Best of LDS Blogs
The Test
When asked why life is hard, the Sunday school teachers of my youth replied, “Life is a test. It’s supposed to be hard.” The scriptures support the life-as-test perspective — a “probationary state” where we “prove” ourselves. Of course, if life is a test, then that means it’s designed to prepare...
Callings & Self-Esteem
To build self-esteem on callings is as dangerously shallow as depending on good looks, popularity, wealth, or achievements to pull us through. All these things can fade away in time. If we are not happy and emotionally healthy without a calling in the Church or an assignment in the mission, we...
I have Hope
Mormon Life says: This post doesn't start happy but fear not, it ends well.
I am a 40 something year old mom with five kids. I have a husband and a cat and until this morning, I had not realized that I had given up and my hope was gone. My oldest boy went on a mission two...
Eleanor and Emma
The early years in the Salt Lake Valley were years of shortages. The seagulls may have beaten back the crickets and saved part of the crop, but no seagull – nor anything else – could prevent wear and tear to a laborer’s clothing, nor produce the fabric to make new clothing. Cloth was one of the...
Blind-Sided By The Blind Side
The grim reality of life portrayed in the movie The Blind Side caught me off guard when I recently watched it with my wife on our weekly date night. The movie is essentially a happy movie about one person who was saved from a life doomed to poverty (and perhaps premature death) by a family who...
Changing my approach
Mormon Life says: A different approach to Young Women's activities. Interesting.
As I've discussed from one end of the internet to the other, I am a craft apologist. I think crafting has a plethora of benefits and is good for everyone, even those who don't feel naturally...
Confession as a Spiritual Practice
Amy Tan wrote in The Kitchen God’s Wife ‘this was how you [come] to love someone… One person [lets] out their fears, the other drawing close to soothe the pain. And then more would pour out, everything that has been hidden, more and more – sorrow, shame, loneliness, all the old aches, so much...
How Do We Know?
Mormon Life says: This is funny.
My husband assigned our four-year-old son Cole the FHE lesson last night. About half hour before FHE on the way home from a playdate he and I got around to planning. It went something like this,...
Home a Quiet Haven
As a mother of five, involved with way too many things, I am challenged to find privacy anywhere. Just the other day after a long and exhausting day, I laid in bed and pondered how impossible it was that throughout my day I had not had a single moment where I was not being touched, rubbed, tugged...
Leadership Training Conference with Elder Ballard
Mormon Life says: This is great--a glimpse inside what sounded like a great meeting.
This past Saturday I attended a Priesthood Leadership Conference held at the Brampton Ontario Stake Centre (beside the Toronto Temple). It was presided over by Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum...
Blogger, Heal Thyself
Mormon Life says: Why it is important to write things down.
Yesterday at church, a woman in my congregation came to me and said, “A couple of months ago you said in church that you had needed a miracle to happen before X could happen and that you had seen...
Fast Sundaes
Mormon Life says: A creative approach to fasting.
I have to admit, whining drives me nuts. Beyond nuts. I’m not sure there’s a word that satisfactorily describes the particular kind of psychosis I suffer on Fast and Testimony Sundays when my...
Roots
Mormon Life says: How strong are our roots?
On our first wedding anniversary, CPod and I both graduated from BYU. The next morning, we and all of our earthly belongings began the drive to Memphis, TN where CPod would embark of the next stage...
The Little Things
Long ago, in the days before the internet, I was a timid freshman at Vassar College. Vassar is located in Poughkeepsie, New York, about an hour and a half north of New York City. Though there is a small airport in a town near Vassar, it was significantly cheaper to find your way to NYC and fly in...
Success Strategies ~ Respecting Parents
There are certain skills I teach my children for successful communication in my home. Two of the main skills are Following Instructions and Accepting No Answers. These are two of the basic skills for showing respect to parents and for learning how to respect any authority, even God. People who...
