What keeps us from always feeling the Spirit? Recently, I was reading emails and letters that I wrote while I was a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I remembered how I felt as I wrote them—and how I felt all the time when I… Continue reading
Don’t give up on a perfect God just because of imperfect disciples. In his talk “Come, Join with Us,” Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles states, “The Church would be perfect only if it were run by perfect beings. God is perfect, and his doctrine… Continue reading
Forgiveness brings peace to an aching soul. Bitterness can gnaw at our hearts for many reasons: insult, offense, sin, guilt. Perhaps we have failed to let go of a grudge. Perhaps we are coming up on the 490th round of forgiveness. Perhaps it is our own mistakes that we need… Continue reading
How do you know when you’re forgiven? In many LDS homes, a favorite activity for teaching children about repentance involves food coloring. In this object lesson, parents bring out a glass of water and add a few drops of food coloring to it, tainting the water to represent what happens… Continue reading
The plan of salvation shapes the way we respond to sexual assault. As society grapples with sexual harassment and sexual assault, Latter-day Saints join with others in condemning such offensive behavior. In a devotional address given at BYU, Benjamin M. Ogles, dean of the College of Family, Home, and Social… Continue reading
Loving your enemies is more than a catchphrase. In the video That We Might Be One: The Story of the Dutch Potato Project, we see the great sacrifice Church members in Holland made for members of the Church in Germany following World War II. After the war, food was scarce. The Dutch people… Continue reading
Because we sometimes feel ashamed of the need to repent, we forget that the Savior wants to forgive us. There is a common perception that asking for forgiveness is something to be ashamed of. Repenting of our sins can seem daunting. We imagine ourselves kneeling before the throne of grace,… Continue reading
Even when the world gives us every reason to be bitter, we can make the choice to cultivate love in our hearts. Under the government system of racial segregation called apartheid, South African communities were fraught with racial tension. But when the car accident that killed Julia Mavimbela’s husband was blamed… Continue reading
When all hope seems lost, where can we turn? When we feel we are too damaged to return to the fold, how can our Father in Heaven lovingly repair our broken spirits? Most of us are familiar with the parable of the lost sheep. It is typically used as an… Continue reading
The Atonement of Jesus Christ not only helps us repent; it can also give us the strength to forgive others. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the most important event in history, but it is often hard to understand. How does it apply to each of us? And what must we do… Continue reading
