"Art Thou Greater Than He?"Out of the Best Books No. 5

Accompanied by a CD of three songs, this little book by singer-songwriter Kenneth Cope presents, in about twenty pages, the lyrics to his song "Greater Than Us All" with added pictures, quotes, and scriptural references. The back cover of the book summarizes the context of the song like this:

Long before Calvary and the crown of thorns, before Bethlehem, or Israel, or even Eden, Jesus demonstrated His matchless love.

I was not familiar with the song prior to reading through the book, but the lyric that I found most meaningful as I read and listened was this one:

Every heart felt of His love / For us He'd come

The accompanying scripture is 1 John 4:19: "We love Him, because He first loved us." What a magnificent expression of Jesus's love was evident in His willingness to become our Teacher, our Exemplar, our Savior, and our Redeemer! Because of His perfect love, He is greater than us all - which enables us to rely upon Him in our sorrows, our sins, our pains, and our afflictions (see Alma 7:11-13).

In D&C 122:8 is recorded the word of the Lord to Joseph Smith while he was imprisoned in Liberty Jail.

The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

In other words, nothing we can ever experience, no trial we must ever endure is greater than Jesus's power to comfort and heal! He is always with us!

Note of Explanation: Part of my 10-week plan for summer this year was to read one short, inspirational book each Sunday afternoon and ponder on what I can learn from it. This blog post represents part of my efforts to do that.

How Thirsty Are You?Out of the Best Books No. 4

In The Woman at the Well, Emily Freeman retells the well-known story found in John 4:5-42 of the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at Jacob's well. Told from the viewpoint of the woman, whom Freeman calls Maya from mayim, the Hebrew word for water, the account draws on the writings of Alfred Edersheim, Frederic W. Farrar, and James E. Talmage. Illustrated by the beautiful paintings of Simon Dewey, the book emphasizes that the feelings of unworthiness or inadequacy that we all sometimes experience can be healed through the living water that comes from the One who knows us and every detail of our lives. He can teach us what we need to know and can quench our thirst if we are but willing to drink.

Whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give [her] shall never thirst:
but the water that I shall give [her]
shall be in [her] a well of water
springing up into everlasting life"
(John 4:14).
"The Lord provides the living water that can quench the burning thirst of those who lives are parched by a drought of truth. As at Jacob's well, so today the Lord Jesus Christ is the only source of living water."

- Joseph B. Wirthlin (1995)

"The Atonement can fill that which is empty, straighten our bent parts, and make strong that which is weak."

- Bruce C. Hafen (1990)

Note of Explanation: Part of my 10-week plan for summer this year is to read one short, inspirational book each Sunday afternoon and ponder on what I can learn from it. This blog post represents part of my efforts to do that.

Prayer Changes UsOut of the Best Books No. 3

"I pray because I can't help myself.
I pray because I'm helpless.
I pray because the need flows out of me all the time,
waking and sleeping.
It doesn't change God. It changes me."
― C.S. Lewis
I've been reading Anne Lamott's words for many years - and even occasionally writing about them (such as here and here). They touch me and inspire me and comfort me.

Anne Lamott's three prayers, she writes, are "variations on Help, Thanks, Wow. That's all I ever need, besides the silence, the pain, and the pause sufficient for me to stop, close my eyes, and turn inward."

Two of my favorite passages in the Thanks section are these:

• Grace can be the experience of a second wind, when even though what you want is clarity and resolution, what you get is stamina and poignancy and the strength to hang on.
• My pastor Veronica says that God always makes a way out of no way. This means that at some point, often against all odds, we will say "Thanks." Now, Veronica is paid to have faith, but even I - who am not paid to have faith - know that this is true. I don't always believe it, but I know it is true.

I loved so much of the Wow section! Lamott introduces it this way:

When we are stunned to the place beyond words, we're finally starting to get somewhere. It is so much more comfortable to think that we know what it all means, what to expect and how it all hangs together. When we are stunned to the place beyond words, when an aspect of life takes us away from being able to chip away at something until it's down to a manageable size and then to file it nicely away, when all we can say in response is "Wow," that's a prayer.

Here are some other great Wow prayer thoughts:

• Wonder takes our breath away, and makes room for new breath. That's why they call it breathtaking.
• Even though I often remember my pastor saying that God always makes a way out of no way, periodically something awful happens, and I think that this time God has met Her match - a child dies, or a young father is paralyzed. Nothing can possibly make things okay again. ... But people don't bolt, and at some point the first shoot of grass breaks through the sidewalk.
• Gorgeous, amazing things come into our lives when we are paying attention: mangoes, grandnieces, Bach, ponds. This happens more often when we have as little expectation as possible. If you say, "Well, that's pretty much what I thought I'd see," you are in trouble.
• Astonishing material and revelation appear in our lives all the time. Let it be. Unto us, so much is given. We just have to be open for business.
• Sometimes - oh, just once in a blue moon - I resist being receptive to God's generosity, because I'm busy with a project and trying to manipulate Him or Her into helping me with it, or with getting my toys fixed or any major discomfort to pass. But God is not a banker or a bean counter. God gives us even more, which is so subversive. God just gives, to us, to you and me. I mean, look at us! Yikes.
• God keeps giving, forgiving, and inviting us back. My friend Tom says this is a scandal, and that God has no common sense. God doesn't say, "I have had it this time. You have taken this course four times and you flunked again. What a joke." We get to keep starting over.
• If we stay where we are, where we're stuck, where we're comfortable and safe, we die there. We become like mushrooms, living in the dark, with poop up to our chins. If you want to know only what you already know, you're dying. You're saying: Leave me alone; I don't mind this little rathole. It's warm and dry. Really, it's fine.

Lamott ends the book with a few thoughts about Amen. "The Amen," she says, "is only as good as the attitude. If you are trying to finish up quickly so you can check your cell phone messages, you are missing the chance to spend quiet moments with the giver of life and the eternal, which means you may reap continued feelings of life racing along without you."

I love this counsel from Alma to his son Helaman regarding prayer:

Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day (Alma 37:37).

It's all in that one verse: Learning to trust God. Honoring Him. Loving Him. Help. Thanks. Wow.

Note of Explanation: Part of my 10-week plan for summer this year is to read one short, inspirational book each Sunday afternoon and ponder on what I can learn from it. This blog post represents part of my efforts to do that.

#compassionOut of the Best Books No. 2

Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness is a slightly expanded version of a commencement speech given by George Saunders at Syracuse University on May 11, 2013.

This year I am reading and discussing Karen Armstrong's Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life with the Book Buddies. (Here is a link to our online discussions.) Part of that process for me is a search for written reminders about what compassion is and how to exercise it in the world around me. When I've shared via social media some of the things I've discovered, I've used the hashtag #compassion.

This entire book warrants that hashtag. Here are a few of Saunders' thoughts:

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.

It's a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I'd say, as a goal in life, you could do worse than: Try to be kinder.

That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality - your soul, if you will - is as bright and shining as any that has ever been. Bright as Shakespeare's, bright as Gandhi's, bright as Mother Teresa's. Clear away everything that keeps you separate from this secret, luminous place. Believe that it exists, come to know it bettr, nurture it, share its fruits tirelessly.

If I truly want to be in apprenticeship to Jesus - trying to become as He is - then learning and practicing compassion is vital!

Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions
every man to his brother:
And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart (Zechariah 7:9-10).
“Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.”
― J.M. Barrie

Note of Explanation: Part of my 10-week plan for summer this year is to read one short, inspirational book each Sunday afternoon and ponder on what I can learn from it. This blog post represents part of my efforts to do that.

Feeling God's LoveOut of the Best Books No. 1

I am a fourteen-towel women
in a ten-towel-capacity life.
In Confessions of an Unbalanced Woman, Emily Watts describes her quest for "balance" - and then the epiphany that she doesn't actually want balance. Instead, she writes, "I want to find the one thing in my life that, if I get that right, it doesn't matter what the world throws onto the other side of the scale. It won't make any difference at all."

She found descriptions of that one thing in the scriptures:

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).

Love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ (Moroni 10:32).

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (Romans 8:35, 37).

That one thing, then, is love - God's love for us and our love for God.

Two of the several ideas Emily shares for feeling God's love in daily life are these:

Reverse your buts. A trick she learned in a management seminar, it works this way. Instead of thinking, "I love you, but you're driving me crazy." try thinking, "You're driving me crazy, but I love you." Or instead of "I have a great job, but it's really stressful." try "It's really stressful, but I have a great job." Isn't it amazing how different that feels?

Utilize the simple, three-step formula in D&C 90:24. 1) Search diligently for evidences of God's love. 2) Pray always. 3) Be believing. "Believe that your search is not in vain. Believe that you will find what you're looking for. Believe that [God's love] is there for you personally - not just as some abstract concept but as the most intimate, knowledge-filled, careful love you could ever know. Believe that if the Lord spoke to you today he would call you by name. He knows you that well." God's promised response to this formula is "And all things shall work together for your good" (D&C 90:24).

The words of Jesus to Martha in Luke 10:41-42 have been an answer to my prayers in the past - and they serve as a reminder of Emily Watt's message:

Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Note of Explanation: Part of my 10-week plan for summer this year is to read one short, inspirational book each Sunday afternoon and ponder on what I can learn from it. This blog post represents part of my efforts to do that.

El Camino de la CruzHappy Easter!

Last week, while vacationing in California, my family and I visited Mission Santa Inés in Solvang. Highly appropriate for the days just prior to Easter Sunday, we walked the Way of the Cross.



Each of the fourteen steps or stations represents a moment on the path that Jesus walked with his cross from Jerusalem, where He was condemned to death, to Calvary, where He was crucified.


As we stop at each of the stations, we somewhat literally "take up [our] cross and follow" Him (Mark 8:34). We can ask Him to be with us and the world in all our problems and difficulties, and we can thank Him for His sacrifice on our behalf.


At the end of this particular Way of the Cross, a painting of the Resurrected Christ reminds us of the hope and the joy that comes with Easter.



New life! Rebirth! A beginning, not an ending!

"I know that man is nothing."(Moses 1:10)

Among the many ways that we can invite the revelation of the Spirit into our lives are the sensory experiences of a sunrise, a meadow of wildflowers, or the view from the top of a mountain, especially when experienced with a sense of gratitude for God’s goodness.

Being near the ocean always gives me that "sense of [my] nothingness" that King Benjamin talked about in Mosiah 4. "I would that ye should remember," Benjamin counseled, "and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness" (Mosiah 4:11).


Oxnard State Beach, March 2013.
Gazing out toward the horizon, walking on the sand, hearing the waves crash on the shore, feeling the ocean breeze and preferably a bit of sunshine on my face - these sensations cause me to feel so small in comparison with the vastness of the ocean, and yet through them I also feel God's greatness and His goodness.

When I was pregnant with my second child - a daughter who is now seventeen years old - my husband and I made a trip from our home in Utah to San Diego so I could simply sit on the sand and soak up the strength and calmness I knew I would need for her delivery.

When I haven't visited the ocean for many months, I feel the pains of "withdrawal" and know that I need to return as soon as possible. Through spending time at the ocean, I receive the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22): the ocean brings me hope, peace, contentment, and joy!

This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God.

~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf (2011)

"Ye Shall Meet Together Oft"(3 Nephi 18:22)

As we were making preparations for our Spring Break trip to Southern California, my seventeen-year-old daughter asked me, somewhat incredulously, "Did you know that some people don't go to church while they are on vacation?" I'm happy that taking a "vacation" from church attendance is such a foreign concept to her!

Over the years we've enjoyed worshiping with the saints in such places as Cedar City, Moab, Portland, Half Moon Bay, Idaho Falls, and Denver - and once we even attended a singles ward near San Diego. We have always been warmly welcomed - and once we were even greeted by a member of the bishopric who turned out to be an old friend. The structure of the meetings is the same as at home, of course - with the administration of the sacrament as the most important feature - but the Spirit always provides me with an unanticipated gift of peace or knowledge or joy.

"Meet[ing] together oft" is such a blessing!


Visiting the East Pasadena Ward, March 2013.

"And that thou mayest more fully
keep thyself unspotted from the world,
thou shalt go to the house of prayer
and offer up thy sacraments
upon my holy day" (D&C 59:9).

The Metaphor of Light

I understand that the word light appears in the scriptures 535 times. For example:

Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am the life and the light of the world (D&C 11:28).

Besides being a metaphor for Christ Himself, light is a wonderful metaphor for the personal revelation and inspiration that we are entitled to receive through the Holy Ghost.

In the April 2011 General Conference, Elder David A. Bednar gave an address entitled "The Spirit of Revelation." (Click here for the complete text.) In that talk, he described "two experiences most of us have had with light." One of those "occurred as we entered a dark room and turned on a light switch." The other "took place as we watched night turn into morning." He goes on to say that "a light turned on in a dark room is like receiving a message from God quickly, completely, and all at once" while "the gradual increase of light radiating from the rising sun is like receiving a message from God 'line upon line, precept upon precept' (2 Nephi 28:30)."

I love how those examples of light illustrate some of the ways the Spirit works with us!

Lorenzo Snow said, "It is our right to have the manifestations of the Spirit every day of our lives." With the impending arrival of Spring in the northern hemisphere, our days have been gradually getting longer, and today is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time in the United States. I cannot think of a better time to spend some time contemplating the metaphor of light and looking for ways to better recognize the workings of the Spirit in daily life!


Little Cottonwood Canyon, September 2012.

Let us walk in the light of the Lord (Isaiah 2:5).

"Peace, Be Still"(Mark 4:39)

One of my favorite stories of Jesus is found in Mark 4. He and some of His disciples have boarded a ship to cross the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is sleeping when a great storm arises. Fearful of the possible outcome, the disciples wake Jesus, asking with anxiousness, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?"

Jesus arises and rebukes the wind with the command "Peace, be still." The wind ceases, and a calmness settles over the water - and over the disciples.

Pacific Ocean. December 2011.

According to the Bible Dictionary, miracles are "an important element in the work of Jesus Christ, being not only divine acts, but forming also a part of the divine teaching." This point is beautifully illustrated by Jesus's calming of the sea - for not only can He calm the water but also He can calm our troubled hearts, our agitated minds, our tempestuous lives.

In 1874, Mary Ann Baker penned the words to the still-popular hymn "Master, the Tempest is Raging" following a period of tumult in her own life after the death of her brother. She said:

I became wickedly rebellious at this dispensation of divine providence. I said in my heart that God did not care for me or mine. But the Master’s own voice stilled the tempest in my unsanctified heart, and brought it to the calm of a deeper faith and a more perfect trust.

As the refrain of the hymn wonderfully asserts:

Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea
Or demons or men or whatever it be,
No waters can swallow the ship where lies
The Master of ocean and earth and skies.
They all shall sweetly obey my will.
Peace, be still! Peace, be still!

What a promise it is that no waters can swallow the ship - or hinder a goal or destroy a family or overcome a faith - in which Jesus is present!

"Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).

"Repent Ye"(Matthew 3:1-2)

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea.

And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The Greek word translated as repent denotes a change of heart or mind. In other words, the result of repentance is conversion.

At the conclusion of his final address to his people, King Benjamin acknowledged the "mighty change in [them], or in [their] hearts, that [they had] no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" (Mosiah 5:2). He described the change this way:

And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters (Mosiah 5:7).

People sometimes assert that a leopard can't change its spots, meaning that one cannot change his or her essential nature. This is true. In our efforts to change who we are, willpower and self-discipline are effective only up to a point. A leopard can't change its spots. But Jesus Christ can change a leopard's spots - and He can change us!

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).