Category Archives: Spiritual Nourishment

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. However, this has got to be a close second: a man gave up 60% of his liver to give his wife a transplant. Wow. Talk about love and faith combined.

I had a rough day yesterday. Arlene and I got into a big argument; she admitted fault and apologized, but I was having a hard time letting go of some of the things she said. We eventually smoothed things over, then she left for a Relief Society meeting. I had the kids, and they were being, if not bad, then certainly not good– lots of fighting and arguing over whose turn it was to do what. I finally fled to my room for a few seconds of quiet, and in frustration I prayed to the Lord, asking Him to help me remember why I loved these people so much, and to help soften my heart and give me patience.
He did. He always does, so this probably shouldn’t be a big surprise. I calmed down, and so did the boys, so we had an enjoyable evening together instead of a running screamfest. I’m grateful to have seen such quick results, too.

I was thinking the other day about Jeremy’s one-year anniversary post, and about a recent news article I saw talking about people who are trying to make their blogs more popular. The article quoted Meg Hourihan as saying that blogs that are updated daily are more interesting to readers.
I’m a writer by profession. Now, I don’t know about the rest of y’all out there, but there are days when the last thing I want to do is spend more time on the job, writing. Some days I have lots of stuff to say, and you’ll see several entries. Other days, I am too fogged from work, tired, or busy to spend time writing something, even an off-the-cuff link to some bizarre site that I got from John.
The other day, though, I was thinking of an article I read in the <a href="http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign?fn=document-frame.htm$f=templates$3.0Ensign, the LDS church magazine. The article was about a lady who started writing spiritual things in her journal using a different-color paper. Over time, she found that it was awfully hard to fill those pink pages; over a longer time, as she focused more on the spiritual side of her life, she ended up with more pink pages than white.
I’m not going to subject you to anything pink here, but I am going to try to be more consistent about recording spiritual things about my life, my family, and my walk with our Savior. As the author said,

By negatively dwelling on the mundane or the crises in our lives, we may miss the spiritual promptings that can come. We can strive to appreciate our blessings and record in our journals how we have been enabled to conquer our afflictions with the Lord?s help.

At least on Sundays, I should be able to write something pink. Maybe over time the rest of my entries will take on a pinker tinge, too!

I couldn’t have asked for a better Fathers’ Day (well, except if Arlene, Matt, and Thomas weren’t all sick). Church was wonderful, with three excellent talks in sacrament meeting. The boys gave me all the essential gifts: fast cars, Halle Berry, lots of crashing cars, socks, and a bunch of country music. Oh, and some socks.
For the topper, we had a big turkey-and-fixins’ meal. Why? Because David left the freezer open on Friday and we had to either eat the turkey today or throw it away. Mom and Dad came over, we had a great dinner, and went out in the back yard to watch the kids play. That really made me realize how blessed I’ve been: I have a wonderful father who has always loved and supported me, and I have three terrific sons who have limitless potential. A great day, and so to bed.

I spent the morning helping to build a house for the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. I had a blast! By the time I left, the outside walls were up (save for one) and most of the inside walls were in place, except for a few that hadn’t been delivered yet. We had quite a crew: two or three Pakistani and Indian guys, a nice Jewish lady (and her dad, visiting from England), and a bunch of white male retirees of various degrees of grumpiness. Everyone worked together well, though, and it was really humbling to realize what this house means to the family that will be living in it. I’m looking forward to my next work shift.

So, as everyone within range of a television knows, Elizabeth Smart was found and returned safely to her family. Now the Salt Lake Police Department has some explaining to do (they seem to be better than Boulder but nowhere near the NYPD). But that’s not what I wanted to talk about; instead, what’s with all this “it’s a miracle” talk?
Don’t get me wrong. I know full well that God answers our prayers; I have a firm testimony of that. What I see missing from most accounts is the connection between her safe return and the fact that Elizabeth’s family never gave up. They continued to work to get the word out, and they were aggressive in prodding the slow-moving SLPD to get with the program when their younger daughter identified the handyman as the perp. Their hard work helped implement the miracle. It’s tempting to dismiss this as another case of “God helps those who helps themselves,” but I prefer to think of it in another way. My friend James Harris often advised people in difficult situations thusly:

Get down on your knees and pray as though everything depended on the Lord. Then get up and work at it as if everything depended on you alone.

Wow. This guy is good! My favorite so far:

I’m clanking around the room like some kind of futuristic, preaching, freak robot.

(Note: I own a pair of the pants in question.)

From the Detroit News:

Car buyers in four states will soon hear a religious appeal to their environmental conscience: “What would Jesus drive?”
A Pennsylvania-based environmental group is planning television advertising in North Carolina, Iowa, Indiana and Missouri to urge consumers to park their pollutive SUVs — Jesus would prefer a cleaner auto, the group contends.

I love this! Seriously. Christians are supposed to be about their Father’s business, presumably helping to make the world a better place. This effort strikes me as quixotic but interesting, because it makes a faith-based appeal to people to be more environmentally– and in the US’ case, socially– responsible.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on
inside me,” he says to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between
two wolves. One is evil — he is full of anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed,
arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride,
superiority, and ego.
The other is good — he is full of joy, peace, love, hope, serenity,
humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and
faith. This same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other
person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
“Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

An Internet ministry dedicated to peacekeeping forces all over the world. Is that cool or what?

The Sunday school lesson I taught this week was on David & Bathsheba. Quick recap: David, king of Israel, saw Bathsheba from his rooftop and invited her over, then impregnated her. To keep his misdeed from coming to light, he tried to get Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to go home to her. Uriah, a good solider, said “Nothing doing”, so David had him killed.
David put himself in a compromising position, and then, when he feared exposure, compounded his sin by doing something worse: murdering Uriah. Most of us won’t ever face that particular combination of circumstances, but all of us can learn from his example. When Nathan came to chastise David, his first reaction wasn’t to deny his sin or try to minimize it; he owned up to it, saying “I have sinned against the LORD”. He had to suffer for his sins, but his sincere repentance for his wrongdoing helped him to get back on the right track and stay there. His prayer is simple: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Try it; it can work for us too.

The Nauvoo temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is officially being dedicated today. For those of you who aren’t up on Church history, the Nauvoo temple was the second one built after Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, but the Saints there were only able to use the temple for a short while before mob violence forced them to leave Nauvoo. An arsonist burned much of the original temple structure in 1848, and a tornado pretty much finished the destructive work in 1850.

I’m excited by this, because temples are an important element of our religion. We believe that they are literally God’s dwelling place on the earth, and that by prayer, study, and performing sacred ordinances there that we can draw closer to Him and prepare ourselves for exaltation. It’s a milestone for the Church that we’re able to restore this important piece of Church history.