[perfect in Christ]

-382,997,219 + infinity = infinity

-72,385 + infinity = infinity

-9,416 + infinity = infinity

56,397 + infinity = infinity

471 + infinity = infinity

etc.

The older I get, the more I realize how weak I am by myself. Grace is needed in order to become strong.

(I asked my youth Sunday School class to pick one quote from the week's reading and make something with that quote. I tend to doodle flowers.)

#givethanks

I'm grateful for a living prophet who knows exactly what the world needs right now. I'm grateful for #givethanks and how it helped so many people to stop thinking about problems and to focus on gratitude for blessings instead. The world is full of good things and good people. Even during a pandemic. We find what we focus on. 

President Nelson's #givethanks video

President Nelson's prayer for the world:

Our Father in Heaven, as fellow passengers on Thy planet Earth, we humbly pray unto Thee.  We thank Thee for life and all that sustains life. We thank Thee for the beauties of the earth, for order in the universe, the planets, stars, and all things of eternal significance. We thank Thee for Thy laws that protect and guide us. We thank Thee for Thy mercy and loving watch care. We thank Thee for our families and loved ones, who fill our lives with joy.

We are grateful for all who are striving to combat the COVID pandemic. Please bless them with protection and inspiration. Wilt Thou help us end this virus that has plagued so many of Thy children.

We thank Thee for the leaders of nations and others who strive to lift us. We pray for relief from political strife. Wilt Thou bless us with a healing spirit that unites us despite our differences. 

Wilt Thou also help us repent from selfishness, unkindness, pride and prejudice of any kind, so that we can better serve and love one another as brothers and sisters, and as Thy grateful children. We love Thee, our dear Father, and pray for Thy blessings upon us, in the name of Thy Beloved son, Jesus Christ, amen.

[LOVE MERCY]

One of my favorite talks in the recent General Conference was Elder Dale G. Renlund's talk. I thought it was a very humble way to address some of the issues that affect our society at the moment. If only more people believed in mercy and being kind... These are personal qualities I'm striving to develop. I have improved much over the years but there is still a long way to go. It's nice to recognize some growth in myself though. Little by little, we all can improve and do better. There's hope even for me.

Elder Renlund was a cardiologist before he was called to be an Apostle. This story really touched my heart:

"Always dealing honorably with others is part of loving mercy. Consider a conversation I overheard decades ago in the emergency department of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States. A patient, Mr. Jackson, was a courteous, pleasant man who was well known to the hospital staff. He had previously been hospitalized multiple times for the treatment of alcohol-related diseases. On this occasion, Mr. Jackson returned to the hospital for symptoms that would be diagnosed as inflammation of the pancreas caused by alcohol consumption.

Toward the end of his shift, Dr. Cohen, a hardworking and admired physician, evaluated Mr. Jackson and determined that hospitalization was warranted. Dr. Cohen assigned Dr. Jones, the physician next up in rotation, to admit Mr. Jackson and oversee his treatment.

Dr. Jones had attended a prestigious medical school and was just beginning her postgraduate studies. This grueling training was often associated with sleep deprivation, which likely contributed to Dr. Jones’s negative response. Confronted with her fifth admission of the night, she complained loudly to Dr. Cohen. She felt it was unfair that she would have to spend many hours caring for Mr. Jackson, because his predicament was, after all, self-inflicted.

Dr. Cohen’s emphatic response was spoken in almost a whisper. He said, “Dr. Jones, you became a physician to care for people and work to heal them. You didn’t become a physician to judge them. If you don’t understand the difference, you have no right to train at this institution.” Following this correction, Dr. Jones diligently cared for Mr. Jackson during the hospitalization.

Mr. Jackson has since died. Both Dr. Jones and Dr. Cohen have had stellar careers. But at a critical moment in her training, Dr. Jones needed to be reminded to do justly, to love mercy, and to care for Mr. Jackson without being judgmental.

Over the years, I have benefited from that reminder."

(read the full talk here)

[the many names of Jesus Christ]

Last time I read the Book of Mormon, I underlined all the names for Jesus Christ. All except "God" or "the Lord" as there are so many of those. Each name was mentioned once unless otherwise marked. If I'm correct, the Book of Mormon has 131 names for Jesus Christ. 

A God of miracles - 6

A God of truth

A holy and just God

A life which is endless that there can be no more death

A light that is endless that can never be darkened

A merciful Being

All powerful Creator of heaven and earth

All-wise Creator

Alpha and Omega

An unchangeable Being

A refiner and purifier of silver

Beloved

Beloved Son - 2

Blessed God

Blessed Jesus

Christ - 310

Christ the Son

Counselor

Creator

Eternal Father - 3

Eternal Father of heaven and earth

Everlasting God

Everlasting Maker

Father of heaven

Great and true shepherd

Great Creator

Heavenly Father

Heavenly King

His most Beloved

Holy Child

Holy God

Holy One

Jesus - 111

Jesus Christ - 66

Lord God Almighty - 3

Maker

My God - 5

My God and my Savior Jesus Christ

My great God - 3

My Maker

My rock and mine everlasting God My salvation My song My strength

My well Beloved (HF of Jesus) - 3

One

One Eternal God (JC+HG+HF)

Only Begotten Son - 4

Our great and Eternal Head

Our great and everlasting God

Our great and true God

Redeemer (of the world) - 39

Savior (of the world) - 8

Shepherd - 2

Spirit of Christ

Supreme Being

Supreme Creator

That Being who created them

That holy Being

The Almighty

The Almighty God

The author and the finisher of their faith

The beginning and the end

The Creator

The Creator of all things from the beginning

The Eternal God - 5

The Eternal Judge

The Everlasting Father

The Father - 3

The Father and the Son - 2

The Father of all things

The Father of heaven and earth - 3

The Father of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are

The fountain of all righteousness - 2

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob - 8

The God of Israel - 11

The God of nature

The God of our fathers

The God of the land

The God of the whole earth - 2

The good shepherd - 8

The Great Creator - 2

The great Jehovah

The great Mediator - 2

The Holy One - 4

The Holy One of Israel - 49

The King of all the earth

The King of heaven - 2

The Lamb - 35

The Lamb of God - 34

The law and the light

The life and light of the world

The light - 2

The light and the life, and the truth of the world

The light and life of the world - 3 The light of Israel

The Lord (God) of Hosts - 55

The Lord and thy God

The Lord God Almighty

The Lord Jehovah

The Lord of the harvest

The Lord (God) Omnipotent - 6

The Lord the Almighty God

The Lord thy Maker

The (Holy) Messiah - 32

The Mighty God - 3

The Mighty One of Israel

The Mighty One of Jacob

The Most High God - 5

The Only Begotten of the Father - 4

The Prince of Peace

The Redeemer of Israel

The rock of my righteousness

The rock of my salvation

The Son/his Son/Son - 36

The Son of God - 51

The Son of our great God

The Son of righteousness - 3

The Son of the Eternal Father - 2

The Son of the everlasting God

The Son of the living God - 4

The Son of the most high God

The true and living God - 5

The true vine

The very Christ and the very God

The word of truth and righteousness

Their/our Lord and their/our God - 2

Their rock and salvation

Thy maker, thy husband

Wonderful

Your Maker  (The art is by Minerva Teichert)

[let's not be gifted pickle suckers]

How I love President Gordon B. Hinckley. He is the most positive, happy person. We all can learn a lot from him. I wanted to save some of his talks here so that I'll never forget these quotes. These are taken from BYU Speeches in 1974 and 1996. These messages are so timely even now. I miss you, President Hinckley!

Gordon B. Hinckley

BYU Speeches, 1974

… “Surely this is the age and place of the gifted pickle sucker.”

The tragedy is that this spirit is epidemic. Criticism, fault-finding, evil speaking—these are of the spirit of the day. They are in our national life. To hear tell these days, there is nowhere a man of integrity among those holding political office. In many instances this spirit has become the very atmosphere of university campuses. The snide remark, the sarcastic gibe, the cutting down of associates—these, too often, are of the essence of our conversation. In our homes wives weep and children finally give up under the barrage of criticism leveled by husbands and fathers. Criticism is the forerunner of divorce, the cultivator of rebellion, sometimes a catalyst that leads to failure…

I come this morning with a plea that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I am suggesting that we “accentuate the positive.” I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment virtue and effort. I am not asking that all criticism be silenced. Growth comes of correction. Strength comes of repentance. Wise is the man who can acknowledge mistakes pointed out by others and change his course. I am not suggesting that our conversation be all honey and blossoms. Clever expression that is sincere and honest is a skill to be sought and cultivated.

What I am suggesting and asking is that we turn from the negativism that so permeates our society and look for the remarkable good in the land and times in which we live, that we speak of one another’s virtues more than we speak of one another’s faults, that optimism replace pessimism, that our faith exceed our fears.

When I was a boy our father often said to us:

Cynics do not contribute.
Skeptics do not create.
Doubters do not achieve.

…There is too much fruitless, carping criticism of America. Perhaps the times are dark. There have been dark days in every nation. I should like to repeat the words of Winston Churchill spoken exactly thirty-three years ago today. Bombs were then dropping on London. The German juggernaut had overrun Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Russia. All of Europe was in the dread grasp of tyranny, and England was to be next. In that dangerous time, when the hearts of many were failing, this great Englishman said:

Do not let us speak of darker days; let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days—the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race. [Address at Harrow School, 29 October 1941]

Earlier he had said to his people and to the whole world, following the catastrophe at Dunkirk when the prophets of doom foretold the end of Britain:

We shall not flag or fail. . . . We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. [Speech on Dunkirk, House of Commons, 4 June 1940]

It was such talk as this, and not the critical faultfinding of glib cynics, that preserved the great people of Britain through those dark and deadly days when all the world thought their little island would go under.

…I doubt not that we shall have days of trial. I am confident that so long as we have more politicians than statesmen, we shall have problems. But I am certain that if we will emphasize the greater good and turn our time and talents from vituperative criticism, from constantly looking for evil, and lift our sights to what may be done to build strength and goodness in our nation, America shall continue to go forward with the blessing of the Almighty and stand as an ensign of strength and peace and generosity to all the world.

…We hear much talk of economic depression these days. Heaven forbid that we should ever slip again into the kind of monetary quagmire through which we struggled in the 1930s. Those were the days of the long soup lines, of suicides that came of discouragement, of a bleakness of life which few of you can understand. I hope and pray that such hard times will never come again. But I think it not impossible or even improbable if enough people, in the spirit of negativism and defeatism, talk about it and predict it. We are the creatures of our thinking. We can talk ourselves into defeat or we can talk ourselves into victory.

…In your associations one with another, build and strengthen one another. “No man is an island; no man stands alone.” We so need help and encouragement and strength, one from another.

…I was impressed with a Sydney Harris column that I clipped from the Deseret News some years ago. Said this eminent writer:

Sir Walter Scott was a trouble to all his teachers and so was Lord Byron. Thomas Edison, as everyone knows, was considered a dullard in school. Pestalozzi, who later became Italy’s foremost educator, was regarded as wild and foolish by his school authorities.

Oliver Goldsmith was considered almost an imbecile. The Duke of Wellington failed in many of his classes. Among famous writers, Burns, Balzac, Boccaccio, and Dumas made poor academic records. Flaubert, who went on to become France’s most impeccable writer, found it extremely difficult to learn to read. Thomas Aquinas, who had the finest scholastic mind of all Catholic thinkers, was actually dubbed “the dumb ox” at school. Linnaeus and Volta did badly in their studies. Newton was last in his class. Sheridan, the English playwright, wasn’t able to stay in one school more than a year.

All of this seems to say to me that each of these men, every one of whom later become great, might have done much better in his studies had he received less of criticism and more of encouragement.

…don’t partake of the spirit of our times. Look for the good and build on it. Don’t be a “pickle sucker.” There is so much of the sweet and the decent and the good to build on…

Gordon B. Hinckley

BYU Speeches, 1996

… the march of civilization. It has been a truly remarkable odyssey as through the centuries society has made progress as people have lived together in communities with respect and concern one for another. This is the hallmark of civilization. And yet at times we wonder how much progress we have really made. This century which now draws to a close has witnessed more wars and more death and suffering than any other century in human history. … Civility and mutual respect seem to have disappeared as people kill one another over ethnic differences.
But civility also appears to be fading much closer to home. Civility covers a host of matters in the relationships among human beings. Its presence is described in such terms as “good manners” and “good breeding.” But everywhere about us we see the opposite. …
It is appalling. It is alarming. And when all is said and done the cost can be attributed almost entirely to human greed, to uncontrolled passion, to a total disregard for the rights of others. In other words, to a lack of civility. As one writer has said, “People might think of a civilized community as one in which there is a refined culture. Not necessarily; first and foremost it is one in which the mass of people subdue their selfish instincts in favor of the common well being” (Royal Bank Letter, May–June 1995). He continues: “In recent years the media have raised boorishness to an art form. The hip heroes of movies today deliver gratuitous put-downs to ridicule and belittle anyone who gets in their way. Bad manners, apparently, make a saleable commodity. Television situation comedies wallow in vulgarity, stand up comedians base their acts on insults to their audiences, and talk show hosts become rich and famous by snarling at callers and heckling guests” (Ibid).
All of this speaks of anything but refinement. It speaks of anything but courtesy. It speaks of anything but civility. Rather, it speaks of crudeness and rudeness, and an utter insensitivity to the feelings and rights of others.""

[like rain drops from clouds]

A few weeks ago, a neighbor asked me why the Bible is not enough for us Latter-Day Saints. We had a really nice discussion about it. I later made this handout to collect ideas about what to say to people about the Book of Mormon and other scriptures we have. Many people think that the Bible makes a person a Christian but the early Christians didn't even have the Bible as it was put together later on.

I don't know why people think the Bible must be the only scripture. For example, if someone found the writings of the other 2/3 early Apostles, would they accept those writings as scripture? I'm so grateful that I know that God still speaks to us, His children. The heavens are not closed. Revelation flows down to Earth just like raindrops from clouds.

I forgot one important resource from my own list: 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk "My Words...Never Cease"

[Faith, not Fear]

Could there exist a more perfect talk for the crazy times we live in? 

Why try? by Elder Howard W. Hunter

[armed with the power of God]

What power is Nephi talking about? Are women included in the "saints of the church" or "the covenant people of the Lord"? How can we make sure we are armed with that power? What should we do once we are armed with that power?

I made a coloring page so you can ponder this mighty verse from the Book of Mormon while coloring.