Categories
life

New Christmas Tradition

Living in a wonderfully snowy and hilly location, Laura and I volunteered our house as Laura’s family began planning a sledding excursion for the day after Christmas. While we were still in the planning stages I suggested to Laura that this might be something we could do every year.

Everyone decided to take us up on the offer and so our house was overflowing for most of the day. We had a great time hosting a relatively large event for the first time since we moved. Based on the reactions of everyone who came it was an enjoyable experience for all. Our house was close enough to the sledding hills for the group to have the flexibility necessary for our children of various ages and the hills were perfectly suited to the different needs of our varied age groups. We had a great meal before hand and plenty of time to socialize and drink hot chocolate after the sledding. It was perfect. Laura and I have decided that we are definitely going to do this every year. Now that we have had the experience once we will probably expand our invitation in future years to include more family and friends to share in the fun.

Categories
culture life

Christmas Program

As I was sitting in Sacrament meeting today anticipating the start of our Christmas program the thought struck me of how appropriate it is that we should celebrate the birth of our Savior through so much music. It seems to me that we use music more at this season of the year than for any other celebration.

I think it is appropriate to use so much music for such an important celebration because music communicates with people emotionally and intellectually in a very powerful way. In fact, it may be the generous use of music that helps to keeps our cultural celebration of Christmas so strong. While so many other holidays turn into nothing more than a day off of work or an excuse to hold retail sales Christmas has never yet been relegated to such a bleak fate. Despite any complaints by some about “Happy holidays” or “x-mas” the fact is that I have never found any holiday that carried more spiritual meaning that Christmas. Whatever of secularism might be carried by the figure of Santa Claus we still can hardly go anywhere without some display of the religious side of the season whether we are seeing Menorah’s or nativities or hearing references to Bethlehem and wise men.

An objective analysis would undoubtedly show that Christmas carries more religious significance in our secular society than any other holiday (with the possibility that Easter might rival it for religious/spiritual content). I really would not be surprised if music played a large part in keeping so much of that meaning intact.

Categories
life

“Light of the World”

I’m not sure how long it has been there, but website for the Mormon church’s children’s magazine, The Friend, has a place where kids can Color Online. Savannah was playing there this morning during my scripture study and she called out to me that she was going to put a background of light on the picture of Jesus in the picture she was coloring “because it’s one of His names, ‘the light of the world.'” I thought that was very insightful – I wonder if any artists thought of it that way back when it was standard practice to place a halo of light around the face of Christ.

Categories
life Local meta politics

Cleaning Up

I’ve been working on a blog for Becky Edwards, my state representative, that she wants to use to communicate with constituents. As part of that I have been looking at themes and plugins to help implement the features she is looking for. That led me to Subscribe2 which offers email subscription functionality through the blog. I have decided to try that out in place of feedblitz and see how it works. I figure it will be easier to tend on my own site.

I’m hoping that it is a positive experience for my few subscribers.

Categories
life

Primary Songs by Mariah

Mariah sat down at the piano today and started playing and singing for Issac and me. The primary children’s songbook was opened to I Am a Child of God. Here is what Mariah sang to us:

I am a child of God and He has sent me toooo . . . go get the brass plates.

Isaac asked for her to sing the temple song so she turned to a page in the songbook with a picture of Jesus and started singing Isacc’s favorite “temple song.” Here were her lyrics:

I love to see the temple, I’m going there someday, to get the brass plates.

I wonder if anyone can guess what story has recently made an impression on Mariah.

Categories
life

Opportunities for Blessings

I remember a quote by Joseph Smith saying:

A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone but ranges through the world, anxious to bless the whole of the human family.

I have always liked that quote because I have felt that yearning at times to be able to bless the more of the human family than just my own family. I have known intellectually that priesthood service is an opportunity to fulfill that yearning to bless a wider reange of people, but this weekend I had an experience that brought a new level of understanding to that opportunity as well as to the need to be ever ready to administer in priesthood functions.

A devastating crash on Friday night left a father and mother dead along with a young family friend. It also left a young girl in critical condition in the hospital who, along with a nearly two-year-old brother (who was minorly injured) is now without parents. I knew none of these people, but the father who died is a brother to the wife of the family that I home teach and because of the daughter being in Primary Children’s Hospital, many of the family members came to stay with the family I home teach. On Saturday night, after they left the hospital to get some rest, I went to their home with the Bishop and Elder’s Quorum President to visit with this grieving family and offer whatever assistance we could.

I have known this family for less than six months, and I have never before met any of the relatives who were staying there, and yet upon entering the house in the capacity of a priesthood holder they were not “strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” (Ephesians 2:19)

It was a marvelous blessing for me to be able to feel that Christian love for others in need and offer to help in any way that they needed. As we offered comfort and blessings as requested I came to see how priesthood service offers the opportunity in a very real way to range throughthe world blessing the whole human family.

Categories
culture politics

Challenge vs Competition

I don’t recall what triggered the thought, but over the Thanksgiving break I had a little insight into the vital difference between a challenge and a competition. A competition is something like a sporting event where there can only be one winner (excluding ties). It is an event where the winner is determined as a function of relative position. A challenge is an event where there can be multiple winners because winning is determined as a function of achievement based on static criteria.

A marathon provides a good example of both. Winning a marathon is a competition. The winning time of any one race has no bearing on the outcome of other races. Your time in one race may be too slow to win while the same time in another race would constitute first place. Finishing a marathon is a challenge – any marathon runner will congratulate any other on the accomplishment of running that 26.2 mile race. Finishing a marathon in under 3 hours is a challenge – no matter how many people accomplish the feat, my finishing in under three hours does not diminish your success in finishing in under three hours.

The distinction here might seem trivial, but I believe that we can find valuable benefits from being able to distinguish between a competition and a challenge. For some non-athletic examples: getting elected to a political office is a competition (assuming you are not unapposed) while getting into heaven is a challenge.