Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching: What Counts?

It might feel like something to check off every month. But home teaching and visiting teaching are about more than just delivering a scripted message.  Home teaching and visiting teaching are supposed to be “the Church’s first source of help” for its members (see True to the Faith, “Priesthood”), but these assignments can… Continue reading

Foster the Desire to Do Good

Lady in red top walking down dirt lane

Can our efforts ever be good enough when we are imperfect at best? Do our desires and our less-than-perfect efforts count for anything? I desire to do good and to improve myself, yet I frequently fall short of my expectations. I feel edified and motivated one day, yet find myself struggling the… Continue reading

Computer Screens and Big Blessings

Boy sitting on ledge looking at screen of a laptop

As a generation of texters and tweeters, we have been prepared to serve our ancestors through family history work and to lay claim to promised blessings.  With the increasing number of genealogy records on the Internet and the tools to access them, you don’t have to be a genealogist to… Continue reading

Contest Winner: Honeybees and Service

bee on a sunflower

Out of small things—even “honeybees”—great things can come to pass. Though I lacked the funds, the feeling that I should do something to help a missionary’s struggling family in Tonga persisted. This elder had served long and faithfully in our stake; now his mother’s diagnosis of cancer and mounting medical… Continue reading

Do I Have To?

We often selfishly ask ourselves if the commandments to love and serve others really apply to us. The Savior lovingly reminds us that they do. Two very different people each asked an unassuming and easily justifiable question. One asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Another asked, “And who is my… Continue reading

Sharing the Christian Message—Hand in Hand

Latter-day Saints share many of the same beliefs as other religions, including our stance on the family. We can work together as religious people to share elements of the gospel with the world.   As the fight for the family becomes more heated in modern society, people of different religions… Continue reading

Divinely You

A photo of three smiling young fellows.

As you seek to discover the depth of the divine nature that lies within you, you will begin to further magnify your precious gift. You might recognize the truths about your divinity in the Primary song “I Am a Child of God.” But it’s not enough just to know these… Continue reading

Sisters, No Effort Is Lost

Photo of young women in front of the Manila, Philippines Temple courtesy of lds.org

While we may not always feel the significance of the little things we do, God keeps a perfect record and none of our efforts are lost. Have you ever gotten stuck thinking about all the people you neglected to help or about the things you failed to get done in… Continue reading

Charity Revisited

man atop a mountain with sky

For the longest time, I didn’t think I had any charity. Whenever I heard about charity in Primary, Sunday School, Young Women, Relief Society, and even many of my university religion classes, the message I always got was that charity was service. Charity was going out and giving, working, and… Continue reading