Amazingly, it’s Christmastime again. I never imagined that I would be this young and repeating clichés about the speed of time. Yet I am!

All this year I have been feeling the need to hold on to moments: little memories, like the ones Elder Eyring described in his recent general conference address. I feel the need to savor moments and write them down for a time when I will need them in the future.

I remember the day my family sat around the kitchen table early this spring and ate huge, delicious, succulent berries, lightly dusted with sugar. I looked at the precious faces of my loved ones and thought, “This is a blessing.”

I think of the nightly chaos of dinner, begging kids to come to the table, begging them to stay at the table, trying to get them to speak one at a time, and I think “I’m grateful for the chaos, it means I have a lively home.”

Just this Sunday, I looked around the table again. My husband had prepared a wonderful stew for dinner, our sweet children were lined around the table, and we counted our blessings as we reviewed the messages from that day’s church lessons. I commented out loud, “What could be better than good food, the people I love, clean water to drink, a roof over our heads, and the gospel.”

The Lord’s blessings are real, and if we look for them, we are guaranteed to find them.
We don’t have to wait to unwrap His gifts on Christmas morning; we can ask the Lord today to fill our souls until our “cup runneth over.” And He will. Or we can ask Him each day what gift we might give Him for the day—and then act on the answer.

Merry Christmas, for it will be “merry and bright” if you choose to make it so.

All the best,

Editor@DesertSaintsMagazine.com