Every year on the first Sunday in December the First Presidency speaks at a Christmas Devotional. It's held at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City, UT but it is broadcast all over the world. It's really words for everyone to live by.
Attending the Christmas Devotional has become a family tradition for my family. Each year, we pile into the vehicles and we go to hear the prophet's voice. It's very neat to watch it on television, listen to it on the radio, or stream it from the web, but sometimes, when the opportunity arises, it is special to be in the same building as the prophet. I feel like it's an opportunity we should take sometimes, living so close to Salt Lake. Even though I hate the congested traffic and the crowded parking lots - we are blessed to live so close and I need to remember that. Anyway, my family loves to attend because not only do we get to see the prophet and his counselors just a few hundred feet away, we get to cross the street to temple square and look at the lights. :0) Double bonus.
This year was a little different because after looking at the lights on Temple Square we were by the reflection pond when huge gusts of wind started blowing through. We headed for the nearest exit. Not even one minute after the wind started, hail began falling; it started falling and just got heavier and heavier. The hail got so big it started hurting when it hit my frozen nose and face. Brian said the hail balls got stuck in his hair and started freezing his head. LoL. It was a joyous mile long run back to the car as it seems every person on temple square either took cover or joined the crowd of runners heading for the parking lot.
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| Before and After the Christmas Devotional Hail Storm |
The Christmas Devotional was wonderful and an excellent way to get into the Christmas spirit.
Some Christmas Thoughts from the devotional:
The Good and Grateful Receiver
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Second Counselor in the First Presidency
"Every gift that is offered to us—especially a gift that comes from the
heart—is an opportunity to build or strengthen a bond of love. When we
are good and grateful receivers, we open a door to deepen our
relationship with the giver of the gift. But when we fail to appreciate
or even reject a gift, we not only hurt those who extend themselves to
us, but in some way we harm ourselves as well...
...As we watch the excitement and wonder of children at this time of the
year, perhaps we can remind ourselves to rediscover and reclaim a
precious and glorious attribute of children—the ability to receive
graciously and with gratitude...
...My brothers and sisters, my dear friends, what kind of receivers are we?
Do we, like the Savior, recognize gifts as expressions of love?...
...I hope that this Christmas and every day of the year we will consider,
in particular, the many gifts we have been given by our loving Heavenly
Father. I hope we will receive these gifts with the wonder,
thankfulness, and excitement of a child....
...This Christmas season and always, I pray that we will see the marvelous
gift of the birth of the Son of God through the blessed eyes of a child.
I pray that in addition to giving good gifts, we will strive to become
good and grateful receivers. As we do so, the spirit of this season will
enlarge our hearts and expand our joy beyond measure. In the sacred
name of Jesus Christ, amen."
The Perfect Gift
President Henry B. Eyring
First Counselor in the First Presidency
"At Christmastime we celebrate our Heavenly Father’s perfect gift of His
Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. In token of this
greatest of gifts, the Christmas season becomes for most of us a time of
finding joy in giving to others...
...Success in giving joy at Christmas usually involves help from others. It
is rarely found in solitary effort. Joining with others spreads the joy
and makes it more lasting. And perhaps most important, invoking faith
in the Savior, the Creator and source of all lasting happiness, invites
the pure love of God, which is the greatest of all gifts and the sure
source of enduring joy...
...Missionaries also offer the Book of Mormon to everyone they meet. It is a
gift of love and a gift of testimony, created through God’s inspiration
to faithful prophets over centuries. The Savior needed those prophets’
help to create gifts of testimony in the Book of Mormon, and He needs
the missionaries’ help to share it....
...Families also offer priceless gifts of love and testimony at Christmastime through music as well as words... Music filled our small home with a spirit of peace. I could feel not
only the love of my mother and father and two brothers, but of my
Heavenly Father and the Savior Jesus Christ. I sensed that the love I felt then was something I had experienced
before this life in the spirit world. I wanted more than anything else
to feel it someday in a home of my own. And I wanted to live so that I
could return with a family of my own to our heavenly home, where I knew
Heavenly Father and the Savior would be waiting...
...It
is my prayer that the Spirit will bless us this Christmas and in the
years to come with the power to offer other gifts of love and of the
testimony of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. I know that the
Spirit can lead each of us in many and simple ways to give love, faith,
and joy to others at this season of rejoicing.
I
testify that Jesus Christ was the literal Son of God and the Savior of
the world. He was the perfect gift from our loving Father. At this and
every season, our Savior invites us to join with Him and others to offer
the priceless gift of joy. I pray that we will, in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen."
President Thomas S. Monson
Prophet
"The
Christmas season, with its special meaning and beauty, often prompts a
tear, inspires a renewed commitment to God, and provides—borrowing the
words from the lovely song “Calvary”—“rest to the weary and peace to the
soul. However,
it is easy to get caught up in the pressure of the season and perhaps
lose the very spirit in our lives that we’re trying to gain. Overdoing
it is especially common this time of the year for many of us...
...Finding the real joy of Christmas comes not in the hurrying and the
scurrying to get more done, nor is it found in the purchasing of gifts.
We find real joy when we make the Savior the focus of the season. We can
keep Him in our thoughts and in our lives as we go about the work He
would have us perform here on earth. At this time, particularly, let us
follow His example as we love and serve our fellowman....
...My brothers and sisters, true love is a reflection of the Savior’s love.
In December of each year we call it the Christmas spirit. You can hear
it. You can see it. You can feel it...
...There
is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us
to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ. It
is the time to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart—and our
neighbors as ourselves. It is well to remember that he who gives money
gives much; he who gives time gives more; but he who gives of himself
gives all.
Let
us make Christmas real. It isn’t just tinsel and ribbon, unless we have
made it so in our lives. Christmas is the spirit of giving without a
thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is
forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the
meaningless and stressing the true values. It is peace because we have
found peace in the Savior’s teachings. It is the time we realize most
deeply that the more love is expended, the more there is of it for
others...
...As the Christmas season envelops us with all its glory, may we, as did
the Wise Men, seek a bright, particular star to guide us to our
Christmas opportunity in service to our fellowman. May we all make the
journey to Bethlehem in spirit, taking with us a tender, caring heart as
our gift to the Savior. And may one and all have a joy-filled
Christmas."
