More than a Holiday Special

Celebrating the Easter story is not meant to be reserved for the holidays; Christ lives—today! During the Easter season, Church leaders have reminded us of the significance of the Easter story. But the truth of the Atonement, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is not simply a holiday message. In...

A Mighty Heart Workout

How to become like Jesus: a transformation made possible through his grace. Love one another as Jesus loves you. Try to show kindness in all that you do. Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought, For these are the things Jesus taught. (“I’m Trying to Be like Jesus,”...

Faith: A Power Rooted in Eternal Principles

We often wait for the fog to lift before taking another step. Learning instead to walk through it is real faith. The modern world is a chaotic echo chamber, reinforcing our own thoughts about who to be and how to plan our lives. We may try to rely on our...

Rejoice with Those Who Rejoice

Even in seasons of sorrow and grief, we can rejoice with those who rejoice. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I try to live by the principle to “mourn with those who mourn” and “comfort those that stand in need of comfort,” as taught...

Faith to Affect and Faith to Accept

The absence of a miracle doesn’t necessarily mean we lack faith—the faith to accept God’s will is an equally valid expression of devotion. President Russell M. Nelson once told the story of two contrasting yet powerful examples of faith. In his April 2021 general conference talk “Christ Is Risen; Faith...
Uprooting Negative Body Image

Uprooting Negative Body Image

Seeing ourselves as God sees us can improve our “body image resilience” in an objectifying world. We’ve all been there. We’ve all looked in the mirror and found things we disliked about our bodies, be it our height, weight, hair, glasses, braces, or acne. We’ve wondered why our appearance isn’t...
What Did Reformed Egyptian Characters in the Book of Mormon Look Like?

What Did Reformed Egyptian Characters in the Book of Mormon Look Like?

Want to see copies of original characters from the gold plates up close? Thanks to The Joseph Smith Papers, you can. From the moment Joseph Smith received the gold plates in 1827, he constantly had to protect them. The angel Moroni gave him specific instructions to keep them safe—not only from...
Remembering Elder L. Tom Perry: Share the Gospel and Tell It Like It Is

Remembering Elder L. Tom Perry: Share the Gospel and Tell It Like It Is

Hesitant to share your beliefs? Elder Perry emphasizes that “in speaking about the Church, we do not try to make it sound better than it is.” Members of the Church often aren’t aware that there is “a wide difference––a gulf of understanding” between the perception of the Church from the...
How Doses of Kindness Can Heal a Wounded World

How Doses of Kindness Can Heal a Wounded World

With so much hate spreading in the world, it’s not enough for us to avoid unkindness like the plague—we need to cure it.  Today, we can find hate almost everywhere we look. In the talk “The Need for Greater Kindness,” President Gordon B. Hinckley states that unkindness is infecting even...
Our Heavenly Mother: Silence or Reverence?

Our Heavenly Mother: Silence or Reverence?

Keeping silent about Heavenly Mother often leads to incorrect assumptions, proving more problematic than protective.  We’ve all heard explanations about why we don’t discuss Heavenly Mother. Some say that we don’t talk about her for fear of sullying her name, like the world has done to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ....
Who Is My Father?  

Who Is My Father?  

 In my struggle to reconcile two conflicting views of God, I learned more about the nature of my Heavenly Father.   For nearly all of my 22 years on earth, I had felt confident in my understanding of God. He was always there when I prayed, I felt his love, and I had seen too...