Last updated on December 29th, 2023 at 08:14 am
December 17, 2023
Here is the best thing I heard (What?), saw (Eye.), and read (Read.) this week, as well as the best idea (💡) I developed.
What?
Episode 6 (“I Had Seen a Vision”) of The First Vision: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast:
- Transcript
- Spencer: “It’s common today, when the First Vision is brought up in lessons in Sunday School, Priesthood, Young Women’s, Relief Society, and other church classes for Latter-day Saints to talk about what the First Vision teaches us about the nature of God. Often, these observations are a response to the creeds of other Christian denominations. But, as Steven Harper, professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University explains, more important than what the First Vision reveals about the embodiment of God and the composition of the Godhead is what the vision reveals about God’s compassion.”
Steve: “Today, we say things to each other, like, ‘You know, the real significance of the First Vision is we learn about the true nature of God. For example, that God and Christ are separate and embodied.’ That’s true. It’s important. They were talking about that in Kirtland by the late 1830s. But, so what if God is embodied if He’s not responsive to His teenage children who are in crisis?
“In other words, the real resonance of the First Vision today is to know that it’s the nature of God to give to those who lack wisdom, to answer those who are in distress, to come to the aid of His children who are desperately needing reassurance of His love, and that they’re not cast off because of their sinfulness. God is responsive. God isn’t cold, heartless. The God that reveals Himself to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove is a God who answers teenagers in times of trouble. That, to me, is everything.”
Eye.
Instagram – elderpatrickkearon: Elder Patrick Kearon sharing his initial thoughts on being called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “I will do my best to become, over time, something along the lines of an Apostle that you might have in your imagination.”
Read.
In ‘Grant‘ by author Ron Chernow, a member of my Book Club this week shared that Abraham Lincoln was not the only target on the day he was killed. There were several others, including Ulysses S. Grant. In fact, Grant had been invited to the Ford Theater that fateful day, and, choosing instead to take a vacation by train with his wife, had actually been followed by John Wilkes Booth for a time to the train station before Booth gave up and turned back.
💡
At Stake Conference last Sunday (12.10.2023), a Bishop in our Stake shared how, growing up, his parents and their nine children would gather around a candle lit table during Christmastime for a special, simple meal of soup and bread. (This Bishop’s father is Elder Wilford W. Andersen, an emeritus General Authority). This annual tradition came to be called “Humble Supper.” While eating, a member of the family would read the Christmas story from Luke 2. In the April 2023 General Conference, Elder Gary E. Stevenson shared in his address (“The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told“) the importance of Easter, and of reading 3 Nephi 11:1-17 for Easter, just like many read Luke 2 for Christmas. I had the idea to transform this “Humble Supper” into an annual Easter tradition with my family in which we would read 3 Nephi 11:1-17.