Brigham City Temple...

 We live approximately twenty miles from the two grocery stores from which we do most of our shopping. Because of this distance, we take our trip into town once a week--sort of like the settlers of America's history when they hitched up the horses and went to town for supplies. In or modern world, we hitch several dozen horses (fueled by gasoline and not hay...) and do the same thing.

Normally, we'd go in the mornings, but the last couple of weeks we've been driving in to Brigham City at night. And one of the incredible buildings in that city is the LDS temple. Announcement that the temple was to be built took place in August 2009. They broke ground in July the next year, and it was completed in September 2012.

Before we moved up here, we hardly ever saw the building. We'd see it whenever we drove north to Idaho, and of course, when we came back home. Now, we're seeing it at least once a week, and at night, you can actually see the double spires from our house...they're really small, but you can see the building.

A week ago, we picked up groceries from one store. As we drove away. I looked back and saw the temple spires rise above the Smiths Grocery Store. I snapped a picture and posted it with the caption "Smiths...Temple." It generated a lot of comments. I wrote what I wrote to point out the two buildings, a Smiths and a temple. I think people might have thought I meant I was implying this was one building, not two. So, instead of the Brigham City Temple, I was saying it was the Smiths Temple.

Not really what I was going for.

A week later, and without the grocery store in the shot, I found myself at an intersection with the temple and the tabernacle all lit up. I prefer the second shot, unobstructed by commercialism. Don't get me wrong...I'm not anti-commercialism, just not in the shot.

It's a beautiful building, and it looks spectacular at night.

#GiveThanks...Day 1--Family

It's amazing how two little, single-syllable words can make such a big difference.

Give Thanks

This morning the leader of my church delivered a message. It was sweet. It was succinct. It was needed. For the next seven days President Nelson challenged us to post only uplifting messages on social media and to use the hashtag GiveThanks with our posts. He suggested that at the end of those seven days, we would feel different (you can watch his message by clicking: HERE...).

I'm betting he's right.

Since I write a daily post, I'm going to consider--then write about--things of which I am thankful. I'm not placing them in any order of importance, only to have them included. To be honest, I could write everyday about things for which I am thankful--I could write every minute for the rest of my life and never run out of things to include.

Fifteen years ago, I wrote up a family Christmas letter and I included the above photo of the kids and our dog, Patch. It was taken in the winter (hence, the Christmas lights up on our porch...). I can't believe it's been that long. Several years later, we took a picture from the same vantage point. So much had changed between the two pictures, and so much has changed between then and now. The adorable dog is no longer with us, nor is that any longer our house. My eldest is married and has begun an adventure of his own, and, well...we're all older.

I can't imagine my life without these four. They made/make me a father, a provider, a teller of "dad jokes." The things the have taught me, the memories, the wisdom, the love, the trials and the triumphs...all part of the deal, a deal I wouldn't trade for all the money in the world.

Tonight, I give thanks for them. I pray I may be worthy of their love and respect. God is great to give me such an opportunity.

A New Way To Teach...A New Way To Learn

In our church the leaders gather twice a year to give instruction and inspiration through the spoken word and music. They also use that time to announce church-wide changes. The meetings are held the first weekends each April and October. This last October they announced some major changes and some that--on the surface--didn't seem that big, but upon closer examination, are going to shake things up.

Changes in the way we teach each other are coming.

I am part of the Sunday School leadership in our congregation so it's up to us to help roll out the new plan. Tomorrow we meet with the teachers to instruct and answer questions they may have. The biggest change in our new system is this: the teachers will no longer be instructing the students as the main focus of their callings. Instead, the students will need to basically learn the lessons before they arrive. Class time will be spent discussing what everyone learned as they went through the lesson on their own at home.

Currently, we meet for three hours on Sundays. The big announcement we received last October is that our total church time will be cut down from three hours to two. Because of the reduced time, Sunday School classes will no longer meet weekly, but every other week. Because of this, the emphasis on learning will shift form the teacher to the student.

I've been a member of this church my entire life. I've had callings where I was an instructor. Shifting the responsibility from the teacher to the student is huge. I know some will get more out of their studying time than others--that's just life. I am looking forward to see how this big change works out.