LDSPMA

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Faith & Mindset

Sometimes Things Do Work Out

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By Steve Dunn Hanson

I first met Bill in 1987. He was a regional representative for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was visiting our stake in Orange County, California where I served as a counselor in the stake presidency. To this day, I can’t tell you why there was almost instant bonding between us, as he was over 20 years my senior. Maybe it was because we both loved to write. In any case, virtually from the git-go we traded writings. Mine, fiction and self-help articles. His, memoirs and personal history. And what a history! From a boy of small stature with a horrific stuttering problem and son of a coal-dust-eating railroad engineer, to a man known throughout the world for his accomplishments and contributions.

I got the best of the bargain in our exchanges. Bill was not only the consummate “Martha” with his practicality and I’ll-figure-out-how-to-do-it genius, but he was a spiritual, poetic “Mary” as well, an extraordinary hybrid whose writing skill dwarfed my own.

An Act of Kindness

One of his stories was particularly poignant. As a boy, Bill lived in Provo, Utah, and his diminutive size and severe stuttering problem contributed to his painfully shy disposition. He was always the last one chosen for a team—if chosen at all—and was the subject of constant derision from many of his peers. He was maybe eight or nine-years-of-age when his grade school teacher gave the children an assignment to write an essay and then read the essay in front of the class.

Bill’s turn came, and he fearfully stood, knowing what would happen next. His stuttering was so overwhelming that he didn’t get more than a few words out before he stopped. Embarrassed to tears, he started to take his seat when the teacher told him to stay where he was. “You will finish, Bill,” she said. She probably meant well, thinking that forcing Bill to go through this would help him overcome his stuttering. For Bill, though, his teacher’s act bordered on cruel.

For the longest time, Bill just stood there. Then a remarkable thing happened. One of his classmates, a young girl by the name of Millie, who was sitting on the front row, reached out her hand, took his, then smiled up at him. That simple act of support calmed and strengthened him, and he finished his reading.

That simple act of support calmed and strengthened him.

Making Connections

Such were the Bill Gould stories he shared with me, and for the next few years, we kept in close touch. Bill’s wife, Erlyn, was a beautiful woman. How he idolized her and cared for her. She was a cancer victim and graciously and courageously struggled to stay afloat. She passed away in 1992, and it was as though a chunk of Bill died with her. For the next nearly two years it seemed as though Bill just disappeared, and I had little contact with him.

Then one day when my wife and I were in the Los Angeles Temple, I saw him. And he was not alone! When he saw me, his face turned total smile, and he pulled the woman he was with close to him. “Steve, do you remember one of my stories about a girl named Millie who held my hand to help me get through an agonizing ordeal when I was a boy?”

“Yes!” I answered. “Who could forget that story!”

Bill’s smile got wider. “This is Millie. Millie Gould now. We were married last week.”

My turn to smile!

Bill then talked about his funk when his wife, Erlyn, died. He was in an I’m-going-no-where morass, and he finally determined to get out of it. His plan was straight Bill Gould. He reviewed his life to determine those who had given him grace, who had made all the difference for him at critical times. Then one-by-one he sought them out to tell them thank you and to now impart his own grace to them to the extent he could.

While this was happening, Bill’s daughter, who lived in Provo, was talking to her neighbor, a widow, about her dad. She explained how difficult his life was since his wife’s death and what he was now doing. When the neighbor heard that his last name was Gould, she asked what his first name was.

“William,” Bill’s daughter replied.

“Billy Gould?” the neighbor asked surprised. “As a boy, did he go to school in Provo by any chance?”

The daughter nodded, and her neighbor, Millie, grinned. “Billy Gould and I were classmates in grade school.”

Bill’s daughter told him who her neighbor was, and Bill put her on his thank you list to contact. The rest, as they say, is history.

We Must Act for Ourselves

Sometimes, things do work out, but I think things can just about always work out, but I believe it is our choice. I don’t mean in a Pollyannish kind of way, or that the results will always be what we initially desired. Rather, we can choose how any situation or circumstance we find ourselves in will ultimately affect us. We can literally shape the results of all our experiences. I believe that’s what Lehi meant when he said, “…The Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. … They have become free forever, …to act for themselves and not to be acted upon” (See 2 Nephi 2:16,26 emphasis added).

Things can just about always work out, but I believe it is our choice.

For a long time, my friend Bill was in a funk because of his wife’s death. Who wouldn’t be? But he was being acted upon. He let his circumstance dictate his mood. It controlled him. He was not free. Then he chose to be grateful. Instead of looking at his wife’s death as an emotional and debilitating black hole, he made her life a symbol of his gratitude. A catalyst for him to act. And, as I said, the rest is history.

Bill’s experience and example has been an inspiration to me in my writing and in my life. While rejection, writer’s block, and a zillion other things can be gut-punches, I’m finding I can choose to turn the experience: To learn from it. To be a better writer. To be a better person. To make my experience a positive one for me. Granted, how it works out is not usually what I thought or hoped it would be. But because I choose to act, it becomes a blessing. Hopefully, it can for you too.

Steve Dunn Hanson

Steve Dunn Hanson is the author of several books, including inspirational and adventure fiction and self-help non-fiction, which have been traditionally published and self-published. In addition, he has had articles published in The Ensign, and writes poetry and hymns. He and his wife, Joyce currently live on a scenic hill in northeast Washington.

Visit Steve Dunn Hanson at https://stevedunnhanson.com/

    Presenting Moral Themes for a Secular Audience

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    By Emma Heggem

    Most of us don’t work within an entirely Latter-day Saint community. Many of us work with audiences, co-creaters, gatekeepers, and financial backers who are not of our faith. Sometimes,  in the secular publishing community, it feels like we have to pack our beliefs away during professional moments and save them for personal time. But that approach is never truly possible. Some of our beliefs may be easily removed from our creations, like letting characters drink coffee or swear. On the other hand, some of our beliefs are so deeply rooted that we don’t even realize they show up in our work. We may accidentally include topics such as what makes a good leader, whether people are primarily good, or if good is capable of overcoming evil. Sometimes these influences will be subtle and readers won’t consciously notice them. Other times, these beliefs become an active participant in the plot in the form of a theme. 

    When our beliefs become a theme in our fiction novels, we can still make books that can be published and appreciated by general readership. We just need to make sure we are making these ideas palatable for readers who are not of our faith by handling the theme with honesty and complexity. 

    Explore Your Theme

    When tackling a belief that some of your readers may disagree with, you can’t present a singular and unequivocal answer. For example, in a book with a theme about lying, stating that lying is bad is not going to be convincing. An author can touch their readers much more deeply by exploring the pros and cons of lying. For readers who do not already agree that lying is bad, this exploration—as opposed to explanation—will allow them to inform their own decisions rather than feel as though they are being force-fed your answers.

    Posing your theme as a question can help you make sure that you are exploring both sides of the issue in your book, though not all questions are going to lead to true exploration of a theme. For example, the question “Are serial killers bad?” is likely going to provide a single and fairly predictable answer. I think you’ll be hard pressed to find situations that do anything but show serial killers being bad and will have an even harder time convincing readers that there is any confusion over the answer.

    A better theme might be “Are sociopaths destined to be evil?” as the book I am not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells asked. While related to the topic of serial killers, it is a question that readers had not previously considered, and the book’s main character was determined to prove that sociopaths didn’t have to be serial killers. People were interested in seeing if that answer could hold up.

    Another option, if you don’t want to try to convince people of an unlikely (but possible) answer to an obvious question, is to present one answer out of many. This is the case for the question “Is lying always bad?” Many people will have different answers to that question, and your book can explore several of those answers and which might be right in various circumstances.

    Proposing a Natural Theme

    In order to explore a theme, you need to match it to the right story. The events of your story should naturally lend themselves towards questions and conflicts over the topic. A story about the morality of war will need a war. A story about honesty will need secrets and lies. A story about repentance will need a main character who has made a terrible mistake or who has suffered from someone else’s sins.

    Themes should also match the story in tone. A kids’ book about unicorns would likely not be the right place for a plotline focused on the murky, gray areas of life. An adult novel about deadly political conspiracy would probably fail to carry a theme about the importance of friendship.

    Sympathize with Multiple Sides

    As your story develops and the theme becomes relevant to the plot events, your characters will begin to be affected. They may deal with the fallout of other people’s decisions, or they may make their own decisions and have to deal with the consequences. As this happens, the characters may begin to have opinions or even dialogue about the “answer” to the theme question. 

    No matter what you feel is the “correct answer”, your characters need to come to their own conclusions. A good example of this can be found at the end of the film Doctor Strange. (If you haven’t seen it, the climax is a fight with a demon who was summoned from a realm of destruction by magicians who want to use his powers for their own means. The hero, Doctor Strange, chooses to use forbidden magic of his own to fight the demon.) The overarching question in this movie is: “Can dangerous magic be used for good, or will it always cause destruction?” Doctor Strange and his friend both enter the climax to stop the demon, but they leave the fight with very different conclusions about the overarching question. 

    No matter what you feel is the ‘correct answer,’ your characters need to come to their own conclusions.

    In the end, Doctor Strange believes that forbidden magic could be used for good because he has just saved the world with it. This ties in with his arrogance, which is an important personality trait for him throughout the story. 

    On the other hand, his friend leaves the movie with the opinion that using forbidden magic is what brought the demon to their world in the first place, so not using forbidden magic, or maybe even any magic at all, is the safest course of action. This lines up with his own established personality as a man who believes rigidly in rules. He also has recently learned that someone very important to him has been lying to him. This betrayal breaks his trust in people, and that carries over into his trust in Doctor Strange’s use of dangerous magic. 

    In your own stories, the line between characters who believe in the “correct answer” and the “wrong answer” should not one hundred percent follow the line of “good guys” and “bad guys.” Their backgrounds, personalities, and experiences may lead them to come to different conclusions from you and from each other. Always treat the differing opinions as valid and intelligent. If the only proponents of the “wrong answer” are misguided idiots or actual evil people, you will lose your readers and come across as preachy.

    Proposing an Answer

    When writing a story with a theme, you may frame your plotline around a specific answer, or you may keep it more open-ended and leave readers thoughtful about the topic. If you choose to provide a single answer at the end, you’ll have to be careful to do so gently and without invalidating the individual characters’ beliefs. 

    Have you ever watched one of those twenty-minute kids’ shows where, at the end of the episode, the main characters say, “And that’s why we always tell the truth,” and everyone nods sagely. Yeah, me too. And it wasn’t at all that convincing. Instead, it usually made me want to laugh. And possibly start lying ridiculously. 

    The reason this drove me nuts was because the idea is unbelievable. When was the last time that you got caught having lied to a friend, and they said, “Wow, now I see. I’m never going to lie again.” Never? Me neither. 

    In this example, the character who lied and the character who was lied to are going to have different experiences in the same scene. This may lead to different conclusions and reactions. The liar may feel as though the truth coming out was what got them in trouble, while the character who was lied to feels that the lie itself was the problem. Despite these differing beliefs, you can still have the plot demonstrate a clear answer. When the main character makes a correct decision, the plot should move forward. They should conquer an obstacle and make progress towards their final goal. Likewise, when the main character makes an incorrect decision, the plot should stall, their progress should fail, and negative consequences should occur. This pattern of being punished and rewarded by the plot will leave readers seeing how the “correct answer” is useful, and the “wrong answer” causes problems. Individual characters may believe or react differently, but the overall plot will still clearly send the message. 

    Using a Theme to Share our Faith

    Writing is a deeply personal art form, but we don’t need to hide our religious beliefs to write books for nonmembers. Including complex and nuanced themes will leave room for our beliefs in our books while still creating a story that people from any background can enjoy.

    Author Bio

    Emma Heggem specializes in content editing sci-fi and fantasy novels. She has worked with authors from around the world to prepare their manuscripts for publication. When she’s not editing, she loves to attend writers conferences to give critiques and demystify the publishing industry. She also runs an editing advice blog (www.editsbyemma.com). Emma graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English language and a minor in editing.

    Why Fiction Is as Precious to God as Nonfiction

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    By Nicole Bay

    When I first began writing, I dabbled in YA fantasy, early readers, middle grade fiction, and picture books. I loved all these genres and the worlds I had created, but after a while, I started to wonder if I was spending my creative time wisely. I wondered if, rather than writing fantastical fiction, I ought to be researching and writing family history stories or writing nonfiction related to the gospel of Jesus Christ or the Restoration of the Church. I started questioning the value of what I was writing and the wisdom of taking time to write fiction that might be better spent using my talents to build the kingdom of God.

    I thought about it, worried about it, and prayed about it. My prayers were answered in several ways over the course of a few years.

    The Desire to Create Is God-Given

    In the October 2008 General Conference, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf shared an important thing we can do to feel God’s happiness—we can create. “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul,” he said. He emphasized that as children of a creator, we have a desire to be like Him, to create something that did not exist before. This is something I have felt. Ever since I was little, I have known there was an artist inside me. I took classes and participated in activities that allowed me to learn principles of drawing, writing, sewing, and acting, and I basked in the inner glow that creating provided me. 

    The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.

    Dieter F. Uchtdorf

    President Uchtdorf continued, “Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment.” Even when I struggle to get just one sentence on the page, I feel better for having taken time to work on my art. And nothing beats the floating-on-clouds feeling of being able to type the words “The End” when I finish a draft of a new story. 

    Taking time to be creative has more benefits than just feeling good. President Uchtdorf added, “We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty.” Over time I have realized that development of self and others isn’t just referring to the development of talents. This development is all about the sometimes life-changing effects our work can have on us and those who experience our art. Both parties can learn. Both can grow spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and socially. And both can discover truth through art.

    “Out of the Best Books” Includes Fiction

    The Lord commands us to seek words of wisdom out of the best books so we can teach each other and strengthen each other’s faith (DC 88:118). Of course, He is referring largely to the standard works and inspired writings of members of the Church. The truths found here are the most important truths to develop a testimony of. 

    But there are also many, many other works that can build our faith and lead people to be better for having read or experienced them. As an avid reader growing up, I was touched by fiction and nonfiction stories of heroism, triumphing over trials, clever thinking, kindness, and forgiveness. I will not soon forget the moving themes woven throughout my favorite books of sacrifice and redemption, good versus evil, the power of love, or the huge effect that one person choosing to stand up for what is right can have on the world. And if those stories can resonate so strongly with me, might I not also be able to tell a story that inspires someone else?

    If fiction stories can resonate so strongly with me, might I not also be able to tell a story that inspires someone else?

    I hope so. Because I believe that the best books can do just that.

    God Cares about Your Creative Gifts

    I’m grateful for a commandment to seek out the best gifts and to develop my talents (D&C 46:7–33). My desire to create is a way that I can enrich my own life and bless the lives of others. 

    And because this is a gift that is important to me, it’s important to the Lord as well. Amulek advised us, “Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase” (Alma 34:24–25). Whether creating art is my hobby or my living, the Lord wants to bless me in my efforts, so I can pray for that guidance, and my work will be better for it. 

    Any Genre Can Be a Conduit of Light

    When Christ exhorted His listeners, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16), I believe He was talking about letting our testimonies shine through our actions and work. And that includes our creative work. My writing, whether nonfiction, fantasy, or humor, is a conduit for my testimony.

    I’m thankful for the divine desire to create, for the understanding that all can learn from the best books, for the knowledge that God wants to support me in my work, and for the calling to share my light through my work.

    Nicole Bay teaches linguistics and English language courses at BYU. She is also the Internships Coordinator for the Linguistics Department. She loves to write for children, especially when she can include fun facts about language and linguistics in the story. She spends her non-work time gaming with her family, reading, writing, doing New York Times crosswords, and volunteering for writing conferences. She currently serves as LDSPMA’s director of education.

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    The Other Christmas Miracle

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    By Robert Starling

    On a certain night every year all over the earth, millions of families gather together and share a two-thousand-year-old story, of how a baby was born in a humble stable who would become the long-awaited Messiah of Israel, and save the entire world from sin and error.

    To non-believers, it is an incredible tale of angels appearing like UFO’s to frightened shepherds in the Middle East, as they were camping out in the hills tending their flocks.  According to the story, there were also wise and pious men in a far country to the east of Bethlehem who saw a bright new star in the sky, announcing the birth of the Christ child and fulfilling ancient prophesies. Like the shepherds, they would undertake a journey to go and worship the baby boy. Who these men were, where they were from, and how many were in their party is not known. It is a well-known but little-understood mystery of the Christmas season.

    But there was another amazing and wondrous celestial event that took place on that fateful night, in an even more distant land a world away. And with that heavenly sign of his coming, the child Jesus, by his very birth, prevented the kind of horrific slaughter of innocents that took place at the hands of Herod in Bethlehem about two years later.  This was the “other” Christmas miracle.  How did it happen?

    The Other Christmas Miracle

    As millions of believers throughout the world are aware, yet few celebrate, another wise and holy man named Samuel had come preaching on a distant continent among the people whom Jesus later referred to as his “other sheep.” Samuel had prophesied that a savior would be born in about five years’ time and that the sign of his coming would be not only a new star in the heavens, but that in that land there would be a day, a night, and a day without darkness.

    There were many who believed the words of Samuel and looked forward to these heavenly signs, but they were scoffed at and ridiculed by the rich and powerful. As the five-year deadline approached, the intolerance and persecution intensified, until at last the rulers proclaimed that if the new star did not appear, and the night without darkness did not occur by a certain date, those who would not deny their strange beliefs would be put to death. Like the many Christians who later suffered martyrdom in the coliseums of Rome, these believers were ready to lay down their lives in their commitment to their faith.

    But the sign did come. As the sun began to set on that fateful day, there was no darkness.  In all that night, it was light in their land as though it was mid-day. The faithful were spared, and many more were converted. The celestial signs of the birth of Christ had indeed brought about “peace on earth,” at least in that land, and at least for a short time.

    That’s a beautiful story, but how could it be true? In today’s world of scientific facts and hard reality, how could any reasonable and intelligent person believe such a fable? Is there any evidence that such a thing can really happen?

    Actually . . .   For centuries Christian and non-Christian astronomers have speculated on what might have been a reasonable explanation of the so-called “Star of Bethlehem.”  Some have postulated that a supernova explosion in a distant galaxy might account for a “new star” in the heavens. Others have calculated a rare alignment of planets that could have created an extraordinary light in the night sky. In fact, on December 21, 2020, a spectacular conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurred that hasn’t been visible for almost 800 years. It was covered on major news networks and brought people out of their homes all over the world with their binoculars and telescopes to scan the evening sky.

    But what about a night without darkness?  Has that ever happened before?  Wouldn’t a person be deluded and crazy to believe in something like that?

    A candle in the dark. For the Nephites, light when it should have been dark was the other Christmas miracle.
    Scientific Signs in the Heavens

    Actually . . .  In a September 2003 conference of the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum (BMAF), John Tvedtnes presented a paper called “Book of Mormon Hits,” in which he provided several scientific possibilities based on historical events:

    • Glowing night fogs have been observed in various places. The cause is unknown although it is thought that it might be electrical in nature. The phenomenon was first described in 1982 by meteorologist William R. Corliss.  One such luminous fog extended from Africa to Sweden and throughout North and South America.   Another happened in 1783 in the Alps, and another in Western Europe in August 1821.  An 1831 glowing night fog was observed almost world-wide. Corliss concludes that “nights were so bright that the smallest print could be read at midnight.”
    • There is also something that is called “earthquake luminosity.”  On 9 December 1731, following an earthquake in Florence, Italy, luminous clouds appeared over England.  Similar things have happened in places like France and South America. In fact, it is very common in South America where it is called the “Andes glow.”  Sometimes it follows the mountain ridges for as much as 300 miles in length.
    • In 1908 there was a period of time during which there were some very, very bright skies when an object burned up in the atmosphere and exploded over the Tunguska region of Siberia.  Most scientists now believe it was a comet or asteroid.  People in Scotland reported that in rooms facing north, objects cast shadows at night. In London, it was possible to read the small print in the London Times at midnight.  It was possible to read the large print indoors at 1:30 a.m. The room was as light as if it had been the day.”  Photographs were taken by this natural light at 1:00 a.m. at Stockholm, Sweden, and also at Novorzhev, Russia.

    A Cornell University research paper published by the American Geophysical Union in 2009 explores the 1908 “Tunguska Event” in greater detail, and attributes the “nights without darkness” to ice crystals in the upper atmosphere similar to those caused by frozen water vapor from the Space Shuttle exhaust plume.  This “noctilucent cloud phenomenon” (the scientific term) was observed for days after the space shuttle Endeavour (STS-118) launched on Aug. 8, 2007. Similar cloud formations had been observed following launches in 1997 and 2003.

    Whatever caused it to happen, and however widespread it was, the “night without darkness” came at the precise time prophesied by Samuel.  And this “other Christmas miracle” physically saved the lives of believing Nephites on that holy night so long ago, just as we are saved by trusting in Christ in our crazy world today.

    Merry Christmas.

    Robert Starling is a creative consultant for Book of Mormon Central  (www.bookofmormoncentral.org). He has been a writer and producer for the NBC Television Network, and at Schick Sunn Classic Pictures, Osmond Productions, and the media production department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  His recent book “A Case for Latter-day Christianity” is available in many bookstores, on Barnes and Noble, and on Amazon.com in printed and e-book versions. He lives in Riverton, Utah with his wife Sharon. They have four adult children and eleven grandchildren.

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    Why We Should See Goals as the Means, Not the End

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    By Jeremy Madsen   

    We’ve all been there. We set a goal. We make plans to reach it. We have the best of intentions. We work hard. And then we fall short.

    For me, this happened a lot on my mission. Each transfer, my companion and I would set daily, weekly, and monthly goals for standards such as lessons taught, new investigators found, investigators in church, or investigators baptized. And most of the time, we ended each period with zeros for the last two categories and woefully low numbers for the first two.

    What frustrated me most was the seeming capriciousness of whether we met our goals. One week we could work incredibly hard and get ten new investigators; the next we could work equally hard and get one. There seemed to be no correlation between our efforts and how close we came to our goals.

    Now, the mission is an extreme example. Unlike most areas of our lives, success in mission goals depends almost entirely on the agency and choices of others. But even when we’re completely responsible for our goals, we still often fall short. For example, in the summer of 2017, I set a goal to write a novel from start to finish in a year. Four and a half years later, I’m barely two-thirds of the way through the first draft.

    But back to my mission. By the time I finished my two years of service, I had developed a dislike, or at least a distrust, of goals. Why set goals, if most of the time we fail to reach them? Why subject ourselves to feelings of inadequacy and frustration over and over again?

    Then, a few months after coming home, I was reviewing chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel (the missionary manual). The chapter, which was on using time wisely, had a section about goals. And I began to notice something. While the chapter talked a lot about setting goals and working towards them, it rarely talked about achieving goals. The closer I looked, the more I began to notice what the chapter didn’t say about goals.

    To illustrate, I have selected some statements from chapter 8, and beside each I have written what the manual doesn’t say:

    What Preach My Gospel says:What it doesn’t say:
    “Meaningful goals and careful planning will help you accomplish what the Lord requires of you” (p. 143).“Meaningful effort and careful planning will help you accomplish your goals.”
    “Through goals and plans, our hopes are transformed into action” (p. 148).“Through actions and plans, our hopes are transformed into reality as we meet our goals.”
    “When you fall short of a goal, evaluate your efforts and seek for ways to accomplish the goal” (p. 148).“If you fall short of a goal, evaluate your efforts and identify what you did wrong.”(Notice the contrast between if and when.)
    “For each key indicator, set goals that help you stretch, exercise faith, and work effectively” (p. 153).“For each key indicator, you must stretch, exercise faith, and work effectively in order to achieve your goal.”
    “The ultimate measure of success is not in achieving goals alone but in the service you render and the progress of others. Goals are a means of helping you bring about much good among Heavenly Father’s children” (p. 148).“The ultimate measure of success is in achieving goals. Only by achieving your goals can you render service and help others progress. By achieving goals, you bring about much good among Heavenly Father’s children.”

    This exercise taught me a powerful lesson. I had always seen goals as part of the end: we need to do x, y, or z, so we set a goal and work hard to bring about x, y, or z. But I was wrong. Goals are the means. And they aren’t the means to a certain achievement, prize, or destination. They are the means to a better journey—a better life.

    We set goals and strive to achieve them because by so doing, we exert greater effort than we would otherwise. Goals push us off the couch and out of our comfort zones. Goals motivate us to work harder and smarter than we normally would. Goals help direct our energy, time, and resources towards what’s truly important. As Preach My Gospel says, goals “help [us] stretch, exercise faith, and work effectively.”

    For me, the main takeaway from this realization is that we don’t need to feel bad when we fail to reach a goal. As long as the act of setting the goal pushed us to greater efforts—as long as the goal helped us be more godlike than we otherwise would—then it was a success.

    I’m learning to adopt this new attitude about goals. Remember my ongoing project to write a novel? A year ago, I set a goal to complete two chapters of my rough draft a week. The first week, I completed one chapter. The second week, I completed another chapter. Then it took me two weeks to finish the next chapter, and four weeks for the chapter after that. School, work, and family responsibilities pushed me farther and farther behind. But I didn’t despair. I didn’t get down on myself for not meeting my goal. Rather, I recognized that setting the goal had pushed me to complete four more chapters during a busy semester than I probably would have otherwise.

    So when the New Year rolls around soon and it’s time to set goals, don’t get down thinking about all the resolutions you failed to meet, the diets you failed to keep, and the books you failed to finish (or start) since the previous year. Think about how your goals helped you be a little better and work a little harder each day. Then set new goals that are means to those ends.

    Summary

    The value of goals is not so much in achieving them, but in how the process of setting and striving for goals alters our behavior. When we set goals that motivate us, focus our efforts, and exercise our faith, we work more effectively, accomplish more, and live better lives than we would otherwise. By seeing goals as means instead of ends, we can avoid the frustration and discouragement that come from the many times we fail to meet our goals.

    Points to Ponder

    • What are my current goals, and how do they help me be a better person?
    • What is a goal that I failed to meet in the past? How did it help me grow?
    • What is the difference between a goal and a promise/commitment? Why is it more important to meet a promise or commitment than it is to meet a goal?

    Further Reading

    Jeremy Madsen is a fantasy writer, freelance editor, and biblical scholar. With his three siblings, he runs the website Atrium of Light, a repository for scripture memory songs and other uplifting media. Jeremy is the founder of Universal Cape Day (March 10), a day to wear a cape, look epic, and feel heroic. He currently lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife and daughter. He is also the operations manager for LDSPMA.

    The Lady and the Map of Sorrow: How Stories can Offer Direction in Dark Times

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    By Bridgette Tuckfield   

    How Do You Know It Is Going to Be All Right?

    There are a few neurological explanations for why time moves much slower when you’re younger, which I reflected on recently when showing the film Howl’s Moving Castle to my niece Sadie, who is four.

    Sadie (aka the Lady) is a beautiful and sweet little girl with chubby cheeks, dimples, and the precise and uncanny ability to immediately and perfectly size up your insecurities and then unerringly cut you down to your core with a single sentence (a trait which I both marvel at and fear). She enjoys magic and peril and romance, and I thought Howl might appeal to her.

    There is a scene near the beginning of the film when the wizard Howl saves the young protagonist Sophie from some soldiers in an alley. He walks her away, when they begin to be pursued by Howl’s enemies—amorphous undulating black humanoid blobs, sporting dapper hats.

    It’s right before the first magical moment of the film—when Howl and Sophie take off flying, literally walking through the air to safety.

    When this happened, Sadie crawled into the crevice of the couch, terrified. “FAST FORWARD,” she yelled, and I paused it.

    “Sadie,” I said. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be fine. I promise Sophie is going to be fine. Just wait a minute.”

    She was incredibly dubious. “How do you know?” she asked.

    “I’ve seen the movie before,” I said, which left her unimpressed. I tried a few other tactics, to no avail: I promise you. I wouldn’t show you something terrible. I know it’s scary, but it’s only a few seconds, and then it will be magical (perhaps all the more so, given the peril). Actual time before the magic rescue? About fifteen seconds. I fast-forwarded it that time around; I’m not a monster. After we finished the film, it became Sadie’s favorite movie for a few months, which she could happily watch over and over with no fast-forwarding, but at the time, absolutely nothing worked to console her.

    My mother always told Sadie and her sister something when they were afraid during a kid’s movie—something like, “Nothing bad ever happens in a kid’s movie.” Whatever it was, it always seemed to work.

    Which was too bad, as I couldn’t ask her.

    Mom had died a few months earlier, at age 55.

    Grief: Both Universal and Isolating

    Grief is, I believe, maybe mostly beyond words. As Daniel Handler put it in his children’s series: “If you have ever lost someone very important to you, then you already know how it feels; and if you haven’t, you cannot possibly imagine it.”

    I will say that nowhere and with nothing else have I felt as keenly the conflation of time and space.

    What grief can feel like, sometimes, is a wound that will not stop bleeding—and bleeding and bleeding. When you look back it seems you have left a blood trail back to the time and place you cannot get to—the last place in the past where your loved one once lived, and where it seems they still wait as you move further and further away in time, leaving them behind.

    What it can do, sometimes, is shrink your entire world to only your loss and pain. Only your lack. With no hope of joy or meaning on the horizon—all that lies in the past, the only land you can never reach again.

    It is then, of course, that you are most vulnerable to despair. And once despair sets in around you, it seems like you will never live anywhere else again.

    I believe too that it can feel like this for everyone.

    Our Sorrow Shall Be Turned Into Joy

    Elder S. Mark Palmer addressed those feelings and fears for those of us mired in grief in his recent talk, “Our Sorrow Shall Be Turned Into Joy.” He centers his talk around what are the fundamental principles of our religion: that Jesus Christ died, was buried and rose again on the third day—that Jesus Christ lives and what that means for us:

    1. We will live again after we die. 
    2. This is possible through Christ. 
    3. We will see our loved ones again.

    As he puts it:

    This knowledge [of Christ’s resurrection] gives meaning and purpose to our lives. If we go forward in faith, we will be forever changed, as were the Apostles of old. We, like them, will be able to endure any hardship with faith in Jesus Christ. This faith also gives us hope for a time when our “sorrow shall be turned into joy.”

    Palmer also supports his message with the story of his parents, and how they navigated the loss of his sister Ann.

    By illustrating and testifying of these gospel principles, Palmer does a few things:

    He gives us an endpoint: the point at which our sorrow will be turned to joy.

    He gives us a way to get there: having faith, and following Christ:

    He gives us the truth. A way of understanding the world, as it is.

    And, in this case, a way out of despair and grief and sorrow.

    And what that truth is—what maybe all truths are—

    Is a map.

    A map to help us find the way through the dark.

    Stories Are Maps

    What I speak of here—the interrelatedness and importance of maps and narratives (and respectively, space and time)—is not a new concept.

    “To ask for a map,” writer Peter Turchi says, “is to say: tell me a story.”

    He goes on to say about the similarity: “Maps themselves are stories. They’re simplifications, distillations, and interpretations of a hugely complex world.  Maps provide meaning and context; they reveal patterns and relationships…sometimes maps can reveal hidden stories.”

    If a lifetime is a space, then times of grief and loss are a wasteland.

    This is perhaps why Elder Palmer ends his talk by stressing the steps you can take through sorrow (although perhaps never out of it), and the place you will find yourself if you do:

    I invite all who feel sorrow, all who wrestle with doubt, all who wonder what happens after we die, to place your faith in Christ. I promise that if you desire to believe, then act in faith and follow the whisperings of the Spirit, you will find joy in this life and in the world to come.

    As someone amid despair myself, this map spoke to my heart.

    Wrestling With Despair as a Saint

    All that said, it is not always easy to see the whole picture or the way forward.

    Sometimes—perhaps most times—we can only take it on faith.

    After all, some things can seem too good to be true, and thus to be regarded with suspicion.

    Stories tell us all this, too (Sadie knows this, even at four years old).

    Elder Palmer illustrates these difficulties with the story of the apostle Thomas. When Thomas is told of Christ’s resurrection, he doesn’t believe it:

    Later Jesus admonished Thomas, “Be not faithless, but believing.” Then the Lord taught the vital role of faith: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

    I have always felt for Thomas—it’s very human, to not want to believe something so longed for. It’s also human, with our limited perspective, to fail to see the whole picture because we only perceive the bad.

    Often in scripture, Christ encourages taking a broader perspective. Peter in particular seems to struggle with this (which I love him for).

    In Matthew 16:21-25, Christ is walking with and teaching his disciples. He tells them he needs to go to Jerusalem and says he will suffer and die there, to rise again.

    Peter objects; he says surely this doesn’t need to happen.

    Christ admonishes him and says, functionally, you’re looking at this from a narrow framework.

    You’re not looking at this from the view of God and seeing my true mission: the redemption of mankind, and that my death will not separate us for eternity but only for a brief moment. You’re looking at this from your limited mortal eyes, where my death would be just a catastrophe and separate us forever.

    In short:

    You lack perspective.

    You are not seeing the end.

    The whole picture.

    Darkness Can Delineate Light

    Elder Palmer also speaks of the wrenching ways this perspective can be gained and what else can come of it.

    He tells the story of the tragic loss of his sister Ann when she was only a toddler, and how it affected his parents:

    “Many years later Dad told me that if not for Ann’s tragic death, he would never have been humble enough to accept the restored gospel. Yet the Spirit of the Lord instilled hope that what the missionaries taught was true. My parents’ faith continued to grow until they each burned with the fire of testimony that quietly and humbly guided their every decision in life.”

    This illustrates how important contrast can be: dark and light, sorrow and joy.

    I know that I have fundamentally changed for the better as a person after the loss of my mother. My faith and connection to Heavenly Parents and Christ have improved.

    This does not mean, I must stress, that a specific loss or pain is good or warranted or just or necessary, but rather that it can point us in the right direction.

    It can make truths resonate with us more, just as the black ink of a map delineates meaning and space. Just as you can’t know light without dark.

    Small Truths

    Howl’s Moving Castle is not gospel, of course; it’s just a little gem of a film. And although I didn’t have my mother’s words or presence anymore in this time and place, I could at least comfort Sadie by sitting with her and promising her it would end well.

    When it came to Howl at least, I had the whole picture. I knew what was going to happen, and how, and why.

    Sadie had to find out for herself. She (like the protagonist Sophie) had to take the next steps, go through the (literally) fifteen seconds of dark (or in this case, again, very mild animated peril), to get to the magic part.

    But in that moment, and in that film, are small truths. Facts that resonate, and that you can hold on to in times of fog and despair.

    That you can never be certain of exactly how the end will look until you get there.

    That you have reserves of strength and power and beings who care for you, that you aren’t even aware of right now.

    And that ultimately, everything is going to be all right.

    Maybe—almost certainly—it will be better than anything you can imagine right now.

    Our Role: To Show a Way Through the Dark, as Best We Can, With the Truths We Know

    Truths (and the stories they’re embedded in) can be maps through darkness and despair. This is the case whether they are an ultimate truth such as Elder Palmer spoke of, or a small one like in Howl’s Moving Castle.

    I appreciate talks like Elder Palmer’s because his message was the promise of the purpose and the ending, given to us.

    He gave us a map to follow. Like all narratives do.

    For me, taking this message to heart meant flipping around the proverbial map of sorrow I was working with.

    I was not moving away from my mother, as I once believed — I am moving towards her. The lines between myself and her in the time and space that separates us are not trails of blood and tears as they felt and sometimes still feel, but bonds.

    The world around us is getting darker and brighter all the time.

    And storytelling is—and has perhaps always been—a “deeply spiritual act,” as the poet Clarissa Pinkola Estés says.

    It’s our job to add to the light.

    I believe we do this not by shying away from the dark — by timidly skirting a way around it, as we seldom get to do in life.

    I believe we do this by, instead, showing a way through it.

    Bridgette Tuckfield is a writer and semiotician.

    I Can’t Even Get a Job at McDonald’s: Overcoming Impossibilities in Life and Writing

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    By Steve Dunn Hanson   

    I’m at the age where some of my closest friends have passed on. While I miss them, what they have taught me by their words and lives continues to affect me deeply.

    Lloyd Rasmussen was a few years older than me and over the years, our relationship moved from him being my church leader and mentor to the kind of close friendship I’ve had with only a handful of people. He was the kind of friend you can talk to about anything. While his stellar life was a great example to me, one of his oft repeated statements continues to give me direction, both as I write and as I plod along on my own mortal journey.

    There are two kinds of choices a successful person makes: the right ones and the ones they make right.

    I can modify whatever choice I make, whatever circumstance I’m in, whatever word, sentence, or chapter I write, to make it better. To make it right. Knowing I can do this has made all the difference in my life.

    Another friend, Kaye Terry Hanson, has been an extraordinary example of that principle. Kaye passed away nearly five years ago and was very close to my wife and me for some 50 years. She was my writing mentor, editor, and a constant encouragement. She would tell me, “Writing is easy, Steve. Just dip your pen in your blood and write.” That metaphor has been powerfully descriptive of my writing challenges at times!

    As vital as her tutoring in my writing has been, it is her life that has been my inspiration. Kaye taught high school English to help put her husband through medical school. They were not able to have children, and they adopted a boy and a girl. Her husband was finishing his medical residency in Southern California some 45 years ago, and that Thanksgiving, my family and others went to their house for dinner.

    The next morning, Kaye showed up on our doorstep with her two little ones. What she told us was shattering. After everyone had gone home that Thanksgiving evening, and without any warning, her husband gathered his clothes, told her he no longer loved her, and left. We were stunned. We wept.

    She had been thrown under a bus and was utterly overwhelmed. “What am I going to do?” she lamented. “I can’t even get a job at McDonald’s!”

    There was nothing in my limited understanding at that time I could draw on to even begin to console her, but the Spirit put words into my mouth. I said, “I don’t know how, but I promise you if you keep your covenants and focus on the Savior, this experience will redound to your blessing.”

    That seemingly impossible promise happened.

    At Kaye’s funeral, her stake center in Provo was filled almost to the stage, Virginia (Ginny) Pearce, daughter of President Hinkley, gave the eulogy. She spoke about Kaye’s chronic bout with rheumatic fever as a child, her mother dying from a freak accident when Kaye was on her mission, and Kaye’s divorce and raising her two children as a single mother. She reminded the congregation of Kaye’s struggle with breast cancer and subsequent double mastectomy, and of her latest health challenges with neuropathy, blood clots, and heart irregularities.

    Then she related a few of the things Kaye had accomplished—all since her divorce. She earned her PhD in Theater History and was a professor at BYU. She taught theater, a religion class, and communications in the Marriott School of Business. She became the associate director of BYU’s world-class MBA program. In addition, for three years she resided in Jerusalem as associate director of the BYU Jerusalem Center and was on the Young Women’s General Board for the Church.

    She traveled all over the world giving seminars on communication to leaders of businesses and organizations and spoke at BYU’s Education Week and at a BYU Devotional. She led tours to Israel and served as a full-time senior missionary in Europe where she worked with young adults throughout the continent and the British Isles. She was an author, a Relief Society president, and a Sunday School teacher. Most  importantly, she was an unexcelled mother, grandmother, and friend.

    After Ginny talked, Kaye’s grandchildren paid tribute to their grandmother, and her two children expressed their love and unqualified respect for their mother. Then, we all had one of the experiences of a lifetime. Nine of the great women of the Church, all who had served with Kaye in one capacity or another, stood in a line across the stand and, one-by-one, each came to the pulpit and spoke of how Kaye had blessed her life. That group included two former General Young Women Presidents, a past General Relief Society President, and temple matrons, and counselors in general auxiliary presidencies. Their presence, and what they said, was electrifying.

    When I spoke, I asked all in the congregation who had been taught or tutored or mentored by Kaye to stand. Nearly all 700+ who were there rose to their feet. It was an overpowering witness of the influence this woman had on the lives of countless.

    A few nights before the funeral, my wife and I went to dinner with Julie Beck and her husband Ramon. The conversation centered around Kaye. With considerable emotion, and in detail, Julie told us how Kaye had taught and trained her. Then she said, “If it hadn’t been for Kaye, I would never have been qualified to serve as General President of the Relief Society.”

    Kaye was the woman who, decades before, felt so low and useless, she didn’t think she could even get a job at McDonald’s. She was the woman whose outstanding experiences and opportunities for service would not have likely occurred but for a crushing Thanksgiving event so many years ago. Her choice to somehow make her hopeless situation right, made all the difference.

    Her life has been an undimmed beacon for me.

    Kaye authored a memoir about growing up in the small Utah town of Beaver and published it in two volumes for her family and friends. I have put these on FamilySearch and invite you to download the (free) PDF copies of Tula I and Tula II to get a glimpse of the life of this remarkable woman. They are found under “Documents” at www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KWHF-N24. You may have to sign in to access them.

    Steve Dunn Hanson lives with Joyce, his wife of 57 years, in northeast Washington and is the author of several books, including The Course of Fate trilogy currently available at Amazon. His website is https://stevedunnhanson.com/

    Faith and Fear are Two Sides of the Same Coin: 3 Steps to Creating in Faith

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    By Lauri Mackey   

    Both faith and fear are a belief in something unseen and yet to be experienced; why do we sometimes give fear more power than our faith?

    While there are several analogies we can use to prove this point, let’s focus on sharing our creative talents with others as members of LDSPMA—in whatever form that may take. For me, it is a love of the microphone in inspiring others with my words and a love of stringing words together into a poem, a blog, a book, my journal, or simply penning a letter to a friend.

    For you, that may also include creating music, editing someone else’s words in the form of a book or lyrics, or acting in front of the camera or catching the scene as the cameraman. 

    There is a certain amount of faith and fear that can be in constant battle with each other.

    Whatever your chosen form of media from publishing to podcasting, I believe there is a certain amount of faith and fear that can be in constant battle with each other. Faith is the moving force to propel us forward with our work and fear keeps us frozen in place or worse, moving backward.

    Let’s examine both for a minute, shall we? Where do faith and fear come from?

    Fear

    In 2 Timothy 1:7 it reads “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Let’s be clear that we are not talking about a “fear of God” which is actually not to be afraid of our loving Heavenly Father, but is akin to “awe, worship, and reverence” of God as outlined in the Bible Dictionary. I therefore suggest that fear is most definitely not of God, but of the adversary to stop us in our tracks of not sharing our talents and gifts with others for fear of rejection, shame, guilt, or simply making a mistake.

    Faith

    But faith, faith is beautiful! Geeking out a bit more in the Bible Dictionary, let me share a few passages found under the definition of faith.

    • Faith is to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true.
    • Faith is kindled by hearing the testimony of those who have faith.
    • Faith is an action word.
    • Faith is a principle of power.
    • Faith is a gift.
    • Faith must be nurtured and sought after.
    • Where there is true faith there are miracles, visions, dreams, healings, and all the gifts of God.

    Just reading about faith makes me want to grab my pom-poms and cheer for you to rise up and be the best you can be in whatever your chosen field, but even I have that fear that can cause me to find a million excuses to not work on my book or blog today…the laundry needs to be done, I have errands to run, the dog ate my homework…

    How then can we choose faith over fear on sometimes a daily if not hourly basis?

    I’d like to suggest three powerful antidotes to your fear:

    First, motivation is not step one.

    Second, leveling up your support.

    Third, cultivate a green thumb.

    First: Motivation is Not Step One

    If you are waiting for motivation to hit you between the eyes, you are putting your life and your work on hold unnecessarily. Motivation is a powerful tool, but you will never keep it going if you don’t take the first step.

    The best example I can use is that of attending an awe-inspiring, motivating, rah-rah conference. It could have been an amazing podcast you listened to or a Time Out for Women event, or the latest LDSPMA conference. You go, you get inspired, you meet people in your field and chat with them, you take copious amounts of notes, and then rush home to do the work only to be waylaid yet again. What happened? You were completely fired up and then fizzled out after day one or week one. It’s because motivation is step two.

    Step one is action. Motivation is step two. But there is a third step you absolutely must take in order for this to work. The third step is momentum.

    You absolutely must take step one which then motivates you. You then create a cycle of action, motivation, action, motivation, action, motivation, which in turn creates momentum.

    Have you ever tried to move a large object uphill? You need a running start, maybe an extra person or two or three, and then momentum is created to get your large object up the hill. Without it you stay at the bottom of the hill simply staring at your large object and the large hill and never try.

    So who are those extra couple of people that helped you get the large object up the hill to create the momentum you needed? That brings us to our next item of support.

    Second: Leveling Up Your Support

    Jeffrey R Holland said it best: “Faith-filled life is not a stress-free life.”

    I believe that we are always going to have some sort of stress in our life. One of my favorite sayings lately is that “I don’t love drama, but it loves me.” I’m over here minding my own business when KAPLOWEE!! A friend is in distress, relatives are bickering, a sister I minister to has gotten offended once again and wants to tell you all the reasons she will never come to another church activity ever again…you get the idea.

    I understand that we can also create our own stress, but the point is that even if you’ve done everything you can to eliminate stress in your life, things happen. It’s life! It wasn’t meant to be smooth and if your life has been a cakewalk I truly want to visit with you and learn your secret as soon as possible.

    Stress comes in so many forms—physical stress, emotional stress, work stress, school stress, family stress, relationship stress, and yes, even church stress. Stress is something that in main stream media has become the enemy. It is wrapped up in a big ol’ ball of yuckiness that attacks at any given moment. Sometimes it sneaks up on you ever so slowly and sometimes it just smacks you in the face…right between the eyes. Let’s break down stress a little further.

    My motto has been “to clean a mess you have to make a mess.” 

    Have you ever cleaned out a closet, a drawer, or your file cabinet? You have to make a mess to clean a mess. It gets worse before it gets better, but downsize and get rid of you must.  Admittedly, I’m an organizational freakazoid. Whenever I start feeling overwhelmed and completely stressed out, my first line of defense is to take inventory, evaluate what I can possibly let go, and then manage my feeling of being overwhelmed.…I clean out a closet.

    Whatever is stressing you out, step back, take an inventory and see what you can let go. This is the first step in letting unnecessary stress go. Then step two would be to up-level your support to not only match your stress, but hopefully surpass it. Stress is ok. You heard me correctly.  Stress is ok, but it absolutely must be tempered with support. If your scales are not balanced between your state of being overwhelmed and your support, you are stressed.

    Sometimes the stress we are working with can be handled on our own through prayer, scripture study, talking it out with a friend or relative. But sometimes you need more than that. Anytime I’m feeling overwhelmed and I can’t seem to shake it I inevitably reach for one of two things—my therapist’s phone number, or someone specific to help me in whatever is the stressful problem. If it’s an emotional problem, yes, it’s the therapist, but if it’s a spiritual problem it may be my bishop. If it’s a problem with my book and I’ve hit a wall, I call my author friends.

    Stress may be our constant companion at times, but I believe with the right type and level of support, faith will win over fear every time. Grab those one or two or three people to help you push that large object up that even larger hill.

    Third: Cultivating a Green Thumb

    Faith starts as a seed…but just like a seed it takes time and cultivation to grow into something worthwhile. What does that mean for us in practical terms? Practice!

    Abraham Lincoln once said that “Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.” Discipline is all about practicing. It’s about choosing again, again, and again to work toward what you want most instead of what you want right now.

    What does [faith] mean for us in practical terms? Practice!

    Think about this with exercise. From the professional football player or ballerina to the mom wanting to gain strength back so that she can keep up with her toddler, discipline is needed to take the time and required effort to exercise to achieve your goal.

    Think about this with a musical instrument. When I interviewed Jenny Oaks Baker for my podcast, the thing that struck me most was the time commitment her parents had taught her growing up in playing the violin. She has lovingly passed on that trait to her children who now tour with her. Discipline is all about practicing.

    Admittedly, I was born with more of a black thumb than a green one. I’ve killed more plants than I can count—so sad. But I kept at it. I learned how to choose plants that were more hardy and could survive my black thumb issues. I employed people who knew how to take care of plants and asked for help. I’m happy to report that while I may have not gotten all the way to having a green thumb, it’s definitely more brown than black.

    Faith is the same. Perhaps you were born with a green thumb and I am so happy for you! But if you tend to lean more towards the black or brown thumb persuasion, there is hope! Don’t ever give up! Practice can and will support you in your journey towards more and more faith.

    Decide now to do what President Nelson in the April 2020 general conference challenged us to do when he said, “The Lord loves effort.” Discipline takes effort, and sometimes that effort includes a lot of hard work, but with our Heavenly Father, the Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost by our sides, we can try a little harder.

    Faith and fear are two sides of the same coin: both are a belief in something unseen and yet to be experienced.

    Your gifts and talents in your chosen field are needed. My hope is that you can find some motivation in these words and plan right now to take that action step that will create your own motivation, and then momentum in giving faith all of the glory and power it deserves and kicking fear to the curb.

    Lauri Mackey, Positivity Crusader, is the proprietor of Lauri’s Lemonade Stand, a Positivity Podcast for Women and authoress of Positivity Happens, Creating Happiness and Finding Hope through The Art of Holiatry. Lauri is currently working on her next book and holding firesides throughout the Western United States with the goal of sharing hope, light, and love with others. Lauri’s unique background of struggle through experience has her shouting from the rooftops that if she can come through it, anyone can! 

    Links to Lauri’s work:

    Facebook @LaurisLemonadeStand

    Positivity Happens Book

    LLS Podcast on Apple Podcasts

    LLS Podcast on Spotify

    Lauri’s Lemonade Stand Website/Blog