“Dad,” said the voice on the phone, “I need your help to write a paper about the ‘Old West.’”
My daughter, Tara, in order to improve her lot in life, had gone back to school at age 34. Because of my love for all things ‘western’, I took on the challenge.
I USED TO BE PRO-CHOICE, but not anymore. My life changed back in 1990 when I gave my life to Jesus Christ, and with that life change came a change of heart and a change of mind. I now value life: black lives, white lives, all colors, in fact. Men, women and alt-genders.
It’s tradition in America at the start of a New Year to make resolutions that will somehow better our lives or the lives of others in general. And why not? We all want to improve, we all need to improve. As the old cliché goes, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Heck even the great sage Taylor Swift said, “This is a new year.
May the odds ever be in your favor,” said Katness Everdeen in “The Hunger Games.”
On January 1, 2,018 years ago, some incredible odds were overcome when Jesus came to town. A prophecy made 700 years before he was born came to fulfillment which had blessings for everyone who believed it.
Today’s column is by a member of our church, Kasey Smith. She wanted to share about something incredible that God is doing through her:
I want to share a journey with you today that stems not from my expertise on a particular topic, but rather a conviction that I needed to change.
I BLAME MY DAUGHTER FOR MY TATTOO. For her eighteenth birthday she got one and insisted that I get one, too. I thought about it. Then I prayed about it. Here’s what I believe God said…. (Read part 1 here: www.bit.ly/2kp7S1Y )
Tattoo: “A permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.”
I did get a tattoo.
I wasn’t quite eight years old when my maternal grandfather passed away. John H. Price was 82. He was found one cold fall morning slumped against a cedar fencepost with a pitchfork in his hand. As usual, he had gone out to tend to his dairy cows and failed to come in for breakfast.
After the funeral services, his descendants, including my mother, gathered at the old homestead to discuss the disposition of his property and meager possessions.
MY TATTOO WAS GOING TO BE A REALLY SMALL ONE that simply said, “Mt. 6:33,” the abbreviation for my life’s verse: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). I wanted to be reminded of it, forever—in ink!
Les Goates said that he would never forget the autumn of 1918, “that terribly climactic year of World War I during which more than 14 million people died of that awful scourge ‘the black plague,’ or Spanish influenza.
“Winter came early that year and froze much of the sugar beet crop in the ground.
Do you ever wonder if you are doing enough to make the world a better place?
Thomas S. Monson asked, “How many times has your heart been touched as you have witnessed the need of another? How often have you intended to be the one to help? And yet how often has day-to-day living interfered and you’ve left it for others to help, feeling that ‘oh, surely someone will take care of that need.’
“We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives.
