December Ensign

Any of you that have gotten the Dec. Ensign yet (or when you eventually do) I would REALLY suggest the "Home for Christmas" article on pg. 5 by President Henry B. Eyring. It was a really good read. President Eyring told of his childhood and how he was always grateful to go home because he knew the kind of welcome that waited for him when he entered the doors. Then he told that the house he grew up in is still there "A few years ago I went back and knocked on the door. Strangers answered. They allowed me to step into the rooms where the radio had been and where our family had gathered around the Christmas tree.

" I realized then that the desire of my heart was not about being in a house. It was about being with my family, and it was a desire to feel enveloped in the love and the Light of Christ, even more than our little family had felt in the home of my childhood." He then relates that feeling to the way we feel (or should feel) about returning "Home" to our Heavenly Father. "The feeling and longing for home is born into us. That wonderful dream cannot become real without great faith - enough for the Holy Ghost to lead us to repentance, baptism, and the making and keeping of sacred covenants with God. Then he talked not only about the forgiveness that comes through the atonement but also the need for us to forgive others in order for us to be able to be forgiven.

My favorite part in this talk, though, was when he asked if you have ever had the impression to help someone only to find that what you were inspired to give was exactly what someone needed at that very moment. "That is a wonderful assurance that God knows all of our needs and counts on us to fill the needs of others around us." And my favorite line from this talk "God sends those messages to us with more confidence at Christmastime, knowing that we will respond because our hears are more sensitive to the Savior's example and to the words of His servants."

There's A LOT more in that talk, but you can read it for yourself if you have the Ensign...if not you can always go to lds.org and look under "magazines" then under "Ensign" and you can read it there.

I was also grateful for "The Power and Protection of Worthy Music". I have been called as the Relief Society Chorister and they have us doing special things during the "Practice Music" portion of the class. I have been looking EVERYWHERE for something that I could do, but I haven't found anything. There were TONS of things for leading the music in Primary, but nothing for R.S. and this was just what I had been looking for. (It's good to read even if you aren't the chorister.) I was going to write a little about each story that I found, but now I realize that if I did that this post would be REALLY LONG! I would just suggest reading your Dec. Ensign, there are just WAY too many good stories in it.