Happy Day after Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day isn’t a big deal around here, although someday I’d like it to be. I wish I had done more to celebrate it when all the kiddos lived at home. Back then, I felt like I was doing good to do something for Christmas, Easter and Independence Day. The other holidays just fell by the wayside. My sister goes all out with Valentine stockings that she made from sweaters she picked up at thrift stores. Each family member has a stocking, just like at Christmas. The family members put sweet notes and treats in each other’s stockings. Maybe I can inspire my married children to do that. I really love that the Bates family of the former reality show Bringing Up Bates does a big “I Love You Party” where they dress up in costumes, have a big dinner, and play games.
To celebrate Valentine’s with my friends, I hosted an online game night using the Newlywed Game format. I used the questions from the games above. Three other couples attended in addition to my husband and me. I asked such questions as:
“Who out of the people you know would make the best stand-up comedian?”
“Who out of the people in this room would the wife want to switch music libraries with?”
“My wife has too many of _______________.”
“My husband has too many of ______________.”
“My wife doesn’t have enough of ________.”
“My husband doesn’t have enough of _______.”
“My wife’s Church crush is _____________.”
It was loads of fun with lots of laughter and smiles. (I hoped to do one with my two married children with each one’s spouse. We had some obstacles pop up so that game night has yet to materialize.)
These friends who attended are some of my dearest friends, with some of them having been my girlfriends for decades. I just feel so grateful to have such longtime friends.
Here’s a story about a woman and a friend from her girlhood. It shows that when people die, they don’t go away. Their spirits live on in the spirit world and sometimes they are allowed to visit us. It’s called “From Beyond the Veil” by Carla Sansom. Go here to read it and enjoy.
The above photo shows my current Morning Basket. This is a place to contain all the books I want to read a little bit from for every morning as we homeschool. For years I haven’t had an official “basket,” and you don’t need one either. For years (ahem, decades), I just had a pile of books I liked to read from every day. Just last month, I found a basket for only $1 at a thrift store. Score! You can start doing Morning Basket without a basket, and if you do want a basket, just keep your eyes open for one that fits your budget.
Here’s a great video from homeschooling mom Pam Barnhill about what it is and then how to do a Morning Basket:
Here’s what is in my current morning basket:
-two picture books that relate to seasonal or holiday themes, like the ones shown above. Yes, I am still enjoying Christmas books in January and February. Nothing wrong with that! It keeps my mood up during winter. I start out with one and then end with one. So they are like the bookends to my Morning Basket time. I use the monthly picture book lists from here and then get the books from my local public library.
-a chapter from the Action Bible, with narration provided by the Audible version. I already had the Audible version from years ago, then I discovered a hard copy at the thrift store last summer. Yess!!!
-a Founding Father story a day, from this book below (another great thrifting find, after years of checking this book out from the public library whenever Independence Day rolled around)
-a two-page spread in this book: (We don’t actually do the experiments, just read about them. I’m hoping it helps my children see that science is exciting.)
-about 4 pages from the Tuttle Twins American History book by Connor Boyack.
My 13-year-old son is taking a class at our homeschool co-op about the Founding Era of the United States, for this whole school year. So I am reading this book to give him historical context to the Revolutionary War. I am learning as much as my son is. This Tuttle Twins book has a ton of stuff that I never heard in public school from any history teacher or read in any history textbook. I finally feel like I am filling in the gaps. We haven’t finished it yet but so far I love everything about it.
-a chapter Christmas book I bought at the used library book sale about a poor family living in a coal-mining town. It’s a book I wanted to read before Christmas but we didn’t get to it, what with all the other Christmas books I read. I do 2-4 pages a day. When we finish it I think we’ll then do a story a day from Marlene Peterson’s Libraries of Hope.
Sometimes we do something easy, like Kingdomino, which only takes about 15 minutes. This is good on days when we need to get out the door in the afternoon or have other pressing appointments.
Sometimes we play something complicated, like Where in the World is Carmen San Diego USA?
Or sometimes we do something even more complicated, like, Genotype, which is recommended for ages 12 and up. That works for us since my children are 13 and 16.
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I feel blessed that last month I happened upon a game made by Genius Games, the same company that makes Genotype. It was this science-y game called Periodic about the periodic table and chemistry, for only $5! Another thrifting score!
Image Credit: kickstarter.com
What I still want to add to Morning Basket time:
-poetry. I used to be fairly consistent about reading aloud poetry and memorizing a poem every week or so with my children. This was back in AZ when I had four children still in the nest. For every line memorized I’d give them a little treat I’d pick up from the bulk foods section of the grocery store. Ever since I moved (2 1/2 years ago) we haven’t done any memorizing. Time to get back at it, and dust off LaDawn Jacob’s poetry book here on my site. I’m thinking of continuing to memorize from that because it has so many “character building” poems. I also want to just read aloud the “poem of the day” from this book. I just love the idea of having a “thing” a day for each day of the year. I also love the poems in this book compiled by Julie Andrews and her daughter but it doesn’t have a poem for every day. Maybe 4-6 for each month.
-drawing. I’ve been on and off on teaching my children how to draw. We’ve been “off” since the move. I want to get back “on.” I like to think that because I exposed my 16-year-old daughter to drawing during our Morning Basket times years ago, that that consistent practice planted the seed for her to become an artist who is always drawing, sketching, doodling, etc. on her own. I have a ton of how-to-draw books I could use. I found another one while thrifting last fall. I believe what it says in “The Drawing Textbook” that people can learn to draw, just like they can learn to read. Drawing is not a special gift bestowed upon the few, just like reading isn’t.It’s available for anyone who practices it.
-singing. We used to sing songs I have curated in my Family Devotionals Ebook, again, before we moved. I have a son serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When he returns home, I’m going to see if he’ll join us for singing every morning, since he loves it. Before he left, he collaborated with friends on an album. He’ll be with us for just about two weeks before he takes off for a job in another town. Hopefully, his love of singing will rub off on them and we will just continue in the habit of morning singing after he leaves.
I just love doing my Morning Basket every day when we are home (all the weekdays except our homeschool co-op day). Along with our family scripture reading and prayer that we do in the AM before Dad leaves for work, along with my personal scripture reading and prayer, it is my anchor for the day. I just love it! It’s my concentrated time to share with my children what I hold dear as the good, the true, and the beautiful. It just feels so delicious and warms so heart, which is especially important on these gray wintry days.
I’d love to hear what’s in your Morning Basket! Please share below in the comments.
I enjoyed these next few videos below because they all touched upon, in different ways, on the power of fasting. They each talked about the experience Jesus had fasting 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. The experience of fasting reminds me of the above sign I saw in the home of one of my friends. I definitely feel that when I fast, I can feel a closeness to God and His angels. I feel them cheering me on “today, tomorrow, and forever.” Of course, God and His angels are always cheering us on, whether or not we fast, whether or not we do anything. It’s just that we are more able and likely to feel the cheering when we are fasting.
The video below is from Jared Halverson. In the video, Jared said something to the effect that fasting is like taming the beast inside you. The beast inside you is the “natural man” (or “natural woman” of course). He said as you feel the hunger rise up inside you like a beast, and your spirit tells it to quiet down, you become stronger. Jared starts talking about fasting around the 37 minute mark.
Next we have a video from Hank Smith, John Bytheway, and Dr. Jan Martin. In this video, they said that fasting is a tool to gain strength and power. Around the 16 minute mark is when they start talking about fasting. They talk about how Jesus gained inner strength by fasting in the wilderness so that His divine spirit would overcome his mortal body. We too can get spiritual strength from fasting. We can learn to do hard things as we gain this strength. Hank points out that the sons of Mosiah practiced fasting, and it gave them the spirit of prophecy and the ability to teach with power and authority. (See Alma 17:3)
I know that fasting gives so many benefits. For decades, I’ve done the monthly fasting (except when I was pregnant and nursing) on the first Sunday of each month to practice my religion as Latter-day Saint Christian. I’ve done that for spiritual reasons. I’ve received many blessings from those Fast Sundays, such as desired blessings too personal to mention here. Then off and on in my adulthood I’ve practiced intermittent fasting, sometimes fasting for three days, in order to lose weight. (See my discourse on dieting and intermittent fasting over here. Scroll way down to Point #2 to read what I say about intermittent fasting.) I agree it’s a hard thing, but there’s no question it increases mastery over the body. Fasting allows one to go on to do harder things. I firmly believe just as some evil spirits can come out in no other way, but by fasting and prayer (Matthew 17:21), some blessings can only come by fasting and prayer. Specifically health blessings. Fasting lowers insulin levels like nothing else can. High insulin is the cause of so many diseases. Dr. Benjamin Bikman calls these diseases the “plague of prosperity.” Watch his amazing speech below.
You know who recently practiced intermittent fasting in order to lose weight? Jim Bob Duggar, the father of the famous “19 Kids and Counting.” I was fascinated to read his story about it here. He had to give up his family’s tater tot casserole and treats at frequent family dinner parties, which he says is every week since his big family has 60 people in it now.
I love how he makes it sound so doable. He says he just pulls out his broth, heats it up, and sips on it when everybody else eats their stuff. He says he’s satisfied and not tempted by the treats around him. Way to go Jim Bob! He says that at first he was just going to fast for 3 days, but then after 3 days, he decided he could do more. By Day 35 of his fast, he had lost 35 lbs! I’m sure it was worth it! I wonder when he stopped and how many total pounds he lost?
The snow continues! Last week, it snowed maybe every other day, from Sunday to Sunday. It’s enough to make part of me want to just hunker down and take a long winter’s nap, saying, “Please wake me up when spring is here for good!” As some of you know, I moved to AZ seven years ago to get out of the snow. I found a job for my husband in AZ, encouraged him to apply for it, and rejoiced when he got it so we could move out of the frozen north. After 30+ years of slogging through Utah’s winters, it was just soooo nice to go to a place in AZ (not Phoenix) that still had four seasons, including snow, but milder versions of each one. Yes, AZ has places like that!
We still got snow, but it would just always melt by noon (unless you were in the mountains, which were less than a ten-minute drive from my house). I took the photo above from my front porch in AZ on a rare snowy morning. So this snow was perfect for homebodies like me who like to look at it through the window, seeing it blanket the landscape all picturesquely, but then don’t want to drive in it when I have to leave the house. Anyway, while in AZ I learned about this idea called hygge from my friend Olivia. Now that I’m back in Utah, cultivating hygge is what is helping me get through winter.
So yes! I am embracing winter now as part of my post-AZ hygge life in Utah. Let’s see…I went sledding on Christmas Eve, holed up in a mountain cabin over New Year’s Eve weekend while it snowed nonstop for 4 days, and now that we are in the post-holiday winter doldrums I’m finding lots of ways to create a cozy-looking home with cute decorations that befit the season.
I love it when the art and craft project I do for the 6-7 year-old class for my weekly homeschool co-op also turns out so cute that I want to decorate my house with it. See top photo above. For this past week I picked these 3-D snowflakes and strung them on yarn to make a garland. You can find a tutorial here. These are so simple! All you need is paper, scissors, stapler, tape, and string or yarn. (I didn’t bother with the cardboard tubes to store the garland in as suggested in the tutorial. It adds to the cuteness for sure but I didn’t have time to get those.)
I just love how this was easy enough for each kid to make at least one snowflake. I broke down the steps and showed the process to them beforehand with a sample from most of the steps. I manned the stapler and the transparent tape, and they had to wait in line for me to help them for that part. I brought the string already cut in pieces less than a yard. They strung their own snowflakes onto the string. Out of the 13 kiddos, most were done after making one snowflake and went on to our free play. We had about 5 who persisted and made 3-4 to make a garland. It was fun! After taping each one I’d hold it up high for all to see and announce who made it. I exclaimed over how beautiful each one was. I was delighted to see them each smile with their eyes lighting up after my excitement.
Image Credit above and below: goodreads.com
Before we did the activity, I read aloud the picture books shown above and below to them. Then I unveiled the snowflake garland I had made beforehand and asked them if they wanted to make one. They eagerly dove into the project. I suggested they make the garland and then take it home and then give it away, in order to “share some kindness and bring some light.”
So if you are looking for a fun simple winter art project for children combined with two picture books, look no further! Lots of other snowflake picture books would work, but I chose these to combine the idea of warming up in winter with decorations, giving, and kindness.
Photo Image Credit: Oak Norton’s Scripture Notes YouTube Channel
I just love this interview that my friend Oak Norton did just last Sunday with New York Times bestselling fantasy author Brandon Mull. See below. If you are a fan of Jesus Christ and/or Brandon Mull, you will love it!
I loved that Brandon got vulnerable and shared how heartbroken he was when his first wife divorced him. It was the power of Jesus Christ that got him through this devastating time. If you, or anyone you know, has been divorced, I encourage you to watch this.
Brandon tells his complete story, from the time he was a child using his imagination, to his time at BYU working with Divine Comedy, then serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Chile, then starting his writing career. Then he shares how he worked super hard to get his books to sell, and then finally how the success came. He thought everybody was happy and then got the news that his wife wanted a divorce. He went through a super painful time.
I love that he shares about the power of making personalized covenants with God. He tells the story of how he did that. When we do such a thing, he says that the Lord gives us power to fulfill that promise we make with God. I have experienced the same thing. I know this is true! I hope you enjoy watching and learning from the video below.
I just love snowflakes! They are the one of the many things that brighten up winter after the excitement of Christmas is over. If you don’t get real ones outside, you can always make paper ones!
If I had lived near Wilson, aka “Snowflake” Bentley, we would have been friends. I just know it. I remember one time I was outside about to get in the car, years ago. I was trying to get out the door to some appointment related to homeschooling, and I was frustrated with one of my children. It was snowing and he interrupted my admonition to him by pointing out the beauty of a snowflake that had just landed on his mitten. That was enough to reach my inner Snowflake Bentley and soften my heart in the moment. I stopped feeling quite so grumpy and stopped to admire the beauty of the snowflake. For a moment, I could see its tiny, exquisite form as a perfect 6-pointed snowflake before it melted away.
If you don’t know who Snowflake Bentley is, watch this video below.
According to Familysearch.org, Mr. Bentley is my fourth cousin third times removed. Awesome! It’s doubly awesome that he was homeschooled. I just think it’s so cool that his mother was his mentor. It was his mother who recognized his genius for appreciating snowflakes and sacrificed the money to buy him the expensive camera that would take photos of snowflakes. For years, it’s been one of my personal traditions, in January, to read aloud the book Snowflake Bentley to at least one of my children, and then cut out paper snowflakes to decorate our windows. It’s been so fun for me, after moving back to Utah two years ago, to discover other people have this same tradition.
My daughter and I went to a move night to watch Pride and Prejudice with some of her scholar friends. The hostess, the mentor for her class at our homeschooling co-op (commonwealth school) had this lovely display dedicated to Wilson Bentley, aka Snowflake Bentley. See photo at the top. Isn’t it just one of the cutest things you’ve ever seen? I love it! She also had her dining room table decorated with snowflakes. They were on top of the table with a plastic see-through tablecloth over them. She said she bought them at amazon. She also had them all over her windows. As she said, it makes putting away the Christmas decorations fun because we know we can replace them all with our snowflake decorations for January. I’ve had the same thoughts for years!
I’ve thought a lot about how snow testifies of Jesus Christ. Snow has order, as Jesus does. It comes in a few different forms, such as plates, rods, and dendrites. Yet there is infinite variety within these forms to show the infinitely creative power of our Creator Jesus Christ. Snow, also, like fire, can give life, and destroy. It is a force to be admired and respected, just as fire is and just as our Creator is.
I have photos of me as a kid out in the snow, enjoying it. Then I got old and boring and didn’t like it because it’s cold. I moved to AZ to get out of it. Now I am back in Utah and am learning to love it. I’ve learned to just bundle and cover up and get out there and love it. Usually on Christmas Eve my kids always go sledding. In the past I’ve sent them on their own and stayed home to fix food. This past Christmas Eve I went out with them, covered head to toe with winter gear. I actually went sledding. It was fun!
Here are some fun videos I found of one of my favorite families, the Duggars, the Forsyths, and the Seewalds enjoying the snow. Happy snow days everyone!
Image Credit: Jared Halverson’s YouTube Channel, called Unshaken
I’ve loved learning more about Jesus these past two weeks of January as the Come, Follow Christ study has changed its focus to the New Testament with the new year of 2023. Yay! We get to study the Four Gospels as a whole church and then the rest of the New Testament.
Here are my favorite videos from last week, when we studied Matthew 2 and Luke 2. It was Christmas all over again, this time in January, as we studied the Nativity Story. I loved it!
In the above and below videos, Hank Smith and John Bytheway studied Matthew 2 and Luke 2 with Dr. Bradley Wilcox. Brad’s a perfect guest to talk about the Christmas story since he loves Jesus so much and his birthday is on Christmas Day. (You can listen to one of my favorite talks about the grace of Jesus, done by Brad, over here.)
In the Part 2 video below, John talks about the three levels of Christmas, at the 23:26 mark:
Level 1: celebrating Santa Claus, reindeer, etc.
Level 2: celebrating Jesus Christ as a baby, who doesn’t demand anything of us, because he is peacefully sleeping during His “Silent Night.”
Level 3: celebrating and worshiping Jesus Christ in all His glory as a full-grown man who grew up after being a baby in the manger. He is the Christ the Lord who is not always silent; He does ask things of us. We are to fall down on our knees to worship Him. He is an adult now who requires things of us if we are to be His disciples and to live with Him again.
Also, in Part 2, at the 31:46 mark, Brad talks about Luke 2:52. I love what Brad says about this. This is the verse that says how Jesus grew. It says that He grew in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man. Those are the four ways we can each grow: intellectually (wisdom), physically (stature), spiritually (favor with God), and socially (favor with man). This is the basis for the Children and Youth program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brad takes a few minutes to talk about how wonderful it is that the program helps children and youth to learn to turn to God in prayer to learn what goals to set in order to grow in each area. (This program came out in 2019 to replace the old program I grew up with that had a pre-determined list of goals for every Young Woman. The boys had the Scout program.)
He also points out this wonderfully super important point. He connects Luke 2:49 to Luke 2:52. In Luke 2:49. Jesus asks His parents if they would like Him to be about his father’s business, meaning Heavenly Father’s business. This was after they found him in the temple, talking to the doctors (teachers). (Interesting side note: Joseph Smith’s Translation shows that the doctors were asking Him questions.) So Brad explains that that is the context for us and our children and youth to set their goals. It’s important that we each set goals after praying to God the Father to know what goals He wants us to do to be about His business. That way the goal program is God-centered not self-centered.
Then I also loved this commentary by Jared Halvorsen, in the two videos below, of the Unshaken YouTube Channel.
Last, but certainly not least, here are two new videos by Rhonda and Farrell Pickering, about the Nativity and the dating of Christ’s birth. The way they put pieces of the puzzle together to show historical evidence of Christ’s birth is amazing!
Image Credit: Rhonda and Farrell Pickering’s YouTube Video here, called “The Eyewitnesses of Christ: Dating the Ministry of Christ- the Case for the Word of God”
The first video is so, so sweet. They talk about how important it is to be broken in order to receive Christ. Then the second video by the Pickerings below is about the dating of the birth of Christ. I can watch all these videos over and over and truly have an Endless Christmas, like John talks about in his videos at the top. I am full of awe and gratitude for our Beloved Savior Jesus Christ, for these truths and for the people who create this content. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Happy winter everyone! I love that some times, on these sometimes gloomy wintry days, the sun breaks out and makes everything look bright and white. That’s the same feeling I have about the Son, Jesus Christ, giving us light for a fresh new start. Today in church I heard the sweetest story from a young man in my congregation. He started his talk by saying that he had been asked to share a story from his life and how it relates to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thought, wow, how simple, yet how wonderful. It would be wonderful if each of this in the congregation got asked to do this! I would love that! Every person whether they know it or not, has a story to say about Jesus touching their lives.
The story the young man shared was this. He said that he was involved in a church basketball team of 12-13 year old young men, years ago. They played against other teams of young men that same age in a league. One of the young men on his team was really, good. His name is John. For a while, every play involved John running down the court at lightning speed and shooting a basket. At some point, John decided to give the other players a turn with the ball. He gave the ball to Adam and let Adam take control. Adam dribbled a bit and shot the ball at the basket and missed. He was disappointed but he could tell that John was happy that Adam made the effort. Then when Adam did make a basket John was really happy. Then years later, the time came for Adam to play basketball with younger cousins. He was finally in John’s shoes. He was the strongest and fastest player. He could have hogged the ball the whole time and made all the points, but he didn’t. He let the younger cousins have many turns with the ball, and loved seeing them make points. So Adam likened that to Jesus Christ. He said that that is how Jesus is. He is the strongest, fastest player. He could control all of our lives and win everything for us. But he gets more joy by sharing the ball of our life with us. He hands it over us. He watches us struggle. He loves it when we shoot to make spiritual baskets. He is sad when we miss. He gets tremendous joy when he sees us make the baskets and make progress. I just thought that was so beautiful.
What is it about human nature that leads some people to commit unspeakably evil acts? And, perhaps a more important question for each of us, why do so many people submit to or even support these villains?
World history sadly offers us a long list of dictators and totalitarian thugs who used their power to steal from and oppress their countrymen—and kill those who defied them. As tragic as these stories all are, they can still offer us lessons to learn from if we try to understand why these people acted the way they did—both those in control and those who were controlled. And these lessons may just have the key we need to help make sure the list of future villains is far shorter than the list in this book.
Here’s the list of bad dudes our book covers:
Napoleon Bonaparte Karl Marx Leopold II Woodrow Wilson Nicholas II Vladimir Lenin Joseph Stalin Ismail Enver Pasha Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Adolf Hitler Ho Chi Minh Josip Broz (“Tito”) Mao Zedong Ne Win Kim Il-Sung Augusto Pinochet Robert Mugabe Pol Pot Idi Amin Fidel Castro Hosni Mubarak
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Look at these beautiful deer we saw yesterday as we were coming home from a New Year’s vacation at my parents’ mountain cabin. It’s a momma dear and her baby. I love seeing wildlife, as they bear witness of a Creator, Jesus Christ. We have had a beautiful time of Christmas celebrating His birth and a wonderful week between Christmas and New Year’s. (Despite some HUGE negative feelings that arose inside of me on Christmas Day. That’s a subject for another time.) On Thursday I took the kids to my parents’ cabin for a weekend of sledding (not for me with my old bones), hygge-ness, and board games.(I cover hygge-ness here.) I had a wonderful time with lots of extended family. I loved playing games with my parents, children, husband, nieces and nephews. I loved seeing my grandnieces and grandnephews toddle about. The only thing wrong was that two sons and my married daughter, her husband, and my grandbabies weren’t there. I was thrilled that my oldest child and his girlfriend could be there, having flown in from TX.
I’m not ready to give up Christmas around here. I just might continue sharing some Christmas-y things over the next while.
First, the video below. The image above comes from the video. It teaches you about the sacred astronomy involved in the birth of Jesus. It’s more than just a new star shining at His birth. Truly all things bear witness of Jesus Christ and His love for us.
Watching the above video stirred inside me tremendous feelings of love and gratitude to God. I’m just so full of awe and gratitude that He aligns signs in the heavens and the earth so perfectly. He creates endless, interwoven patterns for us to enjoy. He creates miracles. Not just back then, with the birth of Jesus, orchestrated according to multiple signs in the heavens, but continuing onward. He continues with signs and wonders, with Jesus working on each of us, for Jesus to change our hearts and bring us back home to Heavenly Father as righteous creatures, able to live with Father again.
This story that I read here spoke truth to me as well. I love that the author says that we are each part of “the next great miracle” that God is creating. I absolutely loved it. The story is about how this woman moved from SLC Utah to Montana so her husband could take a border patrol job at the US-Canadian border. She was used to being busy making a lot of Christmas music every fall and early winter as a violin teacher. She and her students put on a lot of concerts together. For the past 15 years or so she had held a benefit concert to earn money and food for a homeless shelter. She wanted to do one in Montana. She started calling around to get people to help. No one would agree, until someone told her to call a woman named “Connie” to get help. So she did.
Connie was the first person to match her enthusiasm. So they worked together and put together a 2 1/2 hour program with 40 musicians. Afterwards, the writer says (quoting from the story),
“People talked about the concert for months afterward with a feeling of community pride. Everyone had known that their neighbors and friends had talents, but no one had ever seen those talents presented in one place at the same time. Many commented on how good it felt to have the different churches come together for an event, and others said it set the tone for the rest of the Christmas season. However, the most common sentiment was simply that it made people ‘feel good inside.’
“Last December we held our second annual Community Christmas Concert and raised $2,000 for the local ministerial association’s charitable work. The number of participants and the amount of community and ecclesiastical involvement continued to grow. The concert seems to be on its way to becoming a tradition in our area—something everyone looks forward to. And still, the biggest reason people say they attend is because of the feeling that is present.
“My testimony is that Heavenly Father wants our light and His light to shine. He will give us promptings. When we follow those promptings and have faith to move forward—even when it is uncomfortable—He will work His miracles through us. He is always preparing us for the next miracle. I realize now that my prior musical experiences and accomplishments had simply been preparation for that moment when everyone in our community sang ‘Silent Night’ together.
“How grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father who sees the whole picture and knows where we fit in, where we can contribute, and how we can help bless others.” (See Melanie Massey Hoggan’s article here.)
I just love that line, “He is always preparing us for the next miracle.”
It’s very true, that is exactly how I feel. Hence we always want to be improving our talents, our skills, our knowledge, and our wisdom, so we can be ready to be instruments in His hands to be involved in God’s next great miracle. I always want to follow those little whisperings of the Holy Spirit so I can be part of His next great miracle.
I had my own little post-Christmas miracle just this past Monday. After we got off the mountain in my father’s ATV and then his 4WD truck, just leaving the parking lot at the base of the mountain where we had parked our cars proved difficult. It had snowed so much, every day over the weekend, that our cars spun wheels, getting over a teeny hill to get to the road connecting to the parking lot. So our three cars in a line were stuck. A Good Samaritan came and helped us get two out of the three cars out of the parking lot onto the road. My car was more difficult. We called AAA but the dispatcher couldn’t even get a tow truck to come since all the tow truck drivers were all celebrating New Year’s Day. (So much for 24/7 emergency roadside assistance. There’s a caveat for you AAA members: you can get emergency help unless you are out in the boonies and it’s New Year’s Day, being observed on a Monday).
Who should appear, after we had worked, dug, pushed and pulled and waited inside semi-warm cars for three hours, but another wonderful Good Samaritan. This time it was someone I already knew! I’ve actually blogged about him and heard him speak many times. He attached his tow strap to his Jeep and got us out sooner than we could say Saint Nicholas. It was amazing! I feel so blessed! One of my favorite videos of him is below. Who was this rescuer? It was Rod Meldrum, the Book of Mormon guy. Why was he able to pull us out using a smaller car, and the same kind of tow strap, when the other guy couldn’t? I believe it’s because he travels with angelic help.
We were able to start driving and get out of the canyon before it got dark. I’m feeling so blessed. I even got to stop at a thrift store on the way home, something I’ve missed for three weeks because of all my holiday work. We came home, shoveled the driveway, ate dinner, watched a Christmas movie, and basked in the light and love of Christ. It was the perfect ending for a week of holiday-ing.
Tree of Life Mothering 