Stronger Through Him

  Naomi and her husband Elimelech lived in Bethlehem with their two sons.  Due to a famine in the land they travel to Moab seeking work and the means to support their family.   While there, both sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth.  Then, over a period of years, both sons and Elimelech die.  Naomi, Orpah and Ruth are devastated, as would be any in their circumstances.  Naomi wants to return to Bethlehem where things have improved, and probably seeking the comfort of familiarity.  She tells both her daughters-in-law that they are free to go.  Orpah tearfully chooses to leave.  Ruth issues this famous decree to Naomi: "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”  Ruth 1:16 Thy God shall be my God.  The Moabites worshiped a god called Chemosh and their rituals included human sacrifi...

  The vibrance of the daffodils, tulips and other perennials make me smile every year.   You know what I really love about them? That I only had to plant them once and they keep on coming back. As long as they get sunshine and water they keep blooming year after year. But then I looked around my flower bed and do you know what else comes back year after year? Weeds. Lots and lots of weeds.   I guess that's a lot like how life is.  There are some blessings we have that once we make the effort seem to just keep on giving.  There are also problems that have no difficulty cycling back through again and again.   Sister Cheiko Okazaki instructed: "But mortality is designed as part of the gospel plan to bring us mingled experiences with good and evil, that we may learn from experience to make wise choices. And many of these experiences are painful. In most congregations of sisters (and brothers), even in hearts and homes in apparently ideal circumstances, there ar...