I really love all three of these videos to supplement my study this past week of the Doctrine and Covenants. That’s the new topic of study for the 2021 Come, Follow Me Sunday School class of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the above video, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, and Anthony Sweat discuss Doctrine and Covenants 1. I love at the 52 minute mark, Dr. Sweat explains what it means in D&C 1:30 when it says that the Church is the only true and living church on the whole face of the earth, which the Lord is “well pleased with, speaking unto the church collectively, not individually–” Dr. Sweat explains that that doesn’t mean the leaders of the Church will never make mistakes. Dr. Sweat explains that “true” means “authorized.” Sometimes that means the leaders are authorized to make mistakes. That’s because the leaders go to Him and propose something, and He lets them do it, and it might be a mistake, so that the leader(s) learn. (Such was the case with Joseph Smith asking to let Martin Harris borrow the manuscript of 116 translated pages from the Book of Mormon.)
The video above is from my old standbys, David and Emily, from the Don’t Miss This Come Follow Me YouTube channel, discussing D&C 1. I love that they emphasize that this revelation is for all people. All people, whether they are members of the Church or not.
Finally, the above two videos are done by my husband’s cousin, Lynne Hilton Wilson. She gives a ton of backstory to the Doctrine and Covenants. Additionally, she answers some hard questions about Joseph Smith, including “Why did it take until 1831 for Joseph Smith to write down his story?” Fascinating! These videos are more for this coming week’s lesson, but are also a great foundation for the whole year’s study. I love her sweet, gentle, yet exciting nature, and all of her graphics and explanations. You can go to the website for her organization here, and get additional study helps for each week’s readings. Enjoy!
We had a wonderful Christmas season of familial gathering. One son came from Texas, and two others who live away from home but close by, came for a few days and nights. So all my kiddos were here except for my daughter who was too close to giving birth. So the six children who were here cozied up in the bedroom loft of our new-to-us-home to sleep on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed all of our traditions with my husband’s mother being here for Christmas Day.
Then we had a fun bunch of days afterwards playing games and watching movies. That was all crowned with what happened next. What a joyful morning when I woke up this past Wednesday to a picture sent by my son-in-law, announcing the birth of his and my daughter’s second baby. I’m so happy for them! Now I have two grandsons. There’s nothing like having and/or holding a baby close to Christmas time to give a taste of what Mary must have felt as she cuddled with baby Jesus and looked into his eyes.
The above video features Donny Osmond’s nephew, David, singing the beautiful song, “Mary Did You Know?” That song captures the feelings I’m hinting at. Then in the video Amberli Nelson reads a story, entitled, “No Wonder She Wept.” This is how Amberli imagines the Nativity Story. She writes from the perspective of a young boy observing Mary. I love that she has the idea that Mary’s aunt was her midwife and used herbs to help bring Jesus into the world. It’s such a sweet story. I hope you enjoy it! You can also read it here.
With my dear husband, at a formal ball, standing next to a ballerina Christmas tree.
I’m popping in to share my Christmas joys. Here are some of my old delights, as well as a few new ones I’ve discovered to make my Christmas more fun and meaningful for 2020.
So far the season has been wonderful. I love to stretch this magical time out as much as possible. Usually that means stretching past the New Year’s mark with Christmas-y stuff, not really introducing Christmas before Thanksgiving. I love to keep reading Christmas books in January. And I may have had more than one year where I left the tree up until after Valentine’s Day. :-).
Two Saturdays ago the hubs and I got to go to a formal ball. So he asked me out on a date! Yes! Often the default of our weekly date is a movie at home. Sometimes it’s a step up where we have a game night with friends or relatives over Zoom. So this date was extra special. We went to the grand opening formal ball of a ballet studio where my 19 year old BYU-attending-son has been taking ballet lessons.
It was amazing! The place is so elegant. I got to wear the pretty red dress I got for my older daughter’s wedding. We danced the night away, cheek to cheek. We also saw my son there with his seven friends, on a quadruple date.The tree in the lobby was decorated with ballerina ornaments. The whole night was magical.
So that was new. Sort of. When the older kids were teens, we went to a formal holiday ball every year with a lot of their homeschool ballroom dance friends. So it was kind of like old times. Except we didn’t know anyone there, except for said 19 year old son, who introduced us to his date and friends. We still had a lot of fun. I enjoyed talking to my husband, dancing, and seeing if we could figure out which couples were married and which weren’t.
Here are some old delights of Christmas that I am enjoying again this year:
Christmas Picture Books. Here’s my list of my oldies but goodies.
We’re planning on our traditional Christmas day of everyone picking their own favorite activity to do as a family. I got the idea from my friend Kim Davis. Here’s her explanation of that.
Hot cocoa with a few drops of peppermint essential oil. I have cocoa year round but I save the peppermint oil for Christmastime.
Christmas chapter books that I read aloud to my youngest kiddos. I am reading a little bit from each of these three books.
This one is a sequel to Christmas Jars. More on that book below.
My older kids do remember me reading this to them years ago. It’s delightful! Now that I’m back in Utah I can easily find it at the public library again to read aloud to the younger ones.
My children will never pick this up on their own to read. They shall have a bit of Anne of Green Gables and her Canadian neighbors, no matter the season!
Christmas music by the Von Trapp Children, Maria Von Trapp’s descendants. I listen on either Pandora, Spotify, or YouTube. Angelic voices! Something about their crisp, clean voices makes me feel as if I’m sipping cocoa in a chalet in the Alps, surrounded by the warmth of a crackling fire and a fragrant Christmas pine tree, with freshly fallen snow sparkling on the ground.
Christmas music concerts with the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. My oldest son has been in two of them as a dancer. Oh how I remember being so jealous of my husband and oldest daughter and her friend, the year they went to the concert that featured Natalie Cole and David McCullough. We were too poor to hire a babysitter so I stayed home with the younger kids. How time flies and brings changes! Now my youngest is 11 and I can go to things like this. I did make up for this lost opportunity a few years later when I got to go to the concert the year the Muppets came, with two of my younger kids, while one of the older ones babysat the others.
Giving away our Christmas Jar. We started this tradition of collecting our spare change and dollar bills a few years ago after I read the book Christmas Jars, by Jason F. Wright.
We are splitting it four ways. It always feels good to give. I read aloud Christmas Jars to my younger kids last year. The older ones don’t remember me reading it to them but I know I did. (Usually it’s my younger kids that I feel miss out on my read-aloud-book rituals, and my middle child. I think he missed out on me reading aloud all the Little House books. The older ones got it between my own reading and lisetning on CDs, and the younger ones got it thirteen years later, but not him, in a cognizant state. He was three when I did with the older ones and 16 with the younger ones so then he was gone a lot. Such is the fate of the middle child.) Anyway, it’s good to know I’m not neglecting the younger ones. We watched the movie last year with the younger ones, this year I’m making sure the older ones see it too.
Caroling/singing. I went with my church group last week. I am determined to spread the cheer of this activity with my kiddos again. I love it when we gather round the piano or keyboard to sing Christmas songs.
Light the World. I signed up to get the text reminders on my phone and printed out the calendar. I rarely feel organized enough to do what it says, but I still like getting the ideas.
So those are the old Christmas delights I am enjoying again. Now for what I’ve discovered for this year.
I’m going to start the traditions in this book next year for our family.
Christmas With a Capital C movie. I love Brad Stine’s telling of the Nativity Story in it. It’s a cute story that emphasizes Christ’s role in Christmas, and real-life application of Christ’s teachings.
Children old enough to make their own Christmas cookies. Yay, yay, yay! Just when i was gearing up to tackle again this “good Christmas mom obligatory project” with my kiddos, my 11 year old made them on his own one Sunday morning. He was totally OK with not frosting with them so, um, yeah, yay for that too! Then the 14 year old got cookies for her church activity and frosted hers over zoom with the girls in her class. Now today the 16 year old is making them, with the Pioneer Woman glaze frosting to boot! So if you are feeling guilty for never making sugar cookies with your kids, just wait for them to grow bigger and they will make them on their own.
The 12 Days of Christmas with Craft Lit podcast. My older daughter tuned me into Craft Lit when her first baby was born. It’s for people who love listening to classic stories while they craft. Of course you don’t have to be crafting while you listen. The page for all of the 12 Days of Christmas episodes is here.
Christmas romance novels, see below. I’ve resisted Richard Paul Evans’ romance books for years. Finally this year I decided to check them out. They are like Hallmark Christmas movies in a book, although each one has a dark element that I’ve never seen in any Hallmark movie. They are clean romances that will restore your faith in humanity, as long as you believe these fictional stories reflect humanity. The first one got turned into a Hallmark movie. I’ve yet to watch it to see if it has the dark, sad element. I wish someone would write romance books about married love, Christmas-y or not.
This one actually does involve married love, but that’s not the focus.
Christian-themed Christmas books I got from the library. I just finished the one above today and am reading from this one below.
I’m not necessarily reading these books/stories in order. It’s just fun to be in a “love of learning” mode when it comes to Christmas stories. The one just above has classic Christmas stories from Christians that have been around for decades, like The Gift of the Magi and the Little Match Girl (that one’s so sad I usually avoid it), and lesser-known tales in the public domain, like this one I absolutely love, How I Spent My Million, by J. Edgar Park. Then it also has stories by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some of which I recognize as being previously published in the Church’s magazines.
The Last Straw movie. Cheesy but cute. The acting is not the best but it will probably bring a smile to your face. I love the playfulness between the neighbors and the cozy family feeling at the end.
My friend Katie, a fellow thrifter, who has a family hand chime choir. I loved their Christmas concert given at their home! So delightful! I never knew hand chimes existed. I thought handbells were the extent of hand-held percussive instruments. These things look like hair straightening irons with bells attached. Now I know what I want for Christmas next year!
Each year Christmas gets better for me. I have less stress because the kiddos do more work: the shopping/gifting, the decorating, the baking, and the cleaning up. More importantly, each year brings richer delights, deeper understanding of the best gift every given, my Savior Jesus Christ.
Along with that comes a stronger desire to be more like Him. Then the crowning touches are desires to be an even better giver like Him in the coming year, with a growing anticipation of the gifts that the Father and the Son have in store for me.
I love last week’s reading for the Come, Follow Me study guide of Moroni 10 from the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. It contains so many yummy gems. The videos above and below talk about all these goodies. I love, love, love that Moroni 10 talks about gifts. It says that Christ is the giver of every good gift. How true that is! What’s even better than that, it says that if we are to come unto Christ, we are to lay hold onto every gift. Then it gives a list of spiritual gifts in Moroni 10:9-18, with an injunction for us to receive these gifts:
9 For behold, to one is given by the Spirit of God, that he may teach the word of wisdom;
10 And to another, that he may teach the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
11 And to another, exceedingly great faith; and to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
12 And again, to another, that he may work mighty miracles;
13 And again, to another, that he may prophesy concerning all things;
14 And again, to another, the beholding of angels and ministering spirits;
15 And again, to another, all kinds of tongues;
16 And again, to another, the interpretation of languages and of divers kinds of tongues.
17 And all these gifts come by the Spirit of Christ; and they come unto every man severally, according as he will.
18 And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that every good gift cometh of Christ.
Here’s a great talk by Elder Larry Lawrence about spiritual gifts. A clip from the talk is below. You can watch the whole thing here. I encourage you to listen to it and get hope and inspiration. How wonderful to know that we can and are supposed to receive every gift. We can and are supposed to ask God for these gifts! I like to think of Christmas as a taste and foreshadowing, because of the gifts given and received. These gifts remind us that Heavenly Father and Christ have many more gifts in store for us. That includes the day when we will be perfected in Christ.
Now here is my Veggie Gal friend Becky Edwards’ video of her favorite takeaways of Elder Lawrence’s speech. This is all so wonderful!
I enjoyed reading Moroni 7-9 this past week. I’ve always loved the definition of charity from Moroni in Moroni 7:45-48.
“And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.”
I’ve posted the video from the Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon Evidences Podcast that relates to Moroni 7-9. It features Lori Bean Henderson, talking about her grandfather, Willard Bean. More about that in a minute.
I love finding movies to watch with my children to show this Christlike love, this charity. I was pleasantly surprised that we stumbled upon one recently. Last night as a family we watched a movie called Christmas With a Capital C. It was cute. It shows a family showing Christlike love to an enemy. See the trailer below.
It makes me think of Willard Bean, “The Fighting Preacher.” He was called by the leaders of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to make friends of The Church in Palmyra, New York, where Joseph Smith lived when he got the plates that became the Book of Mormon. Some people made a movie about Willard.
See the trailer for that below. Willard Bean definitely had Christlike love to make friends with people who were originally enemies. People were extremely rude to them at first. Willard and his wife Rebecca won the people over with a combination of boxing (from Willard), love, service, and food.
This clip below shows the bullying that happened
In the podcast episode at the very top of this post, Willard’s granddaughter says that the bullying did not happen to her Aunt Palmyra, as shown in the movie, but to her dad and his brother.
It’s just amazing to know that Christ, as the source of all that is good and glorious, gives people strength to overcome ugliness, meanness, and rudeness, because of His love. I highly encourage you to watch the video at the very top of this page to hear the back story of Willard and the true story of his charity. It’s a bit different from the movie. Then go watch the movie if you haven’t already.
Praise God for the examples of Willard Bean, Corrie ten Boom and her family, and many other Christians for showing us real life examples of charity.
I love that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church I belong to, is hosting Christmas concerts every night December 2-23. You can view the schedule here. Most of them are live stream only, but the first one below, is recorded. It’s just so wonderful that we live in an age when we can access beautiful music at almost anytime, anywhere. I’m so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and that we have a holiday every year to celebrate His birth. It’s no coincidence that it is in December, in order to light up our lives at the darkest time of the year.
The above video is an excerpt from the Christmas Concert called, “Celebrating the Light of the World.” It features the new daddy-daughter duo singing sensation of Mat and Savanna Shaw. The video of the full concert is below. It features some sister missionaries who take you on a tour of Temple Square. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
The past week of Thanksgiving Day buzz and after-days relaxation slightly distracted me from my series of #GiveThanks posts. So I’m getting back to it, so I can finish the prophet President Russell M. Nelson’s invitation. Today is my #GiveThanks post #7. I am formally giving thanks to God for His Only Begotten Son, my Savior Jesus Christ. I am always thankful for Him, of course. Today I am giving thanks for Him for the crowning touch of my seven days of #GiveThanks. I am just so grateful for Jesus Christ, especially as we enter the Christmas season. Without Him, I would not have anything else to give thanks for on Thanksgiving, or any other day.
We used this turkey recipe I’ve blogged about over here. Another year of having a delicious turkey that is not dry. Thanks to Heather Woods for the recipe!
We had a lovely time on Thanksgiving Day. Blessedly, my mother-in-law got to come. It was so nice for her to get out after recovering from you-know-what. She had been isolated for months before she got it, during her time with it, and afterwards, since she is a widow living in a retirement center. She got to have two Thanksgiving dinners, one at her daughter’s on Tuesday night and then one here on the Day. My husband was in a particular jocular mood. He cracked a lot of jokes during dinner and after. She can’t remember the last time she laughed so hard.
Just like last year, I assigned people to make something. My husband made the gravy. I did the turkey. 16 year old son and 11 year old son did the potatoes, Pioneer Woman style with lots of fat. The 14 year old daughter did the cranberry sauce, also using the Pioneer Woman’s recipe. I’m not a fan of sweet potatoes turned into candy with marshmallows and sugar, so I simply steamed some after cutting them up. After dinner and cleaning up, some of my kiddos and I connected with some relatives on my side over Zoom. We chatted for a while. This was the first time that my parents ate Thanksgiving Dinner alone, in their 50+ years of marriage, because of the pandemic. Every year until now they have had either relatives and/or kids with them.
I definitely wanted to connect with them so they wouldn’t feel so alone. After we chatted, one of the cousins in Maine and some of us living here played Code Names online. That was fun. Then those of us here in person played the Game of Things. That was a lot of fun too. I highly recommend this game. It’s perfect for when you don’t want to think too hard, but you want to connect and get to know each other better, without being too silly. I love this game!
Anyway, it’s so Providential that in the past few weeks using the Book of Mormon Study Guide of Come, Follow Me, that we’ve been reading about the Jaredites being led across the “great deep,” the ocean. Whenever I read that, I think of the Thanksgiving Day Pilgrims. They too crossed an ocean, to come to their promised land. They were not seafaring people normally so that ocean must have been mighty mysterious and treacherous. Why were they so willing to cross it? Because of their faith in Jesus Christ, and their desire to practice that faith in their own way.
I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I never really understood the need for him until I was an adult.
Becoming a wife and mother has brought me face to face with all my failures and imperfections. I’m so grateful for second, third, fourth, and many more chances. That only comes because Jesus Christ paid the price for those chances. It is His enabling grace that gives me strength to keep going with a full brightness of hope.
I love that last month of November, I got to talk and hear a lot about faith in Jesus Christ. We talked about faith both in our homeschool group, in all the children’s classes, ages 4 all the way up to age 17. We also talked a lot about faith at home with our Come, Follow Me Study of the Book of Mormon. In our homeschool group we kicked off the month of November in our moms’ class by sharing stories of faith. One mom told this incredible story that makes me feel the Holy Spirit everytime I think about it.
She said that awhile ago, her family had their car stolen right from their driveway. How horrible! I can’t even imagination how devastating that would feel. Her husband had left the key in its ignition and ran inside to do one last thing before he drove off. In that brief time, a thief came and stole it. Instead of panicking about their stolen car, and how they would pay to replace it, they exercised faith in Jesus Christ. First off, they didn’t talk negatively about the thief. They prayed to God and asked God to bless the thief. They decided he must have been feeling desperate if he chose to steal a car from someone’s driveway. He needed help. Then they decided to pray and ask for help in finding the car. After they prayed, they decided to start driving in their other car to go look for it. The mom said she felt the Holy Spirit guiding her to turn at a certain intersection and then go to Walmart. So they did. They entered the parking lot. Her husband decided to click on the remaining remote key fob to see if they could hear a beep. They kept driving around and beeping and guess what? They found the car! So they called the police and waited. The police came and apprehended the crook as he came to get in the car. He was only inside Walmart for 15 minutes. Isn’t that amazing? God directed them to the exact spot where their stolen car was, out of all the places it could have been on this planet, within the 15 minute window that was needed to find the crook. This story gives me chills every time I think about. They prayed in the name of Jesus Christ, our advocate, and got an answer through the Holy Spirit, the partner of Jesus which He gave to us when He left the earth, so we could have His comfort and guidance. That Spirit guided them to get their stolen car back. It was a miracle! Yes, Jesus is a god of miracles! If Jesus can speak to my friend through the Holy Spirit on where to go to find her stolen car, He can help me with any of my problems and any of yours too!
Mormon 9:11 of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ says that Jesus Christ is a God of miracles.
“But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.”
Amen! I am so thankful that the god I worship, Jesus Christ, is a God of miracles. To add to those stories from my homeschool group shared by my mom friends, I loved reviewing the stories of faith from the Pilgrims. the Pilgrims experienced a few miracles as they voyaged. Number one was that when they had trouble with a broken main beam, they happened to have the right piece of equipment to fix it, a jackscrew. Another miracle was when John Howland fell overboard. He was able to get back in the ship.
This is how God rescued him, in the words of Governor William Bradford, an eyewitness:
“And one of them John Howland came above and, with a roll of the ship, he was thrown into the sea; but it pleased God that he caught hold of a rope that was trailing in the water and held on though he was several fathoms under water till he was hauled up by the same rope to the brim of the water, and then with a boat-hook and other means got him into the ship again and his life was saved; and though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth.”
As President M. Russell Ballard says in the video here, the above event was a miracle. It was God’s hand who somehow placed that rope in the water so John Howland could reach it and be pulled out of the dangerous ocean. God provided for this so that John could survive and live to be an ancestor in the New World of Joseph Smith, the prophet of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The gravestone of John Howland. Photo credit: findagrave.com.
President Ballard goes on to say in that video, “About four years after they arrived in the New World, John married fellow Mayflower passenger Elizabeth Tilley, a brave and committed daughter of God. They eventually had 10 children and nearly 90 grandchildren. But that is not where the story ends. Today, an estimated 2 million Americans trace their roots to John and Elizabeth. Their descendants include three U.S. presidents—Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush; American poets Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and two influential 19th-century American religious leaders—the prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum Smith. Think about it for a moment—the existence of these political leaders, poets, and prophets hinged on this one young man finding and grabbing a rope in the ocean and holding on tight to be saved. It was a miracle!”
This book talks about the many miracles of the Pilgrims.
Yes it was! I’m also a descendant of John Howland so I too am grateful he was preserved. I’m not a fan of FDR nor the Bushes but I’m grateful for this insight and President Ballard’s injunction to look for the Lord’s hand in each of our own lives from that talk. I am thankful for the miracles in my own life that Jesus has perfectly orchestrated. Here are some of them:
He gave me the tender mercy of being able to birth my last three babies each on a Sunday. I really wanted that to happen, for various reasons, and it did, three times in a row, after asking for it. You can’t tell me that that was random.
He sent angels to protect my two children, when they were both teens, to be safe and uninjured when my daughter accidentally collided with a public transportation bus while driving. This was a blessing in disguise as it allowed our car to be totaled, and we got a lot of insurance money for that totaled car. So blessedly, this money was enough to pay off the debt we owed on it, with money left over to buy a used car for cash. The previous spring I had listened to Dave Ramsey’s audiobook, The Total Money Makeover. In that book, Dave rants on about why having a car payment is so stupid. I started yearning for a way to get out of our car payment on our minivan. It felt overwhelmingly impossible as we had great money trouble at the time. There was no way to find extra income in the budget to pay off the debt. Little did I know that He would provide a way six months later. Ever since then we haven’t had a car payment. It’s been so wonderful!
He and Heavenly Father knew that I desired a beautiful portrait of Him to hang on my wall in my living room. They gifted it to me in the form of a friend. I couldn’t afford it. Jesus inspired a friend, through the Holy Spirit, to give me the very portrait off her wall to me. It was a Greg Olsen print of the Savior. It now hangs in my home, a loving reminder of the Savior’s omniscience and power to inspire and my friend’s loving willingness to respond to the Spirit. See the photo at the top of this post. It’s so beautiful!
He inspired, through the Holy Spirit, that same friend to have a yard “giveaway” instead of a yard sale. Insightfully and so generously, she invited a handful of friends to come to her giveaway an hour earlier so that her friends could have our pick of what household items she was giving away, before the general public showed up. I was able to get many items that our family was in need of, when we didn’t have money to spare. Things like blankets, towels, and dishes to replace what had worn out after many years of marriage with lots of kiddos. Amazingly, He knew that something that wasn’t a necessity of mine was broken and it would delight me to get a new one to replace it. A year or so before this incident, one of my children had broken my cake decorator set, a wedding gift, by attempting to put peanut butter in it! Ugh! God knew I would like a new one. I love to use it to decorate my pies. I hadn’t told anyone about this, but God knew. I was able to get a like new one to replace it, this Pampered Chef one pictured below, because my friend gave it to me at her yard giveaway. This was no coincidence.
He inspired, again through the Holy Spirit, a man who shared office space with my husband, to say something to my husband. That something was the same thing that I had been saying to my husband for over a year. I needed a second witness and this man provided it. That something was a suggestion for my husband to apply out of state for a job, specifically in AZ, during our money troubles. My husband needed to hear it from someone else. You probably have experienced this too. I too have been in the same boat. My husband will tell me a truth, but I have to hear it from someone else to take it seriously. Anyway, that second witness of looking for a job in AZ prompted our move to AZ five years ago. In fact, I am publishing this post the day after the date, December 2, which marks our five year anniversary of moving to AZ. We have since moved back to Utah. Each move deserves its own separate blog post of inspired events orchestrated by Jesus. Those are for another day! Suffice it to say He was behind both moves.
He spoke through the Holy Spirit to my then 16 year old son to ask his siblings, if everyone had their seat belts on. I was the driver of the car with my four youngest as passengers. It was around 9 PM on a drive to Utah, as we wended our way through Las Vegas. That question saved my other son’s life. He did not have his belt on at the moment but then put it on because of his brother’s prompting. Five minutes later I collided head on with another car, going at least 45 mph. I am certain if my then 13 year old had not had his seat belt on, he would have gone sailing through the windshield and been seriously injured or killed. I am so grateful for this prompting of the Spirit. God still has work for this son to do.
He has inspired people through the Holy Spirit to offer to help us movea few times. In particular I had three friends who spent hours helping me dejunk, pack, and clean during the last move. I thank God for such amazing generous friends. When we moved to AZ we had amazing family and friends who helped us move as well.
He has been my refuge and my comfort during my troubled times. I have prayed in His name to my Heavenly Father and felt tremendous peace. Especially during this past year with the pandemic and my husband’s job loss a year ago, on Thanksgiving Eve.
He spoke to me through the Holy Spirit to guide us where to live when we moved when my husband got a new job in Utah. That guidance ultimately landed me in a place where I could meet The Candy Bomber, which is a dream come true.
He surprised me with blessings of two unspoken desires. I had not told these desires to anyone, not even my husband. Years ago, actually decades, LOL, when I was in college, I thought it would be wonderful to live in a certain neighborhood. Now, 30 years later, I am blessed to live in that very neighborhood. Another unspoken desire I had developed over the past 15 years was to have a light, bright, white kitchen. I have always lived in kitchens with dark cupboards. This last move, I was delighted to finally be blessed with a light kitchen with only white cupboards, countertops, and floor. I can only chalk this up to the miraculous intervention of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
As Moroni says in Ether 12:38, copied below, I advise you to seek this Jesus. He is a God of miracles. Praise His name! Let Him show up in your life. Pray to the Father in His name, asking Him to be your advocate for your specific desires.
“I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen.”
May you be surprised and delighted by the miracles of Jesus in your own life!
Gluten-free recipes of holiday faves are here, courtesy of Mommypotamus blogger Heather Dessinger. She’s got stuffing without bread (amazing!), pumpkin pie, and more! They all look delicious.
A super easy way to have grain-free pumpkin pie is to just go crustless. I use the Healthy Home Economist’s pumpkin pie recipe here and just put the filling in a well-buttered pie dish. I decorate generously with whipped cream and don’t miss the crust!
Thank-you card printables are here, courtesy of blogger Jennifer Flanders. They are beautiful, Victorian style.
Thanksgiving-themed games are here. For ready-made Thanksgiving Scattergories, go here, again courtesy of Jennifer Flanders. Her ultimate Thanksgiving printable bundle is here. I highly recommend you sign up for Heather, Katie, and Jennifer’s mailing lists on their web sites.
I also suggest listening to the prophet President Nelson’s video below with his invitation to give thanks, then complete the #GiveThanks challenge.
Did you know this year marks the 400th year anniversary of the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth? Here is a great website about the Pilgrims’ Quadricentennial. It has free documents to download to read aloud with your family, full of primary sources, and videos to watch. It’s so important we teach our children the sacredness of the Mayflower Compact and the Pilgrims’ search for liberty.
I also recommend listening to William Bradford’s own words, his “History of Plimoth Plantation.”
It’s totally OK to keep reading about Thanksgiving and Pilgrims after the Feast Day. I have a bunch of Thanksgiving and Christmas picture books that I’ll be reading throughout November, December, and even into January and February. Here is my Thanksgiving list and here is my Christmas list.
Lastly, to help preserve liberty today, I highly recommend getting Connor Boyack’s Black Friday deal, to teach yourself and your family about how to apply the principle of liberty in real life. Go here to learn more. Full disclosure: that is an affiliate link so I do get a commission if buy the deal.
If you want resources to get educated on principles of liberty, for yourself and your family, this is the deal for you. Please read this message below from Connor Boyack, the creator of the above resources, including the Tuttle Twins books.
This massive deal has been in the works for quite a while.
Those three new guidebooks? We’ve been working on them for two years.
They’re perfect for teens (and young adults) and are packed full of helpful information about:
Stories of inspiring entrepreneurs and how they overcame challenges
Tales of courageous heroes and how their lives can be an example for us
Logical fallacies and how to spot bad arguments that prevent us from learning truth
We also have brand new parent guides that provide helpful information about each of our children’s books, so the adults can learn even more and better help their children learn as well. These are going to be an amazing resource to help you.
And speaking of helping you…
We’ve also got a brand new 115-page e-book where we have rebuttals to 40 of the top economic and political myths…
I’ve been meaning to watch this movie for years and finally got around to it this week. You can see it in Amazon prime video or probably find it at your local public library like I did.
It’s a great “family togetherness” movie. After all, it’s from the Hallmark Channel. Being extremely loosely based on the short story of the same name by Louisa May Alcott, it takes place in the 1800s. I love to read that short story every year to my kiddos in the form of the picture book as shown below. The only thing in common, however, between the movie and the short story is the title and the name of some of the characters. In the short story, which the picture book below contains, the children of a family unite to put on a grand Thanksgiving dinner while the parents are called away. The whole story takes place in a day.
In the movie, a widowed woman finds herself estranged from her mother. Forces bring the two together, early in the movie, after they’ve been apart for years. The rest of the movie takes place over weeks. It’s all about how mother and daughter navigate their strained relationship after even more emotional battles and then illness, in order to have a happy Thanksgiving dinner together. I give it five out of five stars. It’s sweet and charming, perfect for family viewing.
Here are some discussion questions:
When is it OK for a grandchild to go behind a parent’s back and ask a grandparent for help?
Is it OK for a grandparent to give gifts to grandchildren without consulting the parents?
Is it possible to give too many gifts to family members?
How does one heal from broken family relationships?
What does one do when family secrets are spilled out?
What principles does this movie show?
Do you see any of these principles in your life?
“Life purposes are greater than our imagination.” — one of the great quotes from the movie.
Tree of Life Mothering 