Since everyone else has an open thread, I want Nine Moons to have one too. Post your thoughts, observations, criticisms and blather about the bloggernacle here. (And please make sure to write your thoughts as events are unfolding, not waiting until you have time to make sense and/or come to any sensible conclusions.)
A week ago today, my wife and I brought home from the hospital our beautiful new daughter, Vanessa Marie. Since then we and our two boys, Ethan (5) and Caleb (3.5), have been adjusting to the big changes in our lives. Ethan enthusiastically embraced the idea of having a new baby sister. He just has a few complaints: he didn’t get to see how Vanessa came out of mommy’s tummy like he wanted to, the baby sleeps too much, and it will be a long time before he can teach her how to play video games. Caleb is a little less interested, but he finally did ask to help feed her a bottle like his big brother has been doing. (more…)
Imagine you met a real life geenie that offered you three wishes. Assuming those wishes would come true what would you wish for? (You must also assume 1) the real consequences to your wishes and 2) your wishes can’t interfere with other people’s agency and 3) they fall within the laws of science and 4) you can’t change the past)
Mine (as of today): (more…)
Apparently abstinence-only education isn’t working. Raise your hand if you actually thought it would. Well, unless the government implements a playground campaign amongst 4th graders I don’t think kids will be learning about sex from the state anyway. I mean, seriously, by the time kids get the “official” sex education classes they could probably be teaching it. But I digress. (more…)
What does the destruction on a remote Virginia campus mean to me? Does it mean anything to me?
as ye are… willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all places…
Yet after turning on the radio this morning and hearing about the fourth story on the shooting rampage at a Virginia college, I unwittingly found myself inwardly saying “enough already! I heard you the first time. Can we move on please?” (more…)
As I’ve grown older and wiser and more like Jesus there is one thing that I’ve learned: everything in this world revolves around women. (more…)
Have you ever been to a place that felt like that? An outdoor place that feels special somehow, like God is near?
I’ve been to the Sacred Grove, and I was expecting it to feel like that. But it didn’t. It’s a nice, pretty wooded area, and I was there on a beautiful day. But it didn’t feel special to me.
The Sacred Grove, Palmyra, NY
Maybe part of that was because I was there with my non-member parents and uncle, I don’t know. Maybe if I’d been alone I would’ve felt something more. But what struck me the most was how ordinary it was. I came away with the realization that the earth is God’s creation, and there isn’t some special place where He might appear.
It’s all ordinary, and it’s all special.
Yet there are places where I feel closer to God. Places that make me marvel and give me a sense of eternity, and my place in it.
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Out driving yesterday I pulled up behind a beat-up hatchback (it’s always a beat-up hatchback for some reason) plastered with several bumper stickers. (more…)
Either 1) the burden is transferred to someone with more responsibilities than us (if it must be dealt with now) or 2) nothing (if it can be dealt with later). What DOESN’T happen is that the burden disappears.
Easter, what a glorious celebration. Going over the events of the death and resurrection brought a question to my mind. (more…)
I posted in Part I about a time I prayed for something to happen, and I gave the Lord a deadline. And He met it. I don’t often do that. For me personally, it has to be something really big, and something really important, for me to feel justified doing that.
I’m someone who often receives answers to prayers. I don’t know why. Spiritual gifts, and all that, I guess. I don’t know why some people really struggle with receiving answers to prayers. My husband is one of those people. Sometimes I think it’s a personality thing. In my experience, it seems like the Lord gives us only as much as we need, and no more. I don’t think my husband really needs very much. Or maybe it’s just that he hasn’t figured out how to ask so that he’ll get an answer. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go into that more in another post.
For now, I want to share how the Lord met another deadline.
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I read a lot of articles on Mitt Romney, not so much because of my interest in him (the articles don’t reveal anything new about him), but because I’m fascinated with the way that the media talks about Mormons. And just as fascinating is reading comments about Mormons on (non-bloggernacle) blogs. I understand that some people have a deep need to ridicule us, and I’m okay with that. But the problem I have is when they try to encapsulate our religion in a few lines of text that go something like this: (more…)
What an understatement.
Years ago, my husband was inactive. I used to pray every night that he’d come back to church. Just next Sunday, I’d plead. Just one Sunday, and maybe everything would be ok. But he never came.
Then one day I read a quote, I think by a member of the General Relief Society presidency (but I don’t remember) about how if we have a righteous desire, we can pray for it to happen, and give the Lord a deadline.
So I tried it. Our oldest child’s 8th birthday was looming on the horizon. I wanted his father to be able to baptize him.
I realized that my ineffectual nightly pleading was actually demonstrating a lack of faith. So I prayed once, and once only—and I warned Heavenly Father that I wasn’t going to pray about it again—that my husband would be able to baptize our son.
God had six months to get my husband back to church, to stop smoking, and to give up coffee.
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I consider there to be five hopefuls: McCain, Giuliani, Romney, Clinton and Obama. Talk about darkhorses and underdogs should be reserved for the Final Four tournament, not presidential politics. Yeah, I know, it’s not fair that they have to raise so much money to even be a contender but that’s the reality that we’re living in so we’re not going to discuss that here.
First of all I have to mention that I’m neither Republican nor Democrat. Talk to me about an issue and I’ll tell you where I stand, but because I happen to agree with one Republican or Democrat views I’m certainly not going to accept the rest of their pre-packaged ideas. As a teenager when I was confronted with an issue I would first think, “what would the Republican view be?” and then assumed that position. Now it’s, “what do I think?” and then I don’t care what the Republican or Democrat position is.
On with the show: (more…)
