As we were driving to Indianapolis last week, Kyrie and Ella were sitting next to me and commenting on how unorganized my phone apps were. Some were duplicated and they knew I sometimes had trouble finding things. I simply hadn't gotten around to, which means MADE TIME FOR, that organizational process. So I handed them my phone and let them get to work. They deleted apps I no longer used - like the MyVerizon app because we changed providers four years ago 😬- and renamed my groups. This they did with a witty, humorous flair. Health and Fitness became "At Least You Tried". Maps became "Probably Gonna Get Lost Anyway". I contributed the name for social media as "Fellowshipping". We laughed and I thanked them but then as I looked at the groups I paused and thought about how I use my time and specifically how I let my phone dictate my time use. And I rearranged the groups. I moved "Jesus Stuff" to the first ...
On Sunday I was taking notes during Sacrament meeting and attempted to write down this quote from Marion G Romney. "Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made." But when I typed it into my phone, it autocorrected exalted to exhausted. It made me laugh because there are times when service can indeed leave me feeling exhausted. I pondered on what makes it exalting and what makes it exhausting. Exalted means to lift higher, to a more noble character. I think that means focusing more on the spiritual principles than necessarily the temporal presentation of the service. It also means aligning it with our own abilities, and availabilities. Kathleen Hughes counseled, "Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. Let’s simplify. The message of a good lesson comes through spiritual preparation. Let’s put our focus on the principles of the gospel and on the material in our study guides. Let’s prepare to cr...
Hannah was married to Elkenah. He also had another wife. That wife had borne him children. Hannah had not. Her most fervent desire had not been answered. At what had to have been one of her lowest points, and I think we can all identify with this moment, she is at the temple praying. It says she is moving her lips but words aren't coming out. In fact, the priest Eli, accuses her of being drunk. In reality she is praying with all her heart. Perhaps she is so full of emotion that audibly speaking them will unleash the tears. Perhaps she struggles to even find the right words. Perhaps she is afraid to even speak out loud those personal desires. I've been in all of those praying situations, haven't you? In 1 Samuel 1:10 it says, "And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore." Can you feel her there? In the bitterness of her soul? When it feels like there is no goodness left aro...
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