{"id":10268,"date":"2014-12-09T08:32:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T15:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/?p=10268"},"modified":"2014-12-09T08:45:57","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T15:45:57","slug":"what-i-liked-at-the-christmas-devotional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/2014\/12\/what-i-liked-at-the-christmas-devotional\/","title":{"rendered":"What I learned at the Christmas devotional"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"bethlehem\"<\/a>
image from lds.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My favorite lines from the First Presidency Christmas Devotional were spoken by President Henry B. Eyring. He spoke about Light. He began by talking about the angels who appeared to the shepherds who then visited the baby Jesus.<\/p>\n

They were drawn on that sacred night to go to the Savior. What they saw with their physical eyes in the stable was a tiny baby. What they went to verify was visible only through spiritual feelings.\u00a0We know that the Light of Christ is an influence we can recognize by its effects.<\/p>\n

The Savior said, “For behold, it is I that speak. Behold, I am the light which shineth in darkness and by my power I give these words unto thee. Now verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good<\/strong>. Yea, to do justly<\/strong>, to walk humbly<\/strong>, to judge righteously. This is my Spirit.<\/strong> Verily, verily I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit which shall enlighten your mind<\/strong>, which shall fill your soul with joy<\/strong>.” (D&C 11:11-13, emphasis added) (I transcribed this by hand because the text wasn’t available. Hopefully I got it right.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was a good message for me. Although I only have the symbols of the Savior around me, I can still see Him with spiritual eyes. I love the scripture President Eyring used to tell us how to accomplish this. I learned that if\u00a0we want\u00a0to have a spiritual experience at Christmas, the Spirit of Christmas\u00a0leads us to act, not just in tangible ways, but in the way we think of others. It is a call to be gentle in our appraisal of others.\u00a0It is this kind of giving that will bring us the joy we hope to have at Christmas.<\/p>\n

I’m focusing on being generous in my thoughts. This means I am giving everyone the benefit of the doubt in my mind and words. I’m avoiding criticism and negativity. It’s a simple formula to help me see beyond the well-intentioned busy-ness of Christmas.<\/p>\n

What stood out to you in this quote? What are you doing to embrace the season?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My favorite lines from the First Presidency Christmas Devotional were spoken by President Henry B. Eyring. He spoke about Light. He began by talking about the angels who appeared to the shepherds who then visited the baby Jesus. They were drawn on that sacred night to go to the Savior. What they saw with their … Continue reading What I learned at the Christmas devotional<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-life-according-to-angela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10268"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10276,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268\/revisions\/10276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}