God’s children along the covenant path toward exaltation; women who know how to receive personal revelation, who understand the power and peace of the temple endowment; women who know how to call upon the powers of heaven to protect and strengthen children and families; women who teach fearlessly. … “… [W]e need women who have a bedrock of understanding of the doctrine of Christ and who will use that understanding to teach and help raise a sin-resistant generation. We need women who can detect deception in all of its forms. We need women who know how to access the power that God makes...

We are taught to watch for patterns “because repetition is a pattern related to receiving and recognizing revelation” (David A. Bednar, “Repeat Over Again … the Same Things as Before,” BYU-I Devotional, 26 January 2016). Sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday, the speaker mentioned a pattern he had recently noticed in which several talks he had been studying all used this quote from Pres. Nelson: “[T]he joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation … and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy” (“Joy and Spiritual Survival,” General Conference , October 2016). This past week we studied some of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. In 2 Nephi 2, Lehi teaches us that we have been created to have joy (vs 25). Then, in 2...

My brother shared an analogy with me last night. He used a ladder to describe our motives and attitude behind why we do the things we do. The first rung of the ladder is out of fear, the second is out of duty (checking the box), and the third is because we love the person. The fourth and final rungs are because we love God. I had this analogy in my thoughts this morning as I read 1 Nephi 8. In particular, look at verses 24-25, 28 and compare them to verse 30 thinking about the ladder analogy. What is the difference between these two groups? All of them pressed forward, then caught hold of the rod, and continued pressing forward through the mists of darkness. One group clung to the rod and the other group continually held fast, but both groups had hold of the rod. It is what happens after that makes all the difference. President Packer taught the following about the word after in relation to this chapter. “One word in this dream or vision should have special meaning to...