With the month of July coming to a close, the thoughts of our Independence day are fading: the fireworks, the waving of the red, white, and blue, and the sounds of the Star Spangled Banner in the air. These icons of freedom will soon be stored away for another year. Before they are gone, at…
Author: Emil Hanson
On Chastisement
Chastise is a word we don’t hear very often because it has such a negative connotation to it. Yet, it merely means the same as being punished verbally and possibly physically after you have done something you shouldn’t have been doing. I remember, as a young boy, the year before I was old enough to go…
On It’s in the Makin’
When we initiate a plan, or, at least, are included in the plan, whether it be a company project or a personal/family project and we really buy into it, we become excited, and our labor will be more intense. The difference in the energy level of our labors when we are laboring with a vision,…
On Discovering Our Roots
Finding our close roots may have a different meaning for each of us, as I was so emotionally reminded the other day. A retired elderly man was directed to the Ogden Family History Center, seeking information about his birth mother. He and his wife were visiting the area, and their LDS host suggested that we,…
On Humor
I remember a few times in my life when things seemed so grim, so serious, that even a smile would have ruined that mood. Those were times, of course, when grim and serious were appropriate. Humor would not only seem out of place, but it would probably not be appreciated by anyone involved in the…
On the Holy Ghost
An elderly man was sharing his testimony in church regarding the Holy Ghost and spoke of Him in a way that I really hadn’t contemplated before. He said that he was grateful to Heavenly Father for all of the blessings that he and his family had been granted. He was grateful to the Savior for…
On Humility
Humility is unrelated to a specific gender, or even how tall or short one is, the size of their waistband, or headband, it is unrelated to their I.Q., whether they have a formal education or none. It even has no relationship to whether one is young or old, their social standing, or how much money…
On The Vision
In the Ogden Regional Family History Center foyer we have a painting hanging that was donated to the center. It was painted by a local artist, now deceased, and it depicts the sacred grove with the young Joseph Smith kneeling and looking up at the vision of the Father and the Son. Interestingly, the Father…
On Prejudices
Prejudices are an interesting mindset based primarily, I believe, on a less than healthy personal self concept by those who feel the emotion. If a person feels good about themselves and feel that life has treated them fairly and that they have progressed as well as they had expected, they usually have an absence of…
On False Teachers
There was an article I read some time ago, written for the ‘Raleigh News and Observer’, titled, “Gospel Myths Claimed”. The article described a meeting sponsored by Duke University at Chapel Hill, N.C., it was a meeting of the world’s most renowned group of Jesus scholars. These seven internationally known experts drew a conference crowd…