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Jesus Suffered for Us So We Don’t Have To
While in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ suffered for each one of us. He describes this suffering in the following scripture passage and then adds a condition so that we do not have to experience the same kind of suffering. In Doctrine and Covenants 19:15-19 it reads, “15 Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not. 16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; 17 But if they would not repent…
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What Does It Mean To Worship God?
In Alma, chapter 32, Alma begins teaching a group of poor Zoramites who’d been cast out from the synagogues because of “the coarseness of their apparel.” These people were distraught, believing they had nowhere to worship, so they appealed to Alma. “. .. Behold, what shall these my brethren do, for they are despised of all men because of their poverty, yea, and more especially by our priests: for they have cast us out of our synagogues . . .because of our exceeding poverty; and we have no place to worship our God; and behold, what shall we do? (verse 5).” The people believed that they could only worship in…
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Modesty: A Mindset
Recently, we had a relief society lesson on “Reverence for Sacred Things,” by Elder Ulisses Soares from the April 2025 general conference. The teacher asked if how we dressed influenced the reverence we felt in the temple or at church. I was reminded of a story that happened with a temple president who spoke in our stake conference. He stood at our pulpit during the Sunday morning session and said, “I have been surprised to see how many young women come to the temple wearing thongs. Please don’t wear thongs to the temple.” You could hear an audible gasp in the audience. He went on to talk about thongs and…
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Be of Good Cheer and Do Not Fear
In Doctrine and Covenants 68:6, it reads, “Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I, the Lord, am with you, and will stand by you . . .” I’ve spent a lot of my life in fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of getting a disease, fear of having a car accident, fear of one of my kids getting hurt, fear of things happening in the world, fear of losing people I love to death. My fear began when I was a child. I lost my father when I was four years old. It was December 19 and I’d been Christmas shopping with my mom and grandma.…
