Glad Tidings of Great Joy

by Marsha Ward

Coming into the Christmas season, I know there is nothing more important to do in December than rejoice over the greatest event mankind has ever seen: the birth of the Savior of the World. His Birth, Life, Ministry, Sacrifice, and Atonement are eternal blessings in our lives. Everything else is incidental to those events and accomplishments.

Our Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, but he also wants us to be tested and tried through a mortal existence. Many years ago I realized the unique confluence of happiness and adversity when we had a trial returning home from a camping trip. We descended a narrow hillside highway complete with hairpin turns and no shoulders, and I felt that all was not right. We seemed to be weaving all over the road. I knew my husband was a good driver and was sufficiently rested, so the problem wasn't in his driving skills. Something wasn't right with our large vehicle. I think the imprint of my fingers must still be in the armrest to this day.

When we finally reached the valley at the end of the downgrade, one of our tires exploded. My husband carefully guided our truck to the side of the road—to the first shoulder area that we had seen since we began the descent. He and the boys changed the tire after we had a prayer of thanksgiving for our safety.

All of you have heard similar accounts, or experienced similar insights into blessings yourselves.

As I’ve pondered on blessings during November, it has occurred to me that my writer friends are great blessings to me and to the world. As members of American Night Writers Association, we share a common framework of faith. As writers, we share a love of words and the talents to use them.

Our works range from emotionally soothing to informational to fantastically adventurous to comforting to romantically satisfying. We create intriguing new worlds, have our characters climb into wagon seats to cross a continent, and teach parents how to raise their children. We—in our writing—imitate our Savior in bringing “Glad Tidings of Great Joy” into the world.

What a great blessing to share!

Seasons and Reasons for Thanksgiving.

At Thanksgiving time we have the opportunity to reflect on everything we are grateful for in the past and present. This year I have some new items I am thankful for along with standbys that I will always appreciate.
I am so glad to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am buoyed up by the teachings in my youth from parents, primary, young women, Sunday school teachers, seminary and institute. The knowledge gained then has supported me through trials in my adulthood. My testimony that Jesus Christ is my Savior and loves me comforts me and gives me peace.
I am very thankful for my family. I have two wonderful children who are educated, caring and responsible adults. I have a super daughter-in-law and three beautiful and talented granddaughters.
I am fortunate enough to still have my mother living. This year she has been close by while serving her fourth mission. I have been able to spend more time visiting with her and learning from her excellent example of dedicated service. Her enduring love of my father and the gospel’s reassurance of eternal families bring her hope.
I am very grateful that I am a citizen a country where very divergent views are allowed to be expressed, we are free to live our religion, and basic human rights are respected. This year’s election brought our more political activity than we’ve seen in a long time and gave us all opportunity to examine our values and those of our candidates and of the issues on the ballot.
I appreciate now what at the time I thought was awful. When I sold my home due to illness and inability to make the mortgage payments I was very sad. Now I see that the Lord was looking out for my future needs. I am in a comfortable and affordable home during this time of economic instability. I have a wonderful job that allows me to work from home – using skills I acquired during more than thirty years of nursing – a noble career and profession I love. The people I work with are wonderful, wise and caring. We have great team spirit and the corporation is stable when others are not. I am truly blessed to be able to earn a decent wage and not be dependant on others.
My writing has improved and expanded under tutelage of excellent teachers this year. I feel honored to be able to share with other writers with similar values and goals. The assistance we render one another is invaluable.
My health is improving, slowly but surely, one step at a time. I am delighted to have found caring physicians, and other helpful health practitioners that have assisted my return to productivity. Good health is so important – yet undervalued until it is lost. In spite of the pain and stress I’ve faced on a daily basis I can honestly say it has been a good learning experience. Because of my experiences I have more compassion and understanding for the patients I deal with and other acquaintances.
So as this year closes, I have reason to believe that it has been one of my best. Lots of love and learning has happened. There is a bright future ahead. I gratefully bow my head and humbly praise our Lord and Creator for his magnificent gifts to me and my family in this season of Thanksgiving.

Family Traditions

by Rebecca Talley

Every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, we pull out all of our Christmas decorations, put on the Christmas tunes, and decorate our house for Christmas.

We used to trudge through the forest searching for that one, perfect tree—you know, with the light shining down from heaven and a chorus of angels singing. On two different occasions, I had newborns that I carried in a front pack as we hiked through the trees seeking the one that would have the honor of adorning our living room for the season. Year after year, we cut down our own tree despite the snow, rain, or complaints from small children that their legs were going to fall off.

Searching for the tree was usually so exhausting and took so long that some years we had to postpone the decorating until the next day. And, too many times to count, we reminded ourselves during the drive home that we had a tree on top of the vehicle and we should not drive into the garage. Yet, time after time, we’d forget and drive into the garage, wedging the tree between the top of the vehicle and the garage door. That became one of our traditions.

Unfortunately, a beetle infestation combined with several years of drought killed the majority of pinion trees in our area. We then decided we’d—gasp—buy an artificial tree in an effort to leave the live trees intact and allow for new tree growth. We may go back to cutting down our own tree when the forest has had a chance to regenerate itself, but by then it may be too difficult to maneuver our wheelchairs and canes through the forest.

Our family tradition of decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving has become an important part of our family’s memories and the kids look forward to it each year. My son, who recently returned home from his mission, has nicknamed the day, “The Talley Family Christmas Halapalooza.” He’s said many times how much he missed this tradition while he was away in Italy.

Traditions are an important part of our families. Kids look forward to traditions and see them as a constant in their ever-changing lives. No matter what, my kids know that instead of shopping on Black Friday, we’ll be putting up the Christmas tree, sipping hot chocolate, and watching, “Christmas Vacation.”
Of course, other traditions are even more important. Family scripture study, family home evening, and family prayer are all traditions that will not only strengthen our family here and now, they will bind us together for eternity.

When we were first married, we instituted a tradition of reading our scriptures together, reciting an Article of Faith, singing a hymn (usually a Primary song), and then saying our family prayer. It’s become such an integral part of our family that our kids won’t allow us to skip any part of it, even if it means we’re doing it at midnight.

Traditions that are grounded in the gospel will unite our families and draw us closer together. It’s never too late to start a family tradition.

A Thanksgiving Perspective

by Stephanie Abney

The task of writing a blog for Thanksgiving Day is rather daunting. There is so much to be thankful for, even in these difficult times. I’ve seen countless people step up to help those who have been hard hit by the financial downslide our country is experiencing and it touches my heart. In my own life the Lord has so richly blessed me with a wonderful heritage, a loving husband and sweet, dear children and grandchildren and His eternal plan of happiness. There are the blessings of friends, a great ward and a close and comfortable neighborhood. My husband and I both have good and meaningful jobs. The list goes on and on so I thought I would share a couple of things that have happened lately that I am grateful for.

Last Sunday our RS president gave a wonderful lesson and shared some Thanksgiving traditions in their family. One was a featherless (magnetic) turkey that hung on their fridge and the colorful (magnetic) feathers that they added as each one expressed something they were thankful for. Then she put the turkey up on the white board and said the sisters could come up and say something they were thankful for and she would add a feather to the turkey. We got many of the typical (albeit marvelous) blessings that people say about family, friends, home, church, etc. and I threw in my gratitude for the electronic advancements of the computer and Internet which allows me to keep in touch instantly with dear friends and family members via email and blogs.

Then a sweet sister came up. I have known and loved her mother for nearly 30 years (quite the mentor ~ fabulous scripturian with such insight) and this daughter has been the source of considerable heartache for her over the years although I never knew any details. Then one day, about a year ago, the daughter started coming to church with her mom and even coming when her mom (who is getting on in years) couldn’t make it. She has the same clear understanding of the scriptures as her mother and I always enjoy her comments. I’ve tried to speak to her each week and tell her how nice it is to see her. She stood at the front of the room and in tears said how thankful she was for forgiveness and the atonement allowing someone like her to come back to church after 25 years and feel so welcome. That pretty much says it all… what greater gift could we have gotten from our Father, than the opportunity to come back into His presence even if we have gotten off the path from time to time. I’m also thankful for this sweet blessing.

The other thing that I keep remembering is the gift of “perspective.” I was going to use this experience for its own blog but I think it goes here quite nicely. It is so easy to see why only the Lord can judge because only He has the proper and complete perspective of what is REALLY going on in someone’s life. Case in point: I went to the Desert Rose RWA writer’s conference a couple of Saturdays ago and in the second break-out group I attended I could hear this very annoying tapping coming from the row behind me. I quickly glanced over my shoulder and spotted the woman tapping. When I saw the source of the noise, my feelings about it changed instantly. In fact, as the class went on and I heard the tapping, it made me smile and brought me such a peaceful, comforting feeling. There were two women on the front row, directly in front of her (but she was several rows behind them) and when they tried to turn around to see the source of this annoying tapping, they could not see her at all. I watched them as they whispered back and forth to each other, wondering how anyone could be so rude and they were so distracted by it that I doubt if they got much out of the session.

Why did the tapping cease to bother me? Because when I looked over my shoulder I saw that the woman was blind and she had a brail slate and stylus and was taking notes. That tiny revelation changed my feelings about the noise instantly. I was very thankful that I was able to see her and I truly found the sound of this sweet blind daughter of God taking notes along with the rest of us to be very touching.

I think perspective is a blessing that we should remember throughout our lives. We have no idea why someone does what they do, what brought them to that point or what their life experiences have been giving them their particular perspective and motivation so how can we ever completely understand their actions? What we can do, is completely love them as the Lord loves us. So, I leave you my dear friends with the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless Us, Every One!” AND HE DOES!!!!!