by Krista Ralston Oakes
As I prepared to leave the house, the phone rang. It was our ward Relief Society president.

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by Annette Lyon
In the months after high school, my church attendance must have been hard to track.
Oh, I attended. But it was the season of missionary farewells. Sometimes I attended two or three wards—just not my own. Then I had to pick a ward—my home ward, the local singles ward, or a student ward. No one tracked me one week to the next.

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By Julie Wright
I don’t think boys realize that girls make lists. Not just any lists: important lists. We make lists of our friends, music we like, and most importantly what qualities we expect our future husbands to have before we agree to marry them. I had a list of my own, brimming with the perfections I expected my husband to possess.

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By Ken Craig
Never, in all my youth, could I conjure up the image of the moment I would purchase an engagement ring. In my mind, the buying of the ring was The Final Step. And The Final Step to
The Final Commitment would be intimidating to most, would it not?

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By Stephanie McMillan
Grammy and G.G., as my great-grandparents were affectionately known, married in the year 1929 and homesteaded a sheep ranch in the wilds of Montana. Their ranch on Big Sheep Creek was miles away from any other civilization. It was this picturesque but lonely mountain that served as welcome for my great-grandmother, Afton, a new young bride. She was eighteen when she married Lewis, a handsome young man who had stolen her heart.

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By Katie Parker
There was something about the phrase “marriage for time and all eternity” that sounded incredibly blissful to me when I was a starry-eyed teenager. Surely when the magical day of my temple marriage arrived, my husband and I would be whisked into a peaceful future in our little cottage in the clouds. What else could marriage for time and all eternity involve?

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By Lu Ann Staheli
Think the word bride. What image comes to mind? A girl, probably mid-twenties, thin body, a perfect complexion, and unlimited resources to give her the wedding she’s dreamed about her entire—short—life.

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by Krista Ralston Oakes
The term “sacred cow” is figurative, but it originates from the Hindu tradition of protecting the cow as a sacred animal.

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By S. Amanda Dickson
Day 1 – We’re sitting in the Celestial room at the temple. Today we’ll be sealed for time and eternity. A worker has just come by to tell us that we are waiting on my soon-to-be father-in-law, and his mother. The worker tells us that they will arrive shortly, and my father-in-law doesn’t want us to know that it is him we are waiting on.

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By Ken Craig
My daughter, Abbie, graduated from Primary earlier this year. The signs were there that the time had come. She had spoken in Stake Conference already, she had accompanied one of the songs during the always-anticipated annual Primary Program, and on her final Sunday in Primary, she cried during her talk and then hugged all of her leaders. I even overheard her tell one of them, “I hope you realize how much your sacrifices of time and diligence have impacted my spiritual journey.” She was speaking to the secretary in the Primary Presidency.

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By Chris Stewart
While I was serving in the United States Air Force, I once stopped in the Philippines on my way home from a deployment overseas. After checking into a very nice hotel, I stood in my room and looked through the rear window onto a ghetto that had sprung up along a huge canal at the back of the hotel. There I saw a young Filipino mother washing her children in the filthy water that was draining into the ditch. She looked to be about my age. Her children looked to be about the same age as my children. I watched them for a very long time, seeing the hunger in their faces and the desperate conditions in which they lived.

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by Annette Lyon
My list of New Year’s resolutions that year wasn’t unique. I imagine many other women make similar lists all the time: Be more patient with my children. Plan ahead for Family Home Evenings. Read my scriptures every day. Lose the final fifteen pounds from my last pregnancy. I don’t recall anything unusual standing out on it.

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By Lin Vernon Floyd
As the New Year begins, we have a fresh slate upon which to write as we contemplate our goals. One item that’s important, but always seems to fall at the bottom of any To Do list, is family history. Now is the time to change that, and make it a priority. I’m not talking about gathering genealogy information and doing temple work, although that’s important, but taking time to teach our children more about their ancestors or turning the hearts of the children to their fathers. (D&C 2:2)

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Rebecca Brimhall to Solo in “The Nutcracker”

It’s not hard to notice that Rebecca Brimhall is passionate about her dancing – after all, she has been doing it most of her life. Daily ballet class; hours of rehearsals; a labor of love doesn’t even begin to describe the hours of dedication required to make a life of dance work. And while it is easy to admire her for her devotion, she must also be respected for something else extraordinary – her faith.
Because without faith, how would the steadfast commitment required for dancing even be possible?

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By Michael McLean
When I wrote The Forgotten Carols—a Christmas story with an accompanying collection of songs—back in 1991 I never intended, let alone DREAMED that I’d be telling the story and singing the songs every holiday season for the next twenty years. Back in 1991, the ONLY reason I dared share the story on stage was because I didn’t know any other way to introduce it to the world. I figured that if I could act out all the parts and get through the songs in front of an audience, it would encourage them to create their own Christmas program using my book and songs as a script.

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