Category: Church

Exodus

In my recent study of Exodus, I’ve focused on the symbols of Jesus Christ in the Passover, Moses’ ministry, and the means by which the Lord redeemed the children of Israel,

  • Providing huge miracles and wonders,
  • Supplying daily bread,
  • Making water sweet,
  • Leading them to an oasis for rest,
  • Raising up a prophet to point them to the Lord,
  • etc.

This morning I had the idea to place our small Covid-era sacrament trays in my scripture study area. Symbols of Christ surround us in all His creations, and I’m not sure where this visual reminder will lead my thoughts and feelings this week, but we’ll see.

Exodus= from Greek, meaning, “the road out”.

Spiritually, it connotes an escape from bondage to freedom through transformation.

Easter Snapshots

I have a glimpse of family life for your reading pleasure? today.

We saw my parents and extended family on Saturday for my Mom’s Easter egg hunt, then came home to welcome Tim and Queenie who spent the night at our house. Richard mowed the lawn for the first time this season on Saturday evening, and the lawn, blossoming trees, and tulips are beautiful. We stayed up late that night talking to Tim and Queenie about their adventures. Queenie will complete her bachelor’s degree this month and Tim is busy helping his friend Josh build a house and has some stories to tell about being a property manager. They made a trip recently to Arches National Park and Goblin Valley, which were firsts for Queenie.

We had a freeze a few nights this week, and Richard protected his apple tree blossoms with a tarp and heater.

We had our middle kids with us on Sunday. Add to the energy and events of Easter weekend the four sessions of general conference, which we watched while eating cinnamon rolls, Chex mix, and peanut M&M’s. We also visited Daniel and McKenna’s newly remodeled house where they will live after Daniel graduates this month.

Although we didn’t get a complete family picture this Easter weekend, we almost had one on Sunday during a video call. Richard played with filters to delight our grandson.

In my excitement to be with my kids and extended family, I oversupplied them with desserts. After our Easter feast on Sunday, we read passages of scripture around the table to complete our long tradition of opening eggs which hold tiny objects and scriptures. Happy Resurrection Sunday!

On my mind

This was my Austin seminary class on the last day that I taught them in May 2001. Our house was their classroom for 3 years, from 6:00-7 am each school day.

As I study the Old Testament, a few of these kids come to mind like a reflex as I read the “scripture mastery” verses we rapped and sang together to help with memorization.

My heart aches for a few of them. If I could teach them all over again, knowing the things they would face in the future, we would sing even more. I’d have them share their impressions and testimonies more often. I wouldn’t lose touch with them during their adult years.

Even if I had been a better teacher, it was never my job to save them. It’s a comfort to know that the true Savior is still reaching out to them and helping them. I trust Him.

The ladder

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel by J. Ken Spencer

Grief lurks beneath the routines of life and finds its way out from time to time. This week I experienced a resurgence of some grief for Richard’s sister and my grandmother who both passed away 5 years ago, one day apart, during the first week of March.

As I studied Jacob’s dream recently, the detail of the angels stood out to me, perhaps because I have been living with these memories of loved ones. I like the imagery of the Lord directing and overseeing the comings and goings of angels.

Perhaps this dream is my reminder that the spirits of loved ones are busy, still progressing, and are allowed to minister to us from time to time, according to our needs and their life experiences, all under the direction of the Lord.

Jacob is experiencing a rough time. I like in this painting that more angels are coming toward Jacob than are walking away. He has a long path ahead, but it’s an ascent that leads to the Lord.

Maybe you’re discouraged about a loved one’s path and this image could be helpful to you.

Or, you might be the one in a wilderness, sleeping on a rock, looking for personal hope. I have seen that keeping my covenants with God really helps during these times.

As we keep our covenants with God, He promises great things,

  1. I am with thee.
  2. I will keep [protect] thee in all places whither though goest.
  3. I will bring thee again [home].
  4. I will not leave thee…
  5. Until I have done [all things promised to you].

-See Genesis 28:15

Our silent piano

Serve a mission! Anyone who wants a blessed and happy future should consider it. The Lord knows and understands even better than you what you sacrifice and you are compensated for it.

Elder Mark Ross, February 2026

Our temporarily silent piano means that pianos throughout the world have been played by our sons. Our silent piano stands in contrast to their missionary voices sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others. What a privilege to have a silent piano for a few years while a child serves a mission!

So good.

I serve as a Sunday school teacher right now and I’m reading this excellent book as a supplement to my study of the Old Testament.

Also, this is very good. The hard cover, coffee table book, color edition is out of print, so I bought it used. Deseret Book will print a black and white paperback copy for around $30 but it isn’t the same experience as the original version.

I realize that my life and ideas don’t have the Sirens’ call of a TikTok video. As I read books like this, I grow less trendy, and more like those old men in the ward of my youth who couldn’t stop talking about the Abrahamic Covenant. I’m more aligned with them these days than any other mentors in my life, and I like that about myself.

This is also very good.

new to me

Text: Ellis Reynolds Shipp (1837-1949); Music: Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)

Gradually, our church is rolling out new hymns, so it’s becoming more common for me to hear unfamiliar music at church. This hymn was sung in my parents’ sacrament meeting on Sunday and although it isn’t new, it was new to me.

It’s a beautiful prayer, and it was written by a woman I admire, Ellis Reynolds Shipp, an early female medical doctor in Utah.

Some of my favorite lines,

Calm the surges of the soul,

Bid the dark waves backward roll,

Let us all thy mercies feel,

Thru the pow’r thou dost reveal.

The storms we face are usually hidden in our souls, with dark waves and uncertainty that can feel consuming. This verse reminds me that we can ask our Heavenly Father to calm our storms. Jesus Christ showed us that He is really good at that.

I will miss him.

In honor of President Jeffrey R. Holland who passed away last week, Mark and I spent a lot of time sharing with one another our favorite talks by this beloved Apostle. After our call ended, I took a minute to appreciate the privilege of having such a conversation with a 19-year-old.

There are so many talks that we shared and there are many that I love. If I had to choose just one, it would be The Grandeur of God from 2003. I keep it folded in my scriptures for ready reference. Here are some of my favorite words,

God, in His ultimate effort to have us know Him, sent to earth His Only Begotten and perfect Son, created in His very likeness and image, to live and serve among mortals in the everyday rigors of life.

To come to earth with such a responsibility, to stand in place of Elohim—speaking as He would speak, judging and serving, loving and warning, forbearing and forgiving as He would do—this is a duty of such staggering proportions that you and I cannot comprehend such a thing. But in the loyalty and determination that would be characteristic of a divine child, Jesus could comprehend it, and He did it. Then, when the praise and honor began to come, He humbly directed all adulation to the Father.

“The Father … doeth the works,” He said in earnest. “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” On another occasion He said: “I speak that which I have seen with my Father.” “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me.” “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”

He came to improve man’s view of God and to plead with them to love their Heavenly Father as He has always and will always love them. The plan of God, the power of God, the holiness of God, yes, even the anger and the judgment of God they had occasion to understand. But the love of God, the profound depth of His devotion to His children, they still did not fully know—until Christ came.

So feeding the hungry, healing the sick, rebuking hypocrisy, pleading for faith—this was Christ showing us the way of the Father, He who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness.” In His life and especially in His death, Christ was declaring, “This is God’s compassion I am showing you, as well as that of my own.”

I am so blessed to have had Elder Holland’s witness of Christ through my years of important decisions, marriage, and all the years of raising children. Apparently, he spoke at my middle school because his youngest son was in my class, but I don’t have a memory of it. Foggy middle school years aside, he was very influential in my life and I will miss him.