My Christmas

I had a very good Christmas. I has been so nice to be able to testify of Christ this Christmas season. Christ is the greatest gift that we have been given. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 I am grateful that Christ has come into this world to take upon him our sins that we may live with him again. "And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life." Helaman 14:8

Don't forget Christ this Christmas

How are you remembering Christ at this Christmas season?

We had a party at church over the weekend where we had a nativity. There were Roman Soldiers, angels, Mary and Joseph, shepherds, wisemen and  of course the Christ child.  It was a perfect way to remember Christ and the true meaning of Christmas.

Count Down to Christmas

Last year for Christmas my family sent me an advent calender. Each day had a little note from a family member stuffed in it. I loved reading those little notes so much I decided I wanted to save it for this year. After a year I haven't been able to remember what my family has said so it has been exciting to read them again. Today I read a note from my Uncle Tim. He had quoted an article form the December 1983 Ensign, "What Shall I Do Then With Jesus Which is Called Christ?" I loved the quotes he picked out so much I decided to read the article.

I ask anew the question offered by Pilate two thousand years ago, 'What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?' Indeed, we need continually to ask ourselves, what shall we do with Jesus who is called Christ? What shall we do with his teachings, and how can we make them an inseparable part of our lives? In light on these questions, at this season we ask another: What does Christmas really mean? May I suggest some things that it should mean?

Christmas means giving.
Christmas means the Christ child.
Christmas means eternity.
Christmas means compassion love, and most of all, forgiveness.
Christmas means peace. 

"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!
"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the only begotten of the Father--
"That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants there of are begotten sons and daughters unto God." (D&C 76:22-24) 

This is our testimony to all mankind. It is our gift and blessing to the world. He is our joy and our salvation, and we will find Christmas of grater meaning in our own lives as we share these truths with others. 

What shall we do with Jesus who is called Christ? Learn of him. Search the scriptures for they are they which testify of him. Ponder the miracle of his life and mission. Try a little more diligently to follow his example and observe his teachings. Bring the Christ back into Christmas.

The rest of the article is really good as well, click here to read it.

Learning not to Count

I love Christmas and I love reading Christmas stories. Christmas is a special time of year where we can become closer to Christ. I came across this story the other day in an Ensign. I loved how Steffani shared how she was able to come closer to Christ.

Learning not to Count

by Steffani R. Packer

For most children, Christmas is a time of excitement and anticipation. For me, it was also a lesson in economics and math. As the youngest of five children, I feared that someone, somehow, would receive more presents than I would. As the days in December passed, I made it my personal mission to count all of the presents under the tree, ensuring that I had the most gifts, or at least as many as my siblings. When I had the most, I knew that my parents loved me more than anything, and I was convinced that I was their favorite child.

But most of the time, counting presents left me feeling unsatisfied, ungrateful, and upset. Even after Mom showed me from her store receipts that she truly had spent the same amount of money on each of the children, I still felt cheated somehow. In my young mind, the amount of money my mother spent didn’t matter—the number of presents did. To me, gift plus gift equaled love.

As I grew, I began applying this equation to my relationship with my Heavenly Father by counting my presents from Him. Whenever I wondered if He loved me, I went through my blessings, keeping a running total in my mind. “Heavenly Father loves me because He has given me …” This worked incredibly well for many years. Because I had been blessed in numerous ways, I felt sure I was one of His favorite people. When I got married and had a baby boy, I added two more blessings to my list. My blessings were my measuring stick for Heavenly Father’s love.

Then came a problem. I began praying to have another baby. But after three miscarriages, I started feeling unloved. I tried counting my other blessings, but that didn’t make me feel any better. Nothing seemed as important as the blessing Heavenly Father was denying me. If He loved me, as I thought my life had proven thus far, why wouldn’t He grant me the blessing I so desperately wanted?

At 23, I was still figuratively counting presents under the tree. I began to realize that if Heavenly Father used blessings as His measuring stick for love, He must not love those whose lives were stricken with struggle and pain. Everything in me knew this wasn’t true, and yet it was hard to believe He loved me when He wouldn’t give me what I longed for.

I needed answers. If my blessings couldn’t be the ultimate measuring stick, then what could I use to measure Heavenly Father’s love for me?

On a day when I felt Heavenly Father didn’t love me at all, my two-year-old son asked me to read to him from our children’s Bible storybook. As I read the simple text describing the greatest events ever to unfold on this earth, the birth of the Savior and His Atonement, I was reminded of what the Savior went through for me. He was the Son of God, the Only Begotten, and yet on this earth He descended below everything. He looked for “some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but [He] found none” (Psalm 69:20). Still He followed the Father’s will—without indulging in self-pity.

I found my answer: the Savior’s sacrifice is the ultimate evidence of Heavenly Father’s love. He sent His Son to suffer beyond what any of us can imagine so we can find peace in this world and then return to Him one day. This is love.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (1926–2004) said: “When suffering and burdened Jesus entered Gethsemane, He ‘fell on the ground’ (Mark 14:35). He did not merely kneel down, pray intensely and briefly, and leave. His agonies were so great that He began to bleed at every one of thousands of His pores (see D&C 19:18). An angel, whose identity we do not know, came to strengthen Him (see Luke 22:43). Mark wrote that Jesus became ‘sore amazed’ and ‘very heavy’ (Mark 14:33), meaning in the Greek, respectively, ‘astonished and awestruck’ and ‘depressed and dejected.’ None of us can tell Christ anything about depression!” ¹

That afternoon I stopped feeling sorry for myself and realized that it wasn’t about me but about Him. If I would turn to His Atonement every time I felt thwarted and alone, I would find love. While I recognize that my blessings come from His gracious hand, I knew that if I continued to measure His love by the presence or absence of these blessings, I would never feel secure in “the arms of his love” (see 2 Nephi 1:15).

For years I had been using a measuring stick to quantify Heavenly Father’s love for me. Now I know that Heavenly Father’s love cannot be measured. Through the gift of our Savior, I learned that the love of Heavenly Father and His Son is infinite.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

On Monday Sister Mackie and I went over to a families home to help them decorate their tree. We wanted to share a Christmas message with them. This is the story I found to share with them. I love it and I hope you do as well.  

A Giving Christmas by Deborah Tolley Shatto

Christmas was just two weeks away. We had just moved to Moab, Utah, and our family of 11 was living in a three-bedroom trailer without utilities. My parents’ company had gone bankrupt, and there was no back pay. The situation was dismal, to say the least.

My singles ward was planning a service project called “The 12 Days of Christmas.” The bishops in the stake had prayed and selected a family for us to help for 12 days. Considering my family’s situation, I was disappointed that no one had offered to help us. I agreed to buy a gift for a boy in the family, but I couldn’t help but wonder what my own brothers would get for Christmas.

The day came for me to purchase a gift for this boy, and I wanted to get him something special. I decided to go to the local department store to see what toys were popular. After 30 minutes I was getting discouraged because no toys seemed just right for the child.

Then a young boy came into the store. He was about the right age, and his appearance suggested that his family was probably struggling financially. I noticed the thrill on his face as he came across a train set. I knew I had found my gift.

As this little boy’s brother came into the store to get him, I realized that this was the boy I was buying the gift for. I knew this was Heavenly Father’s way of telling me that the stake had picked the right family to serve. I was glad that I had agreed to help them rather than put my own needs first. But I had no idea that more blessings awaited my family.

My father found another job a couple of days before Christmas, and my parents managed to get a small gift for each child. And things were about to get even better.

The day before Christmas, a brother in the ward called the bishop and offered to rent a house to a needy family. It was a large, five-bedroom home with the utilities already working, and best of all, he didn’t expect rent until the next month. The bishop told us about the house, and we moved in that very morning.

Around the corner from the house was a little bar. Someone there noticed us moving in and was touched by our situation. He started collecting donations and brought over a mug filled with cash from perfect strangers.

Another miracle occurred when my father left work for the night. The bosses were passing out Christmas bonuses, but my dad had only been there for two days, so he assumed he wouldn’t get anything. He started to leave, and they said they had something for him. He was surprised to see that each of the men had given up part of their bonuses to share with our family. His company matched the donations. My dad was humbled by their generosity.

That evening, I helped drop off the gifts for our service project. When I got home, my mother told me about the mug of cash and the bonus from work. She had just finished when we heard horns honking. We ran outside and, to our further amazement, dozens of gifts decorated our lawn. We were touched and humbled by the love of strangers for our family. What began as a very meager Christmas had become, instead, a Christmas that we would never forget.

Later, as I thought about the events of the previous month, I realized that Heavenly Father knows each of us. He knows our needs, and He often uses others to meet those needs. But He blesses us the most when we put others first. When I sacrificed my family’s needs to help another family, my family was blessed more than I could have imagined.