greaterthansparrows

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field , keeping watch over their flock by night . 9 And , lo , the angel of the Lord came upon them , and the glory of the Lord shone round about them : and they were sore afraid . 10 And the angel said unto them , Fear not : for , behold , I bring you good tidings of great joy , which shall be to all people . 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour , which is Christ the Lord . 12 And this shall be a sign unto you ; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes , lying in a manger . 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God , and saying , 14 Glory to God in the highest , and on earth peace , good will toward men . 15 And it came to pass , as the angels were gone away from them into heaven , the shepherds said one to another , Let us now go ev...

We broke down and got a smallish artificial tree last year.  It came up from the basement, finally, on Wednesday and was set up for our first Christmas in a new place.  It doesn't have to be watered, trimmed, or vacuumed after--and it's proof that we have gotten old and poor, that we decided the time had come that we weren't going to wrestle with live trees, which I love, anymore.  Thank you again to our youngest, who made this our gift for last Christmas. It still has the tree skirt of crocheted Christmas squares made by Janette Draper and bought by us at the Bryant Elementary bazaar so many years ago.  They moved to Oregon some twenty years ago, and every time I bring this out of the box, I miss them. We don't have a top to our tree, something I guess I need to solve, but that bluebird was a tender gift last year, somewhat in token of this blog.  My dear friend tried to find a sparrow, but couldn't--so if there's a "blue bird of happiness" i...

I was assigned to speak in church today, and the topic was, "How can we use our spiritual gifts to help others?" It didn't matter a bit that I last spoke in only June, or that I had a column due for next Wednesday, or that I had to prepare a lesson on Job after a lesson on all of Proverbs.  I told a friend that I could roll two different things around in my head and work on them, and was not so good at three being simultaneous.  But I found direction, and I'm grateful for that. I started, at home, by charting the gifts listed in the three places in scripture:   I Corinthians 12 ,  Moroni 10 , and  Doctrine & Covenants 46 .  There are a few differences, but not many.  Moroni includes the beholding of angels and ministering spirits, where the others say the discerning of spirits, which I have always taken to mean whether they be of God or of the devil. Moroni and Paul take as a given that you have received a testimony of the Savior, where th...

(This was my column for the Nauvoo Times this morning...) Our bishop is not your ordinary person serving in that calling.   This is his third stint; he was  bishop to a Young Single Adults Ward way back when, and then he served as bishop in the ward next to ours in the mid-90’s.   That wasn’t our ward then because of an earlier ward division, and he’s in our ward now because of later boundary changes—he never moved.   So some of the people in the ward have had him as bishop before, most haven’t.   But he’s been known to pretty much everyone for years. That’s because of who he is.   He’s the one who always led the fifty-milers, even when he wasn’t serving in the scouts.   If someone starts a story with, “I was on a Luther hike…,” smiles will start all around and heads will nod.   He has retired twice, once as a sergeant major after twenty years in the army (Special Forces) and then again from teaching second grade at Fort Lewis. ...