“Consent lies at the heart of the Christian life, consent to an offer of salvation through grace, and consent to obey God’s commandments. It is impossible to spread Christianity by the sword. To the extent men have tried, they have succeeded only in compelling false conversion and distorting what Christianity is.” (Dinesh D’Souza) What a…
Tag: Ancestors
On Writing Your Personal History
In our Sunday School class this past week, our very excellent teacher confessed that she was going to struggle to present the assigned lesson. The reason it was going to be difficult for her she said, was because the lesson was covering the Book of Psalms, and there are no stories in Psalms. All of…
On Fathers Are Important Too
As Father’s Day approaches, may we take the time to actually contemplate our fathers, their lives and the contribution they made to our lives and the lives of our children. I have often wished that my father would have written his history, and since he did not, I attempted to do it for him. In…
On The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me
I was listening to the radio on the way home from the FamilySearch Library the other evening, and Gladys Knight happened to be singing “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me.” I have always enjoyed that song, especially the way she sang it. What a thought provoker: I have had so many best things happen…
On Their Being With Us
Sitting in Sacrament Meeting one Sabbath Day and contemplating the Sacrament Prayer, the following words, that I have heard hundreds of times, just seemed to reach out to my mind, “…this do: that they may have His spirit to be with them.” I pondered those words for a few minutes, thinking about what that might…
On The Doctrine of The Plan of Salvation
Family history, in its broader sense, may be correctly referred to as a mystery of the Gospel. Why? Because the doctrine is not simple, nor is it found all in one place, a place where just anyone can become easily acquainted with it in its entirety. You might say that most of the doctrine that…
On In My Day
Robert Tew commented that “No matter how much you revisit the past there’s nothing new to see.” That is only true if you are talking about last week, last month or even last year. But it is hardly true for someone who was alive seventy or even eighty years ago. There are many things from…
On “Whatsoever You Loose”
All the prophets who have ever walked the earth were foreordained to be prophets. Jeremiah, for example was told that he was called before he was formed in the belly. Many of the great prophets through the ages were called to serve when they were still in their youth. Probably because their minds had not…
On Mercy
I was contemplating the word mercy the other day, a term we commonly use in a Christian society. The subject came to mind because it struck me that it is primarily an attribute we ascribe to God, when in reality, we should view it as an attribute that had better belong to each of us. Christ is…
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…