“How Can I Help You Know That Mistakes Are Part of the Process?”
Last week, I wrote about a piano student who is teaching me to evaluate how and if I'm consistent in my daily efforts. Because the Holy Ghost told me I needed the lessons teaching piano would bring, I knew that teaching piano would show me important characteristics in...
Lending a Kind Word on National Compliment Day
Today, on National Compliment Day, I can't help thinking of a Mark Twain quote that I love: "I can live for two months on a good compliment." That's a sentiment I totally understand. As a "words of affirmation" kind of gal, compliments mean so much to me. (If...
Lehi’s Dream/My Dream
This week's study in the Come, Follow Me manual teaches about one of my favorite topics in the Book of Mormon: Lehi’s vision. It's a story that many of us know well and have studied much. One thing I have always loved about this narrative is the phrase Nephi uses to...
Shout It From the Rooftops
Do you ever feel clumsy? I do too. Financial fears, economic obstacles, and commandments I just can’t seem to keep are just the beginning. The list of self-deprecating sentiments goes on. I’m just not good enough. I fall so far short. I’ll never measure...
Service Looks Like This
Sister Cheryl A. Esplin, in April 2016 General Conference, shared a story about a BYU devotional speaker. The speaker had a young woman stand and face her on the stand. She put a mirror between her face and the young woman’s face and proceeded to carry on a...
Decorating With Religious Art
Religious art can help our homes become a refuge and help us to stay focused on eternity.
Achieving Excellence Because of 30 Minutes of Daily, Focused Practice
Do you have conversations that just won't leave your mind until you figure out why? In September, the ward piano teacher announced she was moving. My friend Roxanne asked if I would reconsider my previous stance of no longer teaching piano lessons. I said no. I...
The Gift of Boredom
Boredom can be a gift that leads children to try new things.
The Battle Within
There is an old Cherokee tale that you may have heard before. It goes like this: An elder cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf...
My Health Journey: Release
This is part six in Ashley's eight-part health journey series. To read part five, click here. After my prayer that night, I felt a mix of peace and discomfort. I was so incredibly uncomfortable that I decided to try to sleep. At this point, I had been awake...
The Divine Crucible
The fog rolls in and we try and make something out of a situation we just can’t seem to make sense of. As we try to extricate ourselves from this unsavory position, we become despondent and helpless. That makes sense to us all. We have all experienced some...
The Fire of Free Will
“I do it myself!” shouts my three-year-old daughter as she struggles to put on her shoes. My offers to help are rejected as she fights to do something hard on her own. I am seeing free will (with a high level of frustration and intense, unrelenting...
Scrubbing Away the Sin that Clings
Aloha is one of my favorite things about living in Hawaii. One way to show aloha is to greet with a hug and kiss on the cheek when you see someone you know or are just meeting. Scrubbing Away a Scent People's scents don't often transfer to me at church...
Phoenix Rising From the Ashes
Blog posts are the “media age” journals, a way of recording the data your life experience has stored in your mind. Rereading them (whether you or your children are doing the reading!) is a way of ‘mining’ that data in order to come up with ‘reusable solutions.' Did...
Nope, Life’s Not Fair—Isn’t That A Relief?
Anyone who has read anything else I've written on this site knows I collect quotes from every book I read, every movie I watch, every podcast that means something special to me, and more. The book I'm into most recently (besides the Book of Mormon) is Believing...
Protection For Our Day
Forgive me for sharing a personal challenge, but my mother passed away recently. My father succumbed to cancer 11 years ago now, and it is still hard for me to imagine it’s been that long. You might think to have this happen right before Christmas would impact the...
Scattered Thoughts on Temple Grounds
It was a cold, foggy morning when I went for a walk on temple grounds. I walked past a bench, and my mind was filled with scattered thoughts. On warmer days, I often sit on the bench and look out at the trees, listen to the birds, pray, and ponder things. The bench...
The Battle Joseph Fought For Me
A few Sundays ago, at church, a man bore his testimony about the First Vision. He spoke beautifully and the spirit was there, until the moment he said, "Joseph Smith had struggled to say what he wanted to say, but when he tried again, he was able to speak to God." I...
10 Ways to Share the Message of the Restoration
On New Year's Day, President Russell M. Nelson shared the following message on social media: When I spoke during last October’s general conference, I designated 2020 as a bicentennial period commemorating 200 years since God the Father and His Beloved Son,...
My Health Journey: A Light in the Darkness
This is part five in Ashley's eight-part health journey series. To read part four, click here. Back to the hospital we went, and what happened next may have been the most traumatizing experience of my life. I was told to undress. I was not allowed to have any...
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