I once had a friend post the question, “What is your greatest pet peeve?” on her Facebook page. Most of the responses were the type you’d expect– people who don’t park straight, people who leave their shopping carts in the parking lot, putting the toilet paper roll on upside down, people who put the…
Several weeks ago I was asked to write about my personal journey with the temple, about how I felt the first time I went, how I have learned and progressed in my understanding and appreciation of the temple, and how I have handled questions or concerns about temple worship. This was really a beautiful thing…
I received a wonderful comment a few days ago on a post I wrote last year called “In Which I Vent”, which was an rant about a PG rated movie that showed several scenes of intimacy between a husband and a wife. This reader’s comment brought up some really interesting thoughts and I thought it…
Image Source Last week in Sunday School we talked about the Abrahamic covenant, the promises that God makes to Abraham about his posterity in Genesis 17. We know that God does not just make covenants with men but that he also makes them with women and as we talked I couldn’t help but wonder where…
The Huldah Gates In Jerusalem, on the southern wall of the Temple Mount, stand the remains of two ancient gates. Today these gates are sealed, and archeologists simply call them the “Double Gate” and the “Triple Gate” on account of the number of arches they have. Yet anciently these gates were called the “Huldah Gates,”…
One of the things I’ve noticed as I’ve studied the scriptures is that birth is an over arching theme in the stories of the women in the scriptures. A good portion of the stories about women in the scriptures center around women’s ability to bear, or inability to bear, children. Personally, the births of my…
I want something strange for my birthday. Basically a box with two big Q-tips This is the DNA Test for the National Geographic Genographic project. For $200 they will send you two mouth swabs, which you swish around in your mouth, and then mail back to them. With the swab they are able to use…
The practice of women wearing veils is found repeatedly throughout the scriptures, and for a good portion of human history it has been common for women (and sometimes men) to veil their heads and faces. Today, in many religions around the world women still cover their heads and their faces when they are in the…
I just got back from an amazing trip. It was so wonderful in so many ways. We went to Bandon, a little coastal town in Southern Oregon, for a family reunion. I’d never been to the coast and it completely stole my heart. I am insanely jealous of all of you who get to live…
The Temple in Jerusalem plays an important role in the New Testament. It was the center of the Jewish faith and consequently, was the center of many of Jesus’s teachings. Not only were many of Jesus’s teachings given at the temple, but his sermons were full of temple references, imagery and symbolism. 1) It was…