Category: Journal
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Preaching Morality
Inspired by Elder Callister’s “A fence at the top or an ambulance at the bottom” and some online reactions to it. In a world of wickedness it is imperative that we preach morality but we can’t forget that even when we are doing the right thing it can bring about unpleasant side effects to more…
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On Christlike service for others
Spencer Stevenson quoted someone (I’m not sure who he was quoting): “Christ’s mission had always been to serve Heavenly Father by saving His children.” (I’m sure my version isn’t completely accurate.) Lisa Clegg quoted someone (Possibly Bonnie Cordon): “In reality, you can never love the Lord until you serve Him by serving His children.” The…
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Context matters
Brother Pat Gillan tells a story of going with the young men to the summit of Mount Whitney many years ago. When they got back from their 15 hour, 22 mile hike where they had gained 6000 feet in elevation they had spaghetti for dinner. For weeks afterward his wife got calls from the mothers…
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Rear-ended
After nearly 30 years of driving I got in my first accident on the freeway. Traffic came to a standstill and I stopped safely and felt good that there was lots of space behind me clear of cars. About 3 seconds later I was suddenly hit from behind. My car was in amazingly good shape—it…
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Unrecognized grief
I realized today that I am mourning the loss of my friend. That’s how this all started, with a best friend that I couldn’t wait to talk to about anything and who I was happy to listen to any time. Sadly somewhere in the last several years that friendship got buried somewhere and I’m lonely…
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Nothing there
It feels important to record this state. For many weeks now I have felt that Laura no longer seems to care at all about our marriage—like she has again emotionally divorced herself from me. She’s done this a couple of times in the last two years but in the previous iterations she could say least…
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Called to serve – in my dreams
I woke to a very surprising dream this morning – I dreamed that I was called to preside over the Brazil Area for the church. I was excited since Savannah will be serving her mission in Brazil and this would let me use the Portuguese I have been studying but I was shocked that I…
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Comforting Truths
Heavenly Father sat down with us as His children and went over the pros and cons of the plan of salvation. We each chose mortality with full knowledge of the cons in the plan of salvation. (We clearly each concluded that the pros outweighed the cons.) The challenges you have now were not a surprise…
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Eight for eight
Today I baptized Emma this completing I’ve of my life goals – to baptize each of my children. It was good to see that the spirit was touching her even as she say there before the baptism. While she claimed little real understanding of the ordinance she did feel it. Being the baptism I just…
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Good things happening
We’ve been waiting for weeks for Savannah to hear back from Utah State University about whether the was accepted into the Music Therapy program. After her last interview she felt good and based on what they told her there I really felt like she was a great example of the kind of student they would…