I was reading the last chapter of the Book of Moroni the other day. Moroni is running short on time and even shorter on space on the plates at this point, so you know he's gotta be really careful about what he includes and how he words his final messages to us. Not surprisingly, he spends the entire time testifying of Christ and the Atonement. During his last few verses–...

A previous post discussed how a rebel coalition of Lamanite soldiers combined together to stand valiantly against commands of the wicked king to go to war against the Lamanites. The rebellion could have been the turning point for the whole Lamanite nation. And they had every advantage:

1. They had the numbers (the majority)
2. They had the weapons
3. They had the mountain
4. They had the warning and foreknowledge
5. They...

I am indebted to a wonderful sister in my ward for her testimony today. From the pulpit, she read these words of Nephi, describing his family's efforts to start settling once they landed in the New World:

And it came to pass that we did begin to till the earth, and we began to plant seeds; yea, we did put all our seeds into the earth, which we had...

The other day as I read in Mormon, I saw some really interesting wording that I thought would make a good blog post. But as I started writing about it, I realized that the only way to see the neat connection I saw was if you read the selection without regard to the verse markings. So I went on a tangent in my original post about how the verse markings...

A little while before the birth of our first kid, a wise ward member gave me some counsel I will never forget. He said that when a first child is born, there are actually three people born that day: the child is born into mortality, the woman is born into motherhood, and the man is born into fatherhood. The whole family takes a huge collective step forward in their roles....

In chapter 6 of Moroni, we get a glimpse of what it was like to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Nephite Saints:

And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls.

In the Church today, you'll see a lot of fasting (like today). You'll see a lot...

I get the feeling Nephi was a pretty patient, generous guy. Throughout all of 1 Nephi, he recounts many attempts by Laman and Lemuel to tie him up, beat him up, leave him in the wilderness to be devoured by beasts, throw him in the ocean, strap him to a flailing ship, and murder him when they arrived at the promised land. Yet through all their whining and anger and...

I was reading in the Book of Mormon the other day and came across this familiar verse:

But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation...

I was sitting at a crowded airport gate a few days ago, planning out episode 9 of my podcast^*. This episode is all about the fall of Adam and Eve. As I researched, I fell on that familiar verse from the Book of Mormon:

Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

Yes, Adam fell that men might be. As...

There are many things in our day to day, secular lives that we "ought" to do. Like putting the junk mail in the recycling bin instead of the trash can. Or opting for the salad over the meat lover's pizza. But we often don't do what we know we should. Why? Because we're lazy?

Maybe. But I think it's mostly because we see these "suggestions" as optional– like "extra credit"...