By Sunshine

In early December I went up to see my parents over the weekend and I only took my daughter with me.  We had fun on the drive up spending some ‘girl’ time together talking and laughing, even though I don’t think I am so good at ‘girl’ time… anyway, we got to my parents house and walked in the door, and there was my Dad, like he always is, sitting in his chair waiting for us to arrive.  We said hello, hugged and chatted for a bit.  My daughter loves her Grandma and went back into the bedroom where we often, actually, always find her–sleeping– yet this day she wasn’t there. (more…)

Recently my father (knocking on the door of being 70-yrs-old) was in the hospital for neck surgery.  Three days later he insisted on going home (across town from me) since that was the only place where he “rest and recover.” (bad idea #1)  As I am afflicted with two deadbeat sisters (yes, that’s me judging them), tending him fell largely on my shoulders (and that of my DH and teenagers) which meant I was on the receiving end of nothing but his grumpiness and endless cursing streaks – I admit to developing an un-Christ-like attitude as the hours and days wore on.  Skipping ahead a few days…. this was the conversation:  “uhhh, Mary Magdalene, I think I’m ‘impacted’ and I need you to ….”

Ok folks, deep breath - very slow exhale, “Sorry dad, that is my line in the sand and I will not cross it for any reason.”  He whined and fussed, but I didn’t care and made the same suggestions to him that I used when I had a house full of diapers, runny noses, and bad haircuts – applesauce, and plenty of it!  He called a friend, applesauce was delivered, and later he called me to make a new announcement (can I say here that I no longer care to know about my father’s bowels … ever?) that indeed he was ‘cured.’

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Dh to Brick (4yo): Brick, please put your socks in the hamper

Brick: No.

Dh: Put your socks in the hamper right now.

Brick: You not the boss of me.

Dh: I am the boss of you.

Brick: No, Jesus the boss of me.

Dh (to me): How do I argue with that one?

Are Mormons Christians? Holy crap! I’m tired of this one. 

If you go to the Gospel Library in the lds.org site and search for “Christian” you will find a rather large list of talks which argue the case that we are Christians. 

I’ve always wondered why this is such a big deal for us, why we’re all so concerned about the rest of the world accepting us into the realm of Christendom. Is the Christian title requisite for admission into God’s Kingdom? It’s hardly central to salvation to have the title.

The fundamental belief of all Christian people is that Christ is our savior. To us, it’s rather obvious. To others, not so much. (more…)

Too many members think they cannot or should not read novels outside of the approved LDS book club list. I was one of them. Though I’d written since the age of six, I stopped soon after joining the church, well aware of the stories I used to write and convinced they weren’t worthy now that I belonged to the True Church.

I also stopped reading. I thought and felt that if I was to read anything, it should be strictly church related - either the scriptures, Church authorized material, or even things like “The Work and the Glory” (snore!)

Then came the day seven years ago this May when I suffered a miscarriage. As I’ve only miscarried once, I don’t know if the physical toll I took is common or not (I was only 6 weeks along), but it was significant. Bed rest. I was bored to death.

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I’m ruined. RUINED– I tell you!

I’ve loved The Nutcracker ever since my mom and godmother took me to Lincoln Center when I was six and the swelling music and dancing fairies had me begging for ballet lessons all the way back to the suburbs. Eight years later, I spent the months of October and November in rehearsals and December traveling around New England to meet my demise as a mouse over and over again.  Christmas just wasn’t Christmas without cranking up the Tchaikovsky and envisioning the pesky boys at the party taunting their sisters, Mother Ginger opening her skirts, the Russian guys jumping, and the Sugar Plum Fairy twirling and spinning.

A few years ago, I decided to introduce our oldest daughter to the magic of The Nutcracker. It’s been our thing– something we look forward to all fall. We sat together in the theater last Thursday night, both feeling expectant as the orchestra started and the curtain rose. Usually, I just absorb the music and the dance and the costumes and the sets and find myself almost overwhelmed by the spectacle. But this year, I saw a single Nutcracker prince, surrounded by dozens of identical women (reappearing as snowflakes and food and flowers). He took Clara through these worlds, motioning to her as if to say, “All this could be yours. You too could be one of nineteen princesses, supervised by a benevolent head princess. Join my harem!”

I blame you fMh, along with David Ebershoff and Todd Compton for ruining a perfectly good Christmas tradition. When I used to go to The Nutcracker, it was a fun night out with my daughter and a chance to reminisce about my glory days as a dying rodent. Now I worry about whether or not the Sugar Plum Fairy is being a good sister wife to the flowers. Do the Snowflakes know about the Hot Chocolate girls, or does the Nutcracker keep something sweet on the side?

“What do you want for Christmas?” Dh kept asking me.

“A T@B Trailer,” I’d say because:

1. It was kinda true.
2. I can’t think of anything I really do want (and can actually have).
3. I knew he’d never get me one.

Well, boy I was wrong: (more…)

I should be happy tonight-it is Christmas eve after all. In a few minutes, I will sit in the living room with my family and we will open one of many Christmas  gifts under our tree and later we will drive over to midnight services at  Zion Evangelical Lutheran church.

I should also be happy that my cupboards are full enough that I was able rummage through them to gather extra toiletries and food items.

I should be happy that my closet is overflowing with clothes; winter sweaters, jackets, jeans and shoes all waiting in a bag for another days use.

I should be happy that my bank account at this time can support our family’s needs and there’s money left over for an emergency.

And I should be happy that this year marked the largest fund drive the Road Home Shelter has ever had. Busting all records by thousands of dollars.

And I am happy for those things and yet, my friends, my heart is heavy this Christmas Eve. (more…)

As the Christmas season reaches its apex, finding time and room to contemplate God’s greatest gift to us may be difficult, but nudges me with its urgency.  Son of God, already a perfect being who had created the very world He would condescend to, could have been introduced here in any number of ways befitting the King whose title He deserved millenia before the Nativity, before Golgotha, before the empty tomb.  Yet He came as one of us, a helpless Babe who would need swaddling clothes to comfort and contain the flailing limbs.  The hands that shaped a universe, carved commandments into stone tablets, touched sixteen clear stones to light the deep, and that would tremble under cruel nails could only reflexively curl around Mary’s fingers as He suckled, utterly dependent, at her breast.  Surrounded by servile animals and outcast from the community of human shelter, the new little family–inextricably and eternally linked with the human family–commenced an earthly work that would culminate in an act so powerful that it reaches both forward and backward in time to save every soul willing to receive it.

Oh, come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

This is the first Christmas in 55 years that my Mom will spend without my Dad. My Christmas memories are chock full of Dad memories, in the morning he’d make us wait and wait while he built a fire and turned on Christmas music, then he’d sit next to the tree in his blue bathrobe, like the king of Christmas and hand out our presents one at a time, with deliberate agonizing slowness, cheerfully examining each gift, ignoring our impatience, deflecting our pleas for an immediate orgy of greed. Turning the whole process into a family event, where we actually payed attention to everyone, talked to each other, and laughed a lot. I miss him.

Life Sucks sometimes, eh?

We all struggle, and the joy of the season sometimes makes the pain cut even deeper. As daughters and mothers, sisters and friends, how do we mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those who need comfort in the midst of all this hall decking jingle belling ho ho ho-ing merriness?

An excerpt from a great book and one of my favourite carols. Wishing you all a peaceful and happy Christmas (more…)

This video link was sent in by commenter wistfulblue. Story below was written and submitted by Janet. (more…)

One of the doctrines that appealed most to me as an investigator of the Church was the Second Article of Faith: We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression. 

This varied greatly from my Protestant and fleeting Catholic teachings I’d grown up with that we are all sinners because of Adam and Eve, and lest we never accept Christ into our hearts we are doomed to eternal damnation because of something some guy did millions of years ago (or however long you believe it to be). 

I lovedthis. And my heart pitter-pattered even more when I heard this tidbit: Eve wasn’t taken from Adam’s head as to be at his head, nor from his feet as to insinuate she would be at his feet, but rather from his rib, his side. Equals. Yay! I loved telling family and friends this.   (more…)

Submitted by reader Samantha (more…)

First, I want to state my love and admiration for President Hinckley. Please take this in the spirit it is mentioned and intended. This is not a personal attack on him but the ideals he speaks of. It is through an interview he had with Larry King from which I base today’s post.

“Larry King: Are people ever thrown out of your church?

“Gordon B. Hinckley: Yes.

“Larry King: For?

“Gordon B. Hinckley: Doing what they shouldn’t do, preaching false doctrine, speaking out publicly. They can carry all the opinion they wish within their heads, so to speak, but if they begin to try to persuade others, then they may be called in to a disciplinary council. We don’t excommunicate many, but we do some. ” (emphasis added)

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Submitted by commenter Rechabite (more…)

You’ll have to forgive me for beginnings. I’m not a fan or skilled in the art of introductions as I’m often afraid of coming across as a dork. Fair warning? 

I’m a born and raised Northern Californian, baptized in the church on May 7, 2000 after nearly a year of investigation. I was eighteen years old, fresh out of high school, and ready to find a church after four years of rejecting organized religion. Nearly ten years later, I’m married (Oakland, CA temple) with three kids 5, 4, and 3 years old. That’s right. One girl, two boys respectively. I’m tired, and I’m done.  (more…)

 (Proof that I’m nuts: the length of this post and my unwillingness to edit it. HAH! But really, there’s a reason “silly” appears in the title. This is meant to be a fun bit of list-making to help you de-stress, not a thread on the serious aspects of selfishness or generosity. Silly, silly, silly.)

Our recent conversation regarding the perils “Christmas Crap” and attachment to material objects serves a valuable purpose so close to my favorite holiday. To wit, it reminds me that my still $#^#$@ undecorated Christmas tree (Costco has insufficient LED lights for procrastinators) and fresh-paint decimating garlands don’t really matter. Christmas will come whether my usual obsessive compulsive gift wrapping festoons shapely packages with intricate ribbon designs; whether my home-made cookies ever get into the oven; whether Muffin continues to view popcorn strings as the most congenial and yummy choking hazards ever. To belabor a rare cliche which has earned cliche status exactly because it holds true: Christmas isn’t about crap but consecration. About God-made-human who consecrated an entire life and death for our salvation.

Someday we’ll be formally asked to live the Law of Consecration, to give all our “stuff” and effort, all the time, and absent any sense of ownership. Small cookies in comparison to Christ’s sacrifice, but one which daunts a lot of us nonetheless.

So this ridiculously long run-up, which I refuse to edit because I have to find some more cursed LED bulbs, is all to ask the following: what three material possessions or talents would you Scrooge into a hidden closet of your bedroom or your heart  (or at least give grudgingly) if asked to live the Law of Consecration? And–much more fun!–what possessions and skills would you donate in a heartbeat, heartily hoping your brothers and sisters could benefit from them as much as have you? (more…)

Submitted by Stephanie

“My Grown Up Christmas List” (sung by Amy Grant) (more…)

 by lisaJ

Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.

-Alma 41:10

Most every time I’ve felt unhappy I’ve heard someone quote this scripture. If that didn’t happen, you can bet I’ve remembered past lessons I’ve had in church – the crux of each were: unhappy people are unhappy because they’re doing something they shouldn’t.

It’s lovely, really.

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I was sitting in my car at Sonic yesterday afternoon, enjoying the pebbly ice left at the bottom of my Diet Cherry Coke, when I noticed the pickup truck next to me was emblazoned with the words “Son Light Electricity” and a picture of a sun with a cross in the middle of it. Here in the South, it’s not uncommon for small business owners, especially service providers, to include overtly Christian messages in their marketing. I’ve gotten several business cards for maid service tucked in my front door with quotes like “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” and the admonition to “Have a Blessed Day.”

In an area as diverse as mine is, where I’d guess that at least 1/3 of the population isn’t Christian, I’m kind of surprised by the marketing strategy. If you had to choose between ACME Roofers and New Hope Roofers to repair your leaky top, would you go for the one with the overt Christian reference in the company name? Would it be a turnoff? Why? And I’ll be honest that it rubs me the wrong way, as if to say, “I’m a better plumber because I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.”

As Mormons, what kinds of marketing do we do to our own kind to the exclusion of others? My only experience living in a predominantly LDS community came when I was at BYU, so I don’t think I have an accurate frame of reference, but the LDS agents ad that always comes on before the BYU basketball games definitely leaves me shaking my head and wondering why.

An excerpt from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (and a great Scrooge song!) (more…)

Hello, Everyone,

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago and it made me think about
Lisa’s (or was it someone else’s?) story about the perfect V.T. who
ran all her errands before she went on her trip, etc., etc.

I am sooooooo not that person. Witness the evidence:

During F&T meeting, an elderly gentleman got up and talked about how
his wife was in the hospital for emergency surgery and thanked the
ward and the Lord for being mindful of them. I realized he was the DH
of “Mary” (name changed to protect the innocent — and to save myself
from embarrassment if she or anyone else I know reads this), whom my
comp [”Sue”] and I visit on a highly irregular basis. My V.T. comp was
sitting right in front of me and I leaned forward and said, “That’s
Mary’s husband! We gotta do something!” Sue says, “Do you think she’d
let us take her dinner?” And I was like, “No, she’ll tell us no. So,
let’s just make it and show up on the doorstep and surprise her. How’s
Tuesday for you?”
(more…)

Poem submitted by reader/commenter Beijing and story link sent in by a reader who wishes to remain anonymous (more…)

I am six days away from welcoming a new child into the world. This Christmas miracle - the littlest Angel - is making his arrival on Christmas Eve. I tell my two year old that Santa is bringing us a baby this year. I think she would rather have a monkey.

I am overwhelmed. (more…)

Submitted by Beijing (more…)

So I was talking to one of my brother’s a while back. In the last few years he’s declared himself of the agnostic persuasion. He thinks there’s probably a God, and IMO he still thinks like a Mormon, but he has a problem with organized religion, not Mormonism in particular, all organized religion.

His issues weren’t what I was expecting, either, it wasn’t a matter of all the evil perpetrated in the God’s name, inquisitions, fundamentalism, crusades and such (my issues with organized religion), his issue was much more basic than that. His issue is with faith.

If you believe, they say, you get all this great stuff, if you don’t, well the consequences are never pretty. But Why?

Given that so many good good people (whom I know) want more than anything in the world to believe, but no measure of hope or clean living or hard work become for them the alchemy of faith, given my own long struggle with hope and faith and the helplessness I felt wanting to believe so much and unable to make it happen, given the biological underpinnings of certainty . . . given that the “faithful” regularly blow people to tiny bits in the name of their faith, and millions of faithless live lives of love and generosity . . .

Why, he asked, why would God care if you believe or not?

How would you answer him?

Poem submitted by our own ECS (more…)

By Natalie,

Though I’m not a housewife, I am feminist and Mormon. You might call me a downright radical, even.

Recently, a friend of mine sparked a conversation about materialism and over-consumption in the church, and it’s got my mind going. I want to preface this by saying that I don’t have any specific individuals in mind, and I am really not looking to ruffle any feathers here. But I do hope to meaningfully address something I consider to be a seriously alarming trend in LDS culture. (more…)

Submitted by reader Lady (more…)

Originally published Dec 2005

I love learning about other people’s traditions, so thought I would share my favourite English Christmas ones with you…

Christmas for me starts in October. That’s when (some!) English women are making their Christmas cake. This is because to keep it moist you ‘feed’ it every week - traditionally with brandy, but I usually use cranberry juice. It’s an English tradition that I love doing every year. One of many. I have especially enjoyed them more whilst living in the U.S. Bringing that feeling of home adds to the excitement. (more…)