An Interview with Author, Loralee Evans
Lorlee Evans and I belong to the same writers group, and as such, I have the privilege of being able to listen to testimonies being born on a number of gospel principles. I am a single mom with four children, and am a high school English teacher. I have written two...
Teens: Perspective
This was the lesson I gave in my Young Women’s class recently. I didn’t make it to Sunday School, where most of my spiritual epiphanies originate, so I’m taking my inspiration from the messages I delivered in class. Perspective is a funny thing. It has to be based on...
Men of Valor: The Powerful Impact of a Righteous Man
Men of Valor: The Powerful Impact of a Righteous Man by strongly of the advantage of having a righteous man in the home. He sounds the clarion call to men around the world to live up to their divine heritage and priesthood responsibilities. In the book, he quotes...
In the Thick of Thin Things
It is far too early to be thinking about school starting. I am savoring the summer, enjoying the fact that we still have more to come. I enjoy the longer and slower days and the easing of schedules and responsibilities. Family vacation gives us distance from our...
The Lord and Servant in Zenos’ Allegory
In a previous article I summarized the allegory of the Olive Tree, which the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob retold. It was first told by a prophet named Zenos, whose writings we no longer have. In another article, I explained the meaning of the tree. Today, I’d like to...
A Sit-down with an Aussie on the Gospel of Jesus Christ
From the land down under, Wendy Cohen agreed to give us her thoughts on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wendy is a stay-at-home-mom of four living in Australia. Her oldest child just started university away from home, this year and is greatly missed. She is a second...
The Tree in Zenos’ Allegory
In the previous article, I summarized for you the allegory of the Olive Tree, found in Jacob 5. Since the entire story revolves around this tree, it’s important to understand what it represents. In allegories, many things represent something else, and we must learn...
The Parable of the Olive Tree
Jacob, the third prophet of the Book of Mormon, related an allegory first told by an ancient prophet named Zenos. We no longer have his writings and we know only that he was a great prophet much loved by the Nephites, who quoted him frequently, and that he was killed...
Plain and Simple Gospel Truths
Jacob was the third prophet of the Book of Mormon. He called his people together in the temple to chastise them for their wickedness, and their failure to live the gospel that had once defined them. To help them see the risks they faced, he also prophesied of the...
The True Church Must Teach Truth
I’ve seen many articles lately suggesting that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Mormon Church, needs to “get with the times.” When people tell a church to cave to popular opinion, fads, or styles, they are...
The Law of Moses
The people of the Book of Mormon lived in the Americas in ancient times. However, they initially came here from Jerusalem, fleeing around 600 B.C. and bringing with them the scriptures available to that point. As a result, they had the law of Moses and, until the...
Prepared to Serve the Lord
As Latter-day Saints, Mormons, we are prepared from our youth to serve the Lord. It has nothing to do with being programmed or brainwashed, but rather we are taught from birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and His great and glorious sacrifice that we might be saved and...
Your Family and Your Happiness
It’s all very well and good for us to decide to be happy, but how in the world do we make it happen? How do you go from a life that is full of challenges and upset to a life that is full of optimism and happiness? It’s not only my job to think of how it might be done,...
Trust in the Arm of the Lord
Other times it is very easy. In the Book of Mormon, we find the ancient American prophet, Nephi, beseeching the Lord in a tender, beautiful prayer known as Nephi’s Psalm. During that prayer, Nephi offers his thoughts about relying on the Lord, rather than man: O Lord,...
Diversity
Jacob was the third prophet of the Book of Mormon. His family had left Jerusalem before he was born, when his father, Lehi, a prophet, was in danger. They came to a new land in the Americas. Sometime after their arrival, their father died. Lehi had two older sons who...
Bearing One Another’s Burden
Adversity is the refiner’s fire that bends iron but tempers steel. (President James E. Faust, Ensign February 1988, “The Blessings of Adversity”) These past several weeks have been very challenging ones for our family. For awhile, it felt as if we came through one...
Be Content with the Things of Christ
There are many around us, in fact the world seems to be almost entirely focused on achievement, competition, perfection, and material possessions. There are more ways advertised in all the media we encounter every day to be better, have more, and change who we are to...
Pride Goeth Before the Fall
A week or so ago I was able to attend a fireside given by Merrill Osmond. In it, he said something that really stilled the room, for me, and sunk deeply into my heart: Where there is ego, you will never find the Lord. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins and all of...
A Conversation of Truth . . . Being Black in the Mormon Church
I had the wonderful opportunity of sitting down with a fantastic woman who has enlightened me in a number of ways. I decided I wanted to share with our LDSBlogs.com readers this daughter of God as well. So, please let me introduce you to Jewel Adams: wife, mother and...
Riches Do Not Guarantee Happiness
We’ve all heard it. Maybe we’ve even said it, ourselves. “If only I could make just a bit more money—then I’d be happy.” So we work hard, sacrificing time away from our families, refusing to take vacations, all in an effort to be the best at our job and to make more...