Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?

an image of a close up of a wave in the ocean

Trials—those seemingly bad things that happen to us—give us opportunities to learn patience, humility, and faith; ultimately, they teach us how to become more like God.   God is all-powerful and all knowing, right? Yes. And God can stop any bad thing from happening, right? Yes. So that means God… Continue reading

Three Lessons to Learn from Infertility

an image of a couple holding hands on a pier overlooking the ocean

Why do some couples struggle with infertility? Here’s what I’ve learned. One of the first commandments that God gave to Adam and Eve was to “multiply and replenish the earth” (Moses 2:28). Having a family is a central teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—but what about… Continue reading

How to Find the Sun During Your Spiritual Eclipse

an image of a partial eclipse of the sun with a bird flying in the sky

Even when you can’t see the light of Christ, it’s still there. Reorganizing your priorities can help you end your spiritual eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon blocks out the light and warmth of the sun. Even though the moon is about 400 times smaller than the sun,… Continue reading

Blessings Come—Even While We Wait

Alarm clock on pink and mint green background

Patience is a virtue, but we don’t always have to wait for good things to come. Many of God’s blessings are right in front of our faces. Sometimes it’s easy to feel as though God takes too long to answer our prayers or that certain blessings will never come. It’s… Continue reading

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

Pink flowers & grass

Life can sometimes seem overwhelming, and often God asks us to do hard things. So what can we do to find peace? As Christ’s mortal ministry was coming to an end, he promised peace to his disciples. But his peace was different than the peace the world could give. He… Continue reading

When Bad Things Happen

Teddy bear wrapped in bandages

When bad things happen to good people, it’s hard to understand why. Brock thought everything was going great in his life—until a car accident left him physically disabled and no longer financially secure. In the video “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?” Brock describes how hard he’d worked… Continue reading

He Nourishes Us according to Our Needs

Green trees

When you seem to be the only one around with trials and setbacks, how can you still trust in God’s plan? When my husband and I got married, we received several succulent plants as gifts. Although we’d never had our own plants before, we’d heard succulents were the easiest plants… Continue reading

A Trial of Faith: The Beginning of Plural Marriage in Nauvoo

Nauvoo temple

Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo journals include brief references to the revelation about plural marriage that tried his faith and the faith of the Saints. How can we make sense of plural marriage or explain it to others? One place to begin is the introduction to Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo journals found on… Continue reading

How Burdens Help

an image of a group of hot air balloons flying in the sky

We do not struggle with burdens alone or in vain. Everybody struggles with their own individual burdens. In Elder L. Whitney Clayton’s talk “That Your Burdens May Be Light,” Elder Clayton discusses how the burdens that affect us can be organized into three categories: burdens that are a natural product… Continue reading

Failing on the Path to Perfection

mountain road railing

Why keep trying if we just keep failing? BYU’s new president, Kevin J Worthen, explains the surprising role failure can play in our quest for perfection. In a January 2015 devotional, Brigham Young University president Kevin J Worthen addresses the tricky relationship between perfection and failure. Jesus Christ taught us to… Continue reading