mormon bloggers Archives - Women in The Church of Jesus Christ

Eyes to see (#ldsconf Odyssey)

Michelle — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 14:30:27 +0000

Editor’s note: This post is part of a collaborative effort of Mormon bloggers who are reading and writing about General Conference talks. We call it the General Conference Odyssey. [See this article at Meridian Magazine sharing more about the Odyssey, including how it came about as well as some thoughts from those of us participating in this project. One of the things I appreciate so much about being a part of this effort is to read the words of my fellow brothers and sisters. Their perspectives and experience enrich my experience engaging the words of the prophets.]

The other posts from this week’s reading, which focused on the Tuesday Afternoon Session (interesting that they did Conference on Tuesdays!) of the April 1971 General Conference, are at the bottom of the post.

“As we journey along through life we, as individuals, come in contact with many shaded areas, twilight zones, and even dark alleys, where we, unless aided by a higher power, are not able to see clearly, to interpret correctly, and to come to sound conclusions….

“As individuals, we have some limitations when it comes to our understanding of things as they really are. We can see so far, and then the earth and the sky come together, so to speak, and we cannot see beyond. But there is something beyond. In the physical world, all we have to do to realize this is to improve our vantage point by getting on top of a building, on a mountain, or in an airplane….

“Without divine guidance, we will have difficulty in the shaded areas of life. But we need not walk alone. Our Father in heaven and his Son Jesus Christ and the prophets—both ancient and modern—have given us a well-charted course for our journey through life. We can find joy and happiness and we can arrive at our destination in safety if we will but heed the road signs and follow the directions that have been given to us….

“’For we walk by faith, not by sight.’” [2 Cor. 5:7]” ~William H. Bennett

There were some simple, sublime messages that stood out to me from the Tuesday afternoon session of the 1971 Conference. These are truths that even children can and do understand, and yet they are also deep and profound — veritable secrets to the universe. Because keys have been restored, we have the keys to understand the purpose of life.

We are mortal. We need God.
We are His children. He and the Savior love us.
They want to help us.
They speak to us through the scriptures, through prophets, and through the Holy Ghost.
When we act in faith and in a spirit of obedience, we can see more clearly.
The Church is true! This is why we want to share it with others.

I’m hesitant to select only a few quotes because the talks were dense with insight, but here are some that stood out to me, with some commentary of my own interspersed.

“The Holy Ghost can give us a sure conviction that man is a child of God. Altogether too frequently, when men, unaided, try to understand the relationship of man to God, they look at things through mortal eyes only and consider only mortal conditions. But this life is not the beginning, neither is it the end. To understand man’s relationship with God, we must broaden our perspective with the help of the Holy Ghost.” ~William H. Bennett

“The impressions made by the Holy Ghost can be equally deep and lasting [as rare manifestations such as those experienced by Saul/Paul or Alma]. President Joseph Fielding Smith has said, ‘Therefore, the seeing, even the Savior, does not leave as deep an impression in the mind as does the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the spirit. … the impressions on the soul that come from the Holy Ghost are far more significant than a vision. It is where spirit speaks to spirit, and the imprint upon the soul is far more difficult to erase.” (Seek Ye Earnestly [Deseret BookCo., 1970], pp. 213–14.) ~Henry D. Taylor

[That quote from President Smith may be one of my favorite quotes about the Holy Ghost.]

“The Savior, while teaching at the temple, was questioned by the Jewish teachers as to the source of his doctrine, which was astounding to them. Whence came his wisdom? they asked. Jesus answered their troubled inquiries, saying: “… my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” (John 7:16–17.) ~Henry D. Taylor

[This scripture was also quoted by William H. Bennett— a simple, powerful second witness to the importance of action as a requirement for knowledge and understanding.]

“Joseph Smith was called by revelation, as were the prophets of old. John the Baptist restored to him and Oliver Cowdery the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, followed by Peter, James, and John, who restored the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Elijah returned in the Kirtland Temple and restored the keys of the sealing blessings for the living and the dead.

“Joseph Smith bestowed all the keys upon the Quorum of Apostles before his death. These keys of priesthood authority have been thus preserved to this day and shall continue to usher in the millennial reign of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” ~Eldred G. Smith

[In two paragraphs, he summed up some of the most amazing truths we proclaim — prophets! angels! priesthood! keys! life and family after death! As Mormons, do we see what we have? And is it any wonder that we are urged to share these truths with others?]

Add to that Elder Richards‘ testimony:

“Malachi saw before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord when the Lord said he would send Elijah the prophet to “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”(Mal. 4:6.) Just think of that statement. The Jews are still waiting for his coming….”

[Read also his tender words about what is yet to come through the Book of Mormon in bringing the Jews to Christ. I long for that day. I read the Book of Mormon sometimes with that lens, wondering what it will be like when the Jews read Nephi’s words — which were written to and for them — and find Jesus in them.]

Creativity and Celebration of Success vs. the D.F.T. File

Women Seeking Christ — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 06:58:41 +0000

Editor’s note: This post is part of a collaborative effort of Mormon bloggers who are reading and writing about General Conference talks. We’ve started with talks from 1971. The goal is to read and write weekly until we have read of the talks from prophets and apostles. If we keep up the pace we have started, we will have caught up by July 2029 with the April 2029 Conference! The other posts from this week’s reading, which focused on the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 1971 General Conference, are at the bottom of the post.

– – – – –

The Power of Creation

~by Michelle

I was in quite a rut — mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually — when I read the talks from the Saturday afternoon session of the 1971 LDS General Conference for our General Conference Odyssey project. I was also in a writing rut. What would I share? I like to wait for inspiration when I write, but none was coming.

The headlines as of late haven’t helped, of course. And I have my own imagined headlines that run in my brain, a mental marquis of negative messages that has been consuming a lot of my energy (and making it hard for me to feel the Spirit).

This is not uncommon for me (I deal with anxiety and dysthymia (a form of depression) and OCD) but the familiarity of it doesn’t make it any easier to sit in it when it comes. Those of you who struggle with anxiety or depression or other mental illnesses may understand what I mean.

But God showed me this weekend that even when I feel stuck, the Spirit does have a way of getting through in ways I can hear, and that — as Elder Bednar shared so beautifully on Sunday at the Christmas devotional — we do worship a Savior who is our Light.

Late Sunday evening, I had a prompting to visit a friend and take her a copy of a book I’m reading (more below). I fought the prompting for a bit but finally decided to send my friend a text. She was willing to have me come drop off the book.

I’m so glad I acted on that prompting. Not only did I get my spark of inspiration for this post, but after a 3 1/2-hour conversation with my friend (“that was a long ‘drop-off’ visit, Mom”), I also had a weeks-long prayer answered.

The prayer that was pressing on my heart is hard to put into words, but it went something like this:

Father, I have to believe that pain and suffering aren’t the only ways you teach us as Thy children. I know I need to be submissive and willing to learn from whatever may come in my life, but there is so much fear in me and it is blocking my view of Thee, and hindering my ability to feel Thy love. Can you help me?

I brought this question to my awesome therapist (I gave him an assignment, actually, to consider times in his life when God taught him through good stuff). I was grateful that he took my request seriously and came back with a second witness to insight that had come to me as well: that even the good things in life come with challenges, that “There must needs be opposition in all things.”

But there was something still unsettled in my soul. Sunday, the seed for a turning point was planted as I was reading in Wendy Ulrich’s book, The Temple Experience: Passage to Healing and Holiness: She touched on the concept of opposition as well, but there was more to her message. Writing about the creation story and the separation of — and necessity of — darkness and light, Sister Ulrich rejoices in the truth that we worship a being who is the Great Creator — and reminded me that as children of Heavenly Parents, we have the seeds of godliness in us. We have the power and potential to create.

“The temple and the scriptures tutor us in our godlike capacity to create…. Gratefully, the creation story reminds me that, even for God, creation proceeds in steps, with alternating periods of pondering from a cerebral distance and descending into the chaos to get our hands dirty…. We spend much of our creative time in the dark. And we need help from others along the way….”

God really got my attention with this statement, though:

“Some people become fascinated with [or mentally stuck in] the dark side and focus too much on the inevitability of overwhelming struggle, forgetting there even is Day. They may have learned by hard experience to be suspicious of of hope, proactivity, and vision for fear of disappointment.” (p. 84)

This described my current rut (and really, some of my lifelong mental marquis messsages) to a T! But rather than try to talk me out of the darkness I was feeling, Sister Ulrich (or, better said, the Lord, “The Generous One,” through her) gently urged me to trust my process, a process that of necessity does include some darkness:

“While we accept the rhythms of light and dark in the natural world, we tend to resist our own dark hours of descent, trying to always stay above it all, in control, happy, knowledgeable, and safe. But darkness is an inevitable starting point. Darkness can give depth and grounding to our souls and our creativity. In fact, even after the Lord brings light to the earth, light and dark alternate in regular rhythms throughout its existence — and ours. We are meant to spend some time here in the dark.” (p. 86)

The Lord also He let me know that it’s ok to need others’ help in the dark:

“But most of us get nervous in the dark. We need others to go with us when the darkness is vast and the elements unstable so we don’t get lost out there. ” (p. 86)

No wonder He inspired me to visit my friend.

As I sat on my couch reading some of these passages from Wendy Ulrich’s book to my friend, and as we discussed the principle of creativity, suddenly Elder Sterling W. Sill’s 1971 talk was thrown into my consciousness. I sat upright as I grabbed my phone to read some of his words to her. And I was suddenly snatched out of my spiritual slump as I realized God was answering my prayer.

Elder Sill said:

“The purpose of the Church is to help us translate the principles of the gospel of Christ into constructive, meaningful human experience,”

When I’m in my dark place, not a lot of my experience feels meaningful. Elder Sill gives a warning very similar to what I had read in Sister Ulrich’s book:

“Because we draw so much from the rebellion, weakness, and evil with which we are surrounded, we tend to load ourselves up too heavily with guilt complexes, mental problems, insecurity, and mediocrity.”

(Guilty as charged. And he (He) wasn’t done gently calling me out, yet.)

“I recently heard of a man who compounded the problem by hoarding his mistakes. He often referred to the fact that his D.F.T. drawer was the largest file in his office. Someone once asked him what these file letters stood for, and he said they identified a collection of the damn fool things that he had done. Most of us are not bad people—we just let our D.F.T. files get too large.”

(When I read this the first time, I laughed out loud. With this General Conference project, I expected my primary purpose would be to look for prophetic patterns across decades, and because that is one of my personal passions, that is already true. But I was delighted to realize that there will be things in the messages from decades past that will stand out as different, and God can use those things to get my attention, too. Delightful — even sometimes disarming — surprise is one way that God reveals to me that He is at work in my life.)

As a recovering perfectionist (I’ve written before that I have been doing 12-step work for years to help me with my anxiety, perfectionism, and OCD), Elder Sill’s words were a good reminder to surrender my mortal weakness to God and let Him worry about that. My job is repent of sin, and to rejoice in goodness! — not to waste time and energy obsessing about the fact that I make mistakes constantly (that is what it means to be human, after all). (This is another important principle about which Wendy Ulrich writes extensively. See, for example, this April 2015 Ensign article, “It’s Not a Sin to be Weak.”)

God was not done surprising me, with Elder Sill’s words, though. His suggested antidote to the D.F.T. File has left me pondering more about how obsessing about my weakness or trying to fix myself gets in the way of a particular, powerful kind of gratitude.

Recently a group of bishops were asked for a report on their work. They were told not to discuss their problems, but to describe what they did better than anyone else. This philosophy of excellence was demonstrated by the artist Whistler, who once painted a tiny picture of a spray of roses. The artistry involved was magnificent. Never before, it seemed, had the art of man been able to execute quite so deftly a reproduction of the art of nature. The picture was the envy of the artists who saw it, the despair of the collectors who yearned to buy it for their collections, but Whistler refused steadfastly to sell it.

“For,” said he, “whenever I feel that my hand has lost its cunning, whenever I doubt my ability, I look at the little picture of the spray of roses and say to myself, ‘Whistler, you painted that. Your hand drew it. Your imagination conceived the colors. Your skill put the roses on the canvas.’ Then,” he said, “I know that what I have done I can do again.”

Then he gave us a great philosophy of success. He said, “Hang on the walls of your mind the memory of your successes. Take counsel of your strength, not your weakness. Think of the good jobs you have done. Think of the times when you rose above your average level of performance and carried out an idea or a dream or a desire for which you had deeply longed. Hang these pictures on the walls of your mind and look at them as you travel the roadway of life.”

When we recount the good that we’ve been able to do, the successes we have had, we can show a special reverence to God and to Christ, because They are the Givers of all good things.

Here was part of the answer to my prayer. It really is good to recount and celebrate the good in my life (and others’), and deliberately declare it good. To acknowledge the good in me and my work, boldly and specifically. Ironically, part of perfectionism is to be convinced that nothing is ever good enough — exactly the kind of mental marquis message Elder Sill was warning about!

(Interestingly, I’m just now connecting all of this with how Sister Ulrich invites engaging in a similar exercise at the end of the chapter I read Sunday. “Acknowledging goodness. Take a few minutes to consider how you created your life today….Which of the choices you have made today can you acknowledge as good?” (p. 98, emphasis in original) Again, God’s pattern of creation is instructive for us: At every stage along the process, He declared His work to be good.)

I have to chuckle again at how Elder Sill delighted me even further as he modeled what this kind of creative gratitude can look like:

Now I am not going to burden you this afternoon with the contents of my D.F.T. file, but I would like to tell you about some of my great experiences. Great experience number one is that I managed to get myself born.:

[He later quips that “In my own case, I didn’t find out that I had been born until quite a long time after it happened.”]

“Henry Thoreau, an early American philosopher, once said that we should thank God every day of our lives for the privilege of having been born. And then he went on to speculate on the rather unique supposition of what it might have been like if we had not been born. Just suppose that you had never been born or that your parents had never been born. Think of all of the excitement and opportunities you would have missed as a consequence. What Mr. Thoreau may not have known was that one-third of all of the children of God never were born and never can be born because they failed to pass the requirements of their first estate. And yet, every spirit child of God hungers for a body. We remember the unembodied spirits who appeared to Jesus in his day who preferred to have the bodies of swine rather than not to have any bodies at all.”

Just being born is a success to celebrate! But, of course, there are so many other ways the gifts God has given us are manifest.

After reading Elder Sill’s words to my friend, I felt prompted to verbally claim some of the creative things I have done in my life — even in the face of opposition. It felt powerful and good to acknowledge this divine part of my being. I am a creator!

[I encourage you to try this exercise. Don’t only list the ways you have seen God bless your life, but humbly yet boldly list the successes you have experienced that reflect His creative power in and through and because of you. If you are feeling brave, share it out loud with someone. I realized how powerful it was to use my voice — as God did — to declare my/God’s work good.]

I can’t end this (admittedly long) post (which is, for me, more of a journal entry) without sharing the interesting contrasting-and-yet-still-consistent principle that Sister Ulrich shared at the end of this chapter I read.

She writes about a time when she was in a rut herself — just recovering from a long illness, buried to the brim with a suddenly-increasing workload. In the midst of this time of exhaustion and overwhelm, the prompting came to make a gift out of wood for a friend. With what time? (She seemed to have none.) With what skills? (“I knew almost nothing about woodworking and even less about painting,” she writes.)

And yet, she followed that prompting, despite “all the ‘Very Important Work’ I would have to ignore and all the humiliation I would undoubtedly suffer in the process….” (p. 95) (Interesting once again to reflect how promptings really can come even when we feel distant or discouraged — often in surprising ways.)

She had friends help her set up a shop in her garage, teach her how to use the tools, and show her some painting skills. (Isn’t it lovely that the prompting prompted her to ask for help?)

In the process of vulnerably entering a space in which she had no prior success and no expertise, she discovered another delightful facet of the principle of creation, which was shortly thereafter confirmed by the words of two senior Church leaders. “[I]f we wanted to keep our creativity alive and our spirits growing, we need…to try utterly new things….”

She concludes:

“Creativity is not always about what we produce [or, I will add, what we do well]. Sometimes it is simply about whom we produce. Who would have thought power tools could be catalysts of God’s healing blessings and so much joy”? (p. 96)

I close with the words of Dieter F. Uchtdorf (for there is power in patterns!):

“[R]emember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe…We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fulness of joy.⁴Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness [or, as Elder Sill would say, to seek Great Experiences]. One of the ways we find this is by creating things….Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter….

“The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come. Sisters, trust and rely on the Spirit. As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you.”

What will you create today? What have you created or done in the past that you can gratefully reflect upon? What do you hope to be able to create in the future?

– – –

Here are the other bloggers’ links for this week’s reading. (As a note, we’re each engaging these talks in our own way, and sometimes we may not always all agree re: our interpretations of or experiences with the talks. So links won’t always imply endorsement or complete agreement amongst ourselves, but rather, they reflect our shared desire to become more familiar with past prophets’ words.

Good Timber Does Not Grow At Ease

LDS Conference April 1971 – The Sexual Revolution and Entertainment Media

“Satan” – Moral Agency and the Problem of Evil

Being Slow to Anger

When Thou Art Converted

Warnings from Warnings from the Past

The Adiabolist, or Jihad of the Heart

The General Conference Project: Controlling the Hulk, Believing the Devil, and Cussing GAs

58 years of General Conference: What can we learn?/Messages on morality, religious freedom, and the Sabbath from 1971

The post Creativity and Celebration of Success vs. the D.F.T. File appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Mormon Bloggers Celebrate the Proclamation to the World on the Family

Women Seeking Christ — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 07:30:23 +0000

The annual Family Proclamation Celebration is under way! It began with Instagram Great Gram Day and now is in full swing with daily posts on three different blogs:

Well-Behaved Mormon Woman

Chocolate on My Cranium

Mormon Mommy Blogs

[Read the Proclamation to the World on the Family]

So far, here are posts that have been published:

The Prophetic Family Proclamation by Michael W. Towns

Glorious Womanhood by Stephanie Dibb Sorensen

Cherishing Our Individual Roles in the Eternal Plan by Laurie White

Printable of the Proclamation to the World on the Family created by Lolly Jane

The Importance of Family by Jimmy Lewis

Every Child Deserves a Mother and a Father by Amelia Summerhays

(if you haven’t heard this young woman bravely talk for children about the rights of children, she’s worth a listen)

Confessions of a Fear Monger by J.

A Blessing at Midnight by Meredith

Sleeping in the Temple Parking Lot by Michele

See past years’ Family Proclamation Celebration posts

The post Mormon Bloggers Celebrate the Proclamation to the World on the Family appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Countdown to LDS General Conference

Women Seeking Christ — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 07:01:09 +0000

We know we’re late in posting this, but Mormon Soprano has a great “Countdown to Conference” going on over at her blog, wherein each day a different LDS General Conference talk (from the April 2012 General Conference) is posted for review and reflection. This is a great way to prepare for the upcoming worldwide conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which will be broadcast on October 6 and 7, 2012. (There are four general sessions, two on each day, and one priesthood session on Saturday night. The Relief Society (Mormon women’s) broadcast will be the week before. We’ve got some ideas for preparing for that as well, coming up on Thursday.)

The post Countdown to LDS General Conference appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Portraits of Mormon Women: Trina

Women Seeking Christ — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:56:39 +0000

My name’s Trina Browning. My passions are singing, reading, blogging at Tidbits From Trina, teaching CPR and First Aid, secret service and hanging out with my family. I am who I am because of the examples, experiences, blessings and challenges I’ve had throughout my life. Not all of them good, not all of them bad. I wouldn’t change any of them. I’ve learned and been strengthened and shaped by each and felt blessed by the many great experiences the Lord has given me.

I grew up in a home with many challenges. We endured financial struggles and my mom had major health problems including difficulties carrying children due to double female organs, a stroke and cancer. I watched my mom bury more children than most could comprehend. Being the oldest I felt the need to be responsible and a good example to my three younger siblings as well as easy on my parents. The fabulous thing about growing up in our home was I rarely felt the burdens of our challenging situations. My parents were strong. They taught us to love each other and love the Lord. They taught us not to complain. They taught us to find humor and goodness. They taught us to develop our talents. They taught us to look for our blessings. It wasn’t hard – there were many!

The summer between my junior and senior years in high school I was in the Miss Teen America pageant in Hollywood. Although I didn’t place in the top 10 an agent heard me sing during the talent competition. He contacted my parents and offered to put me on tour opening for a successful artist. I was ecstatic. I’d been singing since I was just little. I LOVE to perform. This was truly a dream come true. It was such a huge decision that would affect the rest of my life that I needed to pray about it. After I started to pray I got scared. I’d have to leave my home and tour with a chaperone, being homeschooled on the road by people I didn’t know. Then I had a strong realization that this life wouldn’t be good for my future children. I knew my answer and gave up my dream so I could be the kind of mom I wanted to be. Raising my kids the way Heavenly Father wants me to is worth everything I gave up. No regrets.

At the end of my freshman year in college at BYU Idaho (then called Ricks College) my mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was given three months to live. I remember when a hospice nurse showed up at our doorstep. My mom was lying on the couch and told the lady that no one at our home was dying; she must have the wrong house. She lived for 15 more years, long enough to see all of my children on this earth. Her faith was incredible.

In my second year of college at BYU Idaho (then called Ricks College) Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi, a general authority in our church offered to give my mom a blessing. She asked if I’d like to come. I wanted to but I already had a date with a really cute guy named Kevin- so I brought him along. After the most remarkable blessing I’ve ever heard, Elder Kikuchi bluntly asked Kevin and I when we were getting married. Embarrassed we let him know we’d only been dating for 2 weeks. He then told us he married his wife only 2 weeks after meeting her. Although I don’t think he was telling us we were meant to be together forever, it definitely put some thoughts in our heads. I became Kevin’s wife just a few months later in the Portland, Oregon temple.

Interestingly enough, Elder Kikuchi was scheduled to seal us but his flight was delayed. He called the temple president from the plane and asked if he’d be willing to step in for him as long as it was okay with us. He came and talked to Kevin and I about it. We had the option of rescheduling or having the temple president seal us. We just wanted to get married so we were sealed by the temple president instead. I’ve never regretted that. I love being married to Kevin and realized then that it didn’t matter who married us as long as it was sealed by the Lord so we could be together forever.

We (intentionally) had 5 kids in 7 years. My husband’s theory was ‘the sooner you get them out, the sooner you get them out’. We thought it’d be fun to have a few years to travel or go on missions after the kids were grown and while we’re still somewhat healthy. A few years ago we added a developmentally disabled teenage boy to the mix through a system similar to foster care. Although he has a family who loves him dearly and is involved in his life we love being his second family and the people he lives with. When he became an adult we realized we were attached to him. So we made the necessary arrangements for him to continue to stay with us. Including him we have 6 kids between the ages of 20 and 13. Being a mom is the most important and rewarding blessing I’ve received. I thank Heavenly Father each day for my children and the opportunity I have of being their earthly mom. I believe these children are mine, on loan from Heavenly Father and I need to do everything I can to guide them back to Him. I constantly strive to be as good a mom as I had. My kids deserve it.

A few years ago, on a very hot summer day, Kevin was coming back from a hiking trip in his truck. His brother was right behind him in a different car. The truck started to over-heat but he was unable to pull over for many miles due to construction on the freeway. Finally, he made it to an exit and parked the truck. He got in with his brother thinking he’d come back late that night when it had cooled down and drive it home then. When they went back to get the truck they found it in more than one piece, burned, along with a lot of land. We learned that just minutes after Kevin parked it, it literally blew up, catching many acres of land on fire. It took three fire agencies including a fire helicopter to put it out. We were shocked to find we would probably be sued for around 2 million dollars. We were numb. I remember sitting in my newly decorated master bathroom wondering if we’d lose our home and everything else. The possessions I’d loved just days before meant very little to me any longer. I realized that we could lose it all but as long as we had each other we’d be okay. It was a relief to know no one could take away the things that mattered most to us, our children and the gospel. We fasted and prayed. We exercised faith that the Lord’s will, would come about. We sure hoped the Lord’s will was our will but were grateful that things were in His hands and would work for our best, whatever that was. After many stressful months we received word from our attorney that the agencies had decided not to pursue a lawsuit any further. That was a life changing experience.

The Lord has given me opportunities to learn and grow, to shape myself into a daughter that he’d be pleased with. I’m a work in progress but I’m improving. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ I’m empowered to do those things He wants me to. I’m grateful for Heavenly Father’s plan and that he puts such importance on families. I look forward to the day that my family and I meet Him again.

The post Portraits of Mormon Women: Trina appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Attention Mormon bloggers: New Mormon.org widget

Women Seeking Christ — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:00:37 +0000

You may have noticed a new widget in our sidebar from Mormon.org. Do you want one? You can get one here.

The widget features Mormon.org videos, and includes tabs that can take readers to FAQs about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A chat feature is also built into the widget!

Spread the word!

The post Attention Mormon bloggers: New Mormon.org widget appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Mormon Women Bloggers

Women Seeking Christ — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:26:55 +0000

~by Michelle

There was recently another post about Mormon mommy bloggers, this one at The Daily. (We talked about another such post here: Self-proclaimed atheist feminist addicted to Mormon mommy blogs.” And again, the focus was on the happy life of young Mormon mommy bloggers as portrayed on their blogs.

It’s good that people look at Mormon mommy blogs and see “happy.” We’ve talked about some of the reasons Mormons are sometimes described as being happy people. And we’re grateful to the Mormon mommy bloggers who are catching the attention of the media, communicating the joy and happiness they experience in their family lives.

But whenever I read articles like this, I’m always left feeling a little bit like the woman who posted recently at Mormon Perspectives, when she said, “[T]o me these articles are missing the essence of what makes being a Mormon so great.” I think articles like this tend to miss the heart of our doctrines — such about who we are, who God and Jesus Christ are, why we are on this earth, what happens after we die, and why family is so important to Mormons.

I think they also miss the variety in the lives of Mormon women.

Mormon bloggers featured are often young “hipsters” as these articles call them. But Mormon women span all age ranges (including Mormon women like women like this one who are great-grandmothers). Many Mormon bloggers are not married. Some are married but don’t currently have children. And yes, there are a lot of Mormon Mommy Bloggers out there, as well there should be, because motherhood is important in our doctrine.

But each Mormon woman has her own style, personality, talents, hobbies, educational background, career interests…. We sometimes talk about the unity our Mormon beliefs can give us, but there is a lot of diversity in who we are, stereotypes notwithstanding. Anyone who believes in a stereotypical Mormon woman probably doesn’t know very many Mormon women. So why not get to know us a little better?

So before you look to the media to define Mormon women, Mormon mommy bloggers, Mormon bloggers, or Mormons in general, we invite you to take a minute and peruse a few of the thousands of Mormon blogs and mormon.org profiles to get more of a feel for who we are, what we believe, and how we live.

Here are some quick links where you can find more about Mormons:

You can search mormon.org by gender, and find thousands of profiles of Mormon women sharing about their lives and beliefs

Portraits of Mormon Women – one of the features here at Mormon Women: Who We Are

Mormon Moms has an index of over 600 Mormon bloggers (not all are moms, and not all are women)

Mormon Mommy Blogs has an index (see the three ‘categories’ tabs that alphabetize blog types) of hundreds of different Mormon blogs, from parenting blogs to blogs from Mormon singles, from blogs focusing on hobbies, fashion, or crafts to spiritually-focused or reflective blogs. Mormon dad bloggers are listed, too.

Mormon Women Project features the lives of Mormon women from all over the world, from all walks of life, with varying backgrounds and life stories.

Modern Molly Mormon includes posts from various Mormon bloggers, as does blog Segullah (see their sidebar for more Mormon blog feeds).

Chocolate on My Cranium and We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ, often do blog hops and blog link-ups on their sites. For example, you can find several Mormon women bloggers listed on the Book of Mormon forum posts, and on the Family Proclamation Celebrations. (Scroll down on the pages to find the links to various Mormon bloggers.)

We’re also (slowly but surely) building a Mormon bloggers board on Pinterest

And this is only a few places where you can find Mormons online….

The post Mormon Women Bloggers appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Mormon Women Muse about the “Mormon Moment”

Women Seeking Christ — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:43:54 +0000

With the recent “Mormons in America” survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, and with Mitt Romney moving forward in the U.S. presidential election process, at least in the United States, it seems this “Mormon Moment” may be sticking around for a while.

The Pew Survey highlighted some trends among a sample of over 1,000 self-identified members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormons“). But what do individual Mormons think about the “Mormon Moment?”

Following are some snippets of thoughts about the Mormon Moment from a couple of Mormon women:

(Image from We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ)

Kathryn Skaggs is a self-proclaimed Well-behaved Mormon Woman, and she may very well be part of history, as she joins other Mormon bloggers at the Washington Post. Kathryn talks about how “For Mormons, this moment is personal.” With all the media attention out there about Mormonism, there is a lot of misinformation, and Kathryn talks about how Mormons are responding by trying to talk more about our lives and beliefs:

Mormons are counteracting misinformation with their own messages. For instance, when the LDS Church was recently referred to as a cult by a prominent Baptist minister, many members took the opportunity to respond through the use of social networks, social media and blogging to let people know that Mormons follow Jesus Christ, and indeed believe themselves to be Christians….

And this “Mormon Moment” post by Jocelyn sums up in a different way what the “Mormon Moment” can mean to us as Latter-day Saints. The Mormon moments she talks about are the reason this website exists.

What do Mormons want to get out of “The Mormon Moment?” … [A]ll we want is what every member of any religion, nationality, or group wants: a fair shake.

We want to be seen and heard and understood for who we really are….

[T]he Mormon Moment didn’t happen in 2011 or 2012. And there isn’t just one of them.

The Mormon Moment happened in 1820, when a 14 year-old boy dared to defy the religious clerics of his day by seeking out a testimony of his own.

Instead of taking their word about which church was true, he went straight to God and asked Him which church he should join. As a result, he was visited by God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ and was told to join none of them.

That was the real Mormon Moment….

And every moment since then, when someone has decided to take the questions that they have in their heart directly to God Himself, and received their own personal answers, those were also Mormon Moments.

These Mormon moments continue to happen quietly each day in homes around the world: every time that someone prays for answers, reads scriptures, nurtures a child, strengthens a marriage, decides to follow God, enters the waters of baptism, or serves their neighbor.

Those are all Mormon Moments.

The post Mormon Women Muse about the “Mormon Moment” appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Pondering the Nativity: LDS Christmas blog posts, music, video

Women Seeking Christ — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 09:03:10 +0000

Today, we are linking to a variety of Mormon posts, musicians’ works, and videos to finish up our series of pondering the Christmas story. Merry Christmas Eve to all!

The Two Christmas Lists (on LDS Friends): Consider the tradition of gift-giving that began, at least in a sense, with the wise men. This post shows the power of the love of God that can be shown (and felt) in the process of giving (and receiving) gifts.

We Three Kings and What Child is This? — sung by Mormon bloggers and musicians DeNae and Karen

Clap for Joy: Catherine shares beautiful thoughts on the Nativity, including reflections on both the Bible and the Book of Mormon Christmas stories. She also shares some lovely family Christmas traditions, and a scripture Advent (save for next year!)

The Christmas Angel, by Middle-Aged Mormon Man: Middle-aged Mormon Man ponders the role of the angel Gabriel (Noah, the prophet Noah from the Old Testament)

Here’s another blog to bookmark for Christmas Advent ideas for next year. This Mormon woman does a musical advent every year on her blog.

Silent Night by Mormon artists Amy Whitcomb and Jake Justice (with a hat tip to Mormon Soprano for sharing their video)

Wise Men Still Seek Him: New Mormon Messages video, showing three modern-day men who choose to seek and follow Christ in their daily lives through serving others around them. That we all may be so wise.

The post Pondering the Nativity: LDS Christmas blog posts, music, video appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

A Wrap Up Review of “Celebrate Family 2011” ~

LeAnn — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:17:10 +0000

I have enjoyed a delightful week of reading many of the posts on the subject of “Celebrate Family 2011″ hosted by the following blogs: Redheaded Hostess, Chocolate On My Cranium, Welcome To Madness, and We Talk Of Christ, We Rejoice In Christ. These women invited various guests to write posts on “The Family: A Proclamation To The World” and also encouraged readers to share some of their posts on what is termed a Blog Hop. The following are some of my favorites.

One heartfelt article was from a guest post, titled “Adaptation and The Family Proclamation” by Jen Fuller as found on “We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice In Christ. Jen was in a car accident that left her with physical limitations and emotional distress. Here are a few of her thoughts on what she learned from her experience that relates to the following part of the Family Proclamation; “By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness….Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their cildren”. “It became clear during the early months of this recovery time, that I would have a lot of limitations now with my physical activity- otherwise known as my life. When I now thought about who I was, I had no identifiers that I recognized. I not only had to figure out how I was going to get through life being a mom and wife, but I had to figure out who I was as a person…. I had to dig deep and see what there was left inside of me that was worth, something. She was concerned for her husband and thought; “This was not what he signed up for.This was not what I signed him up for.” Take a moment and read her inspiring post.

Next was a wonderful post titled “Deep Impact” by J Roberts as found on her blog; “Welcome To Madness”. Here is a quote from this post: ” I had a wonderful set of parents that are a great example to me. I have a pretty extensive family, and married into another pretty decent size family. We all get along pretty well… What more could I learn? Since I thought I should maybe know a bit more about the topic of The Family: A Proclamation To The World, I started to study it. Oh boy! Turns out that although I had read it a few times, and knew it was inspired doctrine, I didn’t really have a testimony of the truthfulness that it contains. I now know”. Does that tell us all that perhaps we should study this enlightening proclamation?

I loved this guest post by Alex Boye’ titled “Good Music In The Home and The Proclamation In Our Hearts” which is found on the blog, “Redheaded Hostess”. This is a must read on the music of the world and the music of the spirit. Here is one thought by Alex: “A friend recently made a comment that has stuck with me. He said: “In my opinion, families will never be together forever if we try to think the way that the world thinks, and try to live the way the world lives”. We do need to know what our children are listening to and watching. I have a testimony of the fact that good music can bring the spirit into our homes and into our hearts.

A great read is “Warning Labels” by Darla on “Chocolate On My Cranium”. She states: “I’m finding there are warning labels on virtually everything”! Stop by this post and read her thoughts on prophetic warnings and how the proclamation can help us avoid these warnings.

It has been a wonderful two weeks of outstanding posts on “The Family: A Proclamation To The World”. Stop by and read the wrap up messages by these four ladies: Jocelyn at “We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ”; Shannan at “Redheaded Hostess”; Cocoa at “Chocolate On My Cranium”; and J. Roberts at “Welcome To Madness”.

By Le Ann

The post A Wrap Up Review of “Celebrate Family 2011” ~ appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

The Path Out of Shadows	http://difficultrun.nathanielgivens.com/2016/01/12/the-path-out-of-shadows/
A Pattern to Live	http://www.jrganymede.com/2016/01/12/a-pattern-of-life/
LDS Conference April 1971 – A Really Round and Hairy Look at Honesty	http://www.sixteensmallstones.org/lds-conference-april-1971-a-really-round-and-hairy-look-at-honesty
The Shaded Areas of Our Testimony/	https://symphonyofdissent.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/the-shaded-areas-of-our-testimony/

A People Blessed by Revelation	http://patheos.com/blogs/soulandcity/2016/01/a-people-blessed-by-revelation/
Eyes to see	http://mormonwoman.org/2016/01/12/eyes-to-see-ldsconf-odyssey/
You Have Entered the Twilight Zone	http://difficultrun.nathanielgivens.com/2016/01/12/you-have-entered-the-twilight-zone/
Liminality and Shaded Areas, Unborrowed Light	http://rainscamedown.blogspot.com/2016/01/liminality-and-shaded-areas.html, http://rainscamedown.blogspot.com/2016/01/unborrowed-light.html
He Lives, and there were gold plates!! (General Conference Odyssey: April 2015 Tuesday Afternoon)	http://michaelsthoughtsandideas.blogspot.com/2016/01/he-lives-and-there-were-gold-plates.html
Eyes to See and Ears to Hear	http://comfortablyanachronistic.blogspot.com/2016/01/eyes-to-see-and-ears-to-hear.html