He is the Gift

Once upon a time on a cold wintry night the sky glittered with stars in the heavens in beautiful Cache valley. It was cold and the roads were icy but I could never turn down the opportunity to go Christmas Caroling. I love to sing! Tonight was a special mission, we had been given  a basket full of delicious treats by some kind soul to give to a family. This little family had just lost their Father but I had never met them. We ice skated through the parking lot as we tried to find their apartment. As we gathered around there door we spoke in hushed whispers and then KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Sooner then I would have expected the door swung open and we started singing. I can't remember the song we picked but soon the doorway was crowded with little children and their mother. The little kids stared at us like we had lost our minds. Why where we singing? There mom just smiled. When the song ended we gave them the basket. Then one of the carolers asked  the little girl " Hey what's your favorite Christmas song?"

She promptly replied "Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer." We all started singing it just from memory. It is one of those songs from childhood that you don't ever forget. The looks of the children were replaced with smiles as they started to sing with us. And for that brief moment a group of strangers felt love for each other. The love that always comes with the Christmas season.


Mormon.org put out this video. I love it! It talks about how the first gift of Christmas wasn't Frankincense or Gold, or Myrrh. It was LOVE. "For God so loved the world he gave his son"

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Cold sores of life

I get Cold sores. This is just a fact of life for me. It's in my genes as they say. Whenever I get super stressed or sometimes when I get a cold, a cold sore just happens to accompany it. I strongly dislike cold sores! They hurt, they make me feel yuki and not very pretty!

Once upon a time a couple of years ago back when I was a teenager I was sitting in a seminary class ( A religion class for high school students) and the seminary council members had made a little movie to get across a message. As the video started I just wanted to sink down lower and lower into my seat until I disappeared. The video went something like this.

Girl1: Oh wow where did you go to get that?

Girl 2: I went to Jared! (at this point the camera zoomed in on her face and you see she has a gigantic cold sore on her lip. Of course it was fake..but they made it look huge and disgusting probably more huge and disgusting then real cold sores ever look)

The video continued on and eventually they found Jared, who of course also had a gigantic disgusting fake cold sore on his lip.

At that moment I knew that they were trying to get a point across about staying true to your standards and values and morals but all I could think was "Do people really look at me and see THAT when I have a cold sore?"  It didn't make my self confidence any better especially when I did have a cold sore, I wanted to just put a bag over my head to hide that horrible ugly disgusting thing on my face that I couldn't get rid of quick enough.

But the fact is I can't ever get rid of them. I will get cold sores for the rest of my life, there is nothing I can really do about it.  And that's okay there are some things in life that we can't change! The thing is having a cold sore doesn't make me a different person. I am still me and that is what really matters.

All this thinking about cold sores got me thinking about the things that we can't see. The things that people struggle with silently, cold sores of the soul ( yuk even just saying that makes me cringe.) Each person has something that they are struggling with that is unseen. Sometimes these struggles take years to overcome and sometimes they can take a life time. But that doesn't make that person worth any less.
        " Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" Doctrine and Covenants 18:10

Every soul's worth is great in the sight of God! Every single person on this planet who has lived or every will live is loved dearly by him. He sees our cold sores of the soul, when no one else can.  We are loved even though we are imperfect! Isn't that amazing? And even better is that this is True, he loves us!


So this week remember that we are all struggling with our own personal "cold sores". Maybe this will help us be a little kinder... a little more understanding. We all have struggles, we are human.

The most amazing thing of all is that one day those "cold sores" that we have been struggling against our entire lives will be taken away, swallowed up in Christ, the son of God. One day when my time on this earth is done I won't have anymore cold sores! And that is all because Jesus Christ atoned for us,each and everyone of us! You, me, the guy that lives down the street, All of Us. Isn't that amazing! This is something to truly be Thankful for!