Blessed Are The Peacemakers

  Agency, Moral Existence and the Lord’s Pattern Understanding the “How” of Agency in the Lord’s Plan We often say that agency is essential, even mandatory, for man to exist. But what does that actually mean? At first glance, it might sound like without agency we simply would not exist at all, as though we would "poof" right out of existence or never have even been created at all. But the scriptures describe something more precise than mere physical or biological existence. Teachings & Commandments 93 explains that “all truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise, there is no existence.” It continues: “Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man.” This suggests that agency is bound up with the very kind of existence God intends for intelligence, not merely occupying space, but acting, choosing, receiving, rejecting and t...

No more the night Holds thee his captive Jesus is risen, my Savior and King Yesterday, I found myself saying something out loud that I think I’ve been feeling for a while: Sometimes life feels like too much. Not just busy. Not just hard. Heavy . The kind of heavy that makes you seriously wonder how long you can keep carrying it. I even found myself confessing a dream I've had about escaping, disappearing to a remote island with my husband, far away from responsibility, pressure and noise. Just peace. Just rest. As I tried to explain it to my family, I cycled through words like anxiety, sadness, fear, stress…. each one touching part of it, but not the whole. The closest I could get, the word that seemed to hold it all, was hopelessness . The last month or so has brought some unexpected and deeply difficult things into our home, the kind that don’t have neat explanations and don’t resolve quickly. So naturally, that...

  Sometimes the world doesn’t need better explanations, it needs people who can recognize the pattern they’re standing in. This Feels Like Progress…. Right? We’ve been here before. That idea lands differently depending on what you believe about existence. Some hear it as despair. I don’t. I hear recognition. Some people hear, “we’re stuck” I hear, “we’re starting to see it” Recognition doesn’t erase the weight of repetition; it transforms how we walk through it. There’s a kind of life that feels like motion but isn’t really progress. Same patterns, same reflexes, same separations dressed up in new circumstances. Call it what you want, but I’ve started thinking of it as: the telestial hamster wheel. You run. You react. You repeat. If you never step back and actually see it, you’ll swear you’re moving forward when you’re really just circling the same ground, over and over. Oh, Yay.... It’s This Lesson Again This s...

When Brothers Contend The message is global in scope, but its implications feel uncomfortably close to home. I just finished listening to Denver’s Blood of Abraham talks, Parts 1 and 2. They really struck me in a way I didn’t expect. The central claim is simple, but not easy: those who share a covenant inheritance aren't merely aligned in belief, they're bound to one another as family . And when family turns on itself, the issue isn't just disagreement, its a violation of something sacred. Framing it like this changes things. It means conflict doesn't release us from responsibility to one another, it intensifies it. It raises the standard. It demands more honesty, more care, more willingness to stand in the light together. And that's where things often break down. Because its far easier to withdraw, to align with one side, to defend a position or to move forward as though separation solves the problem. But if the bond is real, then separ...

  Justified or Sanctified? Question About Violence, Faith and Zion The other day, my daughter was reading the Covenant of Christ and came to the account of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies burying their weapons of war. She asked me a question about it that really got me thinking. “Is that what we’re supposed to do? Or is it okay to be like the Nephites who protected them?” I didn’t have a quick answer for her, and I don’t think that was a bad thing. Some questions are meant to slow us down. Some questions expose a real tension in scripture that we would rather flatten into a simple rule. This felt like one of those. Because this isn't just a question about one story. It's a question about violence, self-defense, holiness, faith and what kind of people Zion requires us to become. Her question also stirred an old memory. Years ago, I remember reading a comment on Denver’s blog from someone who was very much a Captain Moroni, Title of Liberty, Second Amendment kind of person...