Making our records are sacred. I don't like to write. Ironically, I teach a writing course at my local university, and I write this blog. Still, I don't enjoy writing. Here's why I do it: I write to influence. Well-crafted writing can inspire and can change lives. We need look no further than the scriptures as examples of inspirational life changing writ. Although the scriptures were written by holy prophets, we can also see the "normalcy" and frailties of these authors as human beings. (I ... VIEW POST
Writing Our Own "Gold Plates"
Step 2 of the 12 Steps: Hope.
Got guilt? "At some point we must stop anguishing over what is wrong with us and rejoice in what is right within us." Wise words from Latter-day Saint therapist, Wendy Ulrich, in her book Forgiving Ourselves. As Latter-day Saints, some of us (including myself) tend to wear guilt as a badge of honor and humility. But excessive guilt is not honorable; nor true humility. Rather, it's a form of anguish that leaves us languishing in a spiritual and emotional quagmire. Believe me, I know. ... VIEW POST
Too Cold, Too Hot, Or Just Right?
What's the temperature in our LDS Church gatherings? Sometimes, I'm cold. I'll sit on the back row in Relief Society and Sacrament meetings to avoid any real conversation and then dash out the door after the closing prayer. I'm always feeling shy and slightly anxious at the prospect of sitting next to sisters I don't know or who are casual acquaintances. (Even more, I'm slightly uncomfortable even sharing hymn books while singing!) For me, it's simply easier to smile at sisters from across ... VIEW POST
Step One: "The Truth Shall Set You Free"
Are we fooling ourselves? Attending rehab for drug and sexual addiction, the young woman approached the church podium to bear her testimony in her Latter-day Saint Utah ward's Sacrament meeting service. She talked honestly and courageously about her continued struggle with addiction. After she spoke, someone in the congregation passed a note to this young woman's mother. It read, "How dare you let your daughter get up and say that!" I admired the mother's response: She immediately sent back ... VIEW POST
Do You Have to Feel Wrong In Order to Feel Right?
Thinking right to feel right. Head bowed, he started crying again. Afraid to reveal too much of himself, he spoke carefully. Listening to him, my heart was breaking along with his already broken one. "I never realized life would be so hard, and I'd be so unhappy," he said. (He wasn't even 20, but he talked as if he were an old man.) During the next several months, my husband and I tried to win his trust. And we knew he wanted to trust us. But he couldn't let go---fear and denial held him ... VIEW POST
No Pain, No Gain
Ready to hug a cactus? As a college instructor, my job is to inflict pain on my students---the pain of discipline and hard work. Student responses to pain consistently fall into two basic categories: Those who are willing to submit to the pain and those who resist. The "submitters" graduate with a college degree. The "resisters" drop out. The more a student resists the pain, the lower his or her grade. Paradoxically, students who resist pain create a host of other ... VIEW POST
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"The Ten Virgins" by John Melhuish Strudwick