Musings on Life and Living

I was called to be an early morning Seminary teacher in May 2019. At the time, I had just two students: a sophomore, and a junior. Because both students would have had to go past my house to get to the church, where Seminary had previously been held, I decided to have class in my living room, instead. By late November of that year, our class doubled with the arrival of a brother and sister who had moved in from another state. Harnessing the power of Google Meets and Zoom, the siblings joined our class remotely while the two boys continued to come to my house. Little did any of us know at the time that this foray into a hybrid model of Seminary would eventually turn into nearly a year and a half of what we lovingly came to call Zoominary! With the halt of in-person church gatherings in March of 2020 due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, our class increased in size again as two more students joined us from their homes. In August 2020, the size of our Zoominary class grew again as we...

I was born on January 26, 1983. What follows is a list of school shootings in the United States in my lifetime that have resulted in the deaths of at least five students and/or teachers. January 17, 1989. Cleveland Elementary School, Stockton, California. 6 dead. 32 injured. November 1, 1991. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. 6 dead. 1 injured. March 24, 1998. Westside Middle School, Craighead County, Arkansas. 5 dead. 10 injured. April 20, 1999. Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado. 15 dead. 21 injured. (This was the first such major event in my lifetime with double-digit fatalities. It would not be the last.) March 21, 2005. Red Lake Senior High School, Red Lake, Minnesota. 10 dead. 7 injured. October 2, 2006. West Nickel Mines School, Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. 6 dead. 5 injured. April 16, 2007. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia. 33 dead. 23 injured. February 14, 2008. Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois. 6...

Toward the end of His mortal ministry, Jesus Christ gathered with His chosen apostles to participate in the Passover Feast. During this meal, which would come to be known as the Last Supper, Christ declared, “Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.” Matthew records the disciples' response to this statement: ”And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, ‘Lord, is it I?’” From time to time, I have found myself asking this same question in response to prophetic calls admonitions: “Lord, is it I?” This has been particularly true of the calls to beware of pride–something that has happened in General Conference at least 27 times over the last 39 years of my life. President Ezra Taft Benson warned of the danger of pride nearly 33 years ago when he taught: Pride is a very misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance. (See Mosiah 3:11 ; 3 Ne. 6:18 .) In the scriptures there is no such thing as righteous pride—it is always consider...