Jots and Thoughts of Jenny

Happy New Year! Why do we celebrate the beginning of a new year? Why do we like making new year's resolutions? After all, don't most of us break half of those within the first 24 hours and then break most of the rest within the first week? Some of the really disciplined people make it a few months, but often by the end of the next year many of us can't even remember most of our "resolutions," let alone have them achieved. So why do we do it? What's even the point? Let's talk faith and repentance, and their relationship. What's faith? According to the Apostle Paul, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). The prophet Alma said that "faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true" (Alma 32:21). Well, what does that mean? How do you have evidence of something you can't see? How can you...

"'What if Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more?'" --Dr. Suess ("How the Grinch Stole Christmas") What does Christmas mean to me? Whatever the historical origins of the holiday we now know as Christmas are, Christmas, to me, is first and foremost the celebration and commemoration of the birth of the Savior and Redeemer of the world. More than that, the birth of my Savior and Redeemer. Mosiah 3:5-8 from the Book of Mormon really caught my attention as I was considering its applications to me. "...The Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all m...