Tag Archives: hope

The Blue Butterfly (2004)

Every so often, I happen upon a book or a movie that transcends mere entertainment, that fills my soul, enlightens me, and makes me feel that I am a better person because of it. “The Blue Butterfly” did that for me. It stars Marc Donato as Pete Carlton, a ten-year-old boy who is dying from brain cancer. He has been given between six and eight months to live, and his mother Teresa (Pascale Bussières) wants to make those last months as special as possible. His passion is for butterflies, and he has collected hundreds of them, some mounted, some in … Continue reading →

Facing the Giants (2007)

When I first grabbed this movie off the shelf at Blockbuster, I was expecting another “Remember the Titans” or “Glory Road” or “Miracle” or some other movie about a sports team coming from behind to beat all the odds and how the coach is in danger of losing his job unless the team wins and when they win, his job is saved and children make up with parents and they dig a well and find water and a vein of gold cutting through the town. Okay, I’m getting sarcastic, but you must know how I feel. I’ve seen more versions … Continue reading →

Count Your Blessings

Pardon me if I’m a bit shaken up; we totaled our van only a few hours ago. The good news, of course, is that no one was hurt. In fact, no one was in the van. We were towing it behind our truck when we hit an icy patch in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Suddenly, the van was fishtailing, causing our truck to fishtail. Ultimately, after hitting the guard rail several times, the van broke free, apparently flipped over, and wound up with the back end on top of the guard rail. When we finally stopped spinning, my husband glanced … Continue reading →

RS/EQ: Why Does God Let Tragedies Happen?

After my daughter started crawling, I had to resist the urge to rescue her all the time. This proved significantly harder with her than with the other two because she was the first. When she slipped, when she fell, when she strained for something just out of reach, my maternal instincts screamed for me to rush to her aid. Over and over again, I repeated to myself that she needed these slipups, these errors, these trials to grow and develop. After all, if I held her hand every step of the way, she would never learn to walk on her … Continue reading →

Do Latter-day Saints Need New Year’s Resolutions?

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With a new year comes the opportunity to resolve to change and improve ourselves. Every year, I struggle with whether or not to make New Year’s resolutions. Several things deter me, not the least of which is the fact that too many of my past resolutions have fallen flat. This year, however, I struggled with whether or not Latter-day Saints need new resolutions each January. We had a wonderful lesson in church a few months back regarding the power of the atonement. Since then, I’ve pondered ways to draw on the power Christ put forth in the garden of Gethsemane … Continue reading →

Elie Wiesel: Twenty Years After the Nobel Prize

It was twenty years ago this month that Holocaust survivor, human rights advocate, and novelist Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Although more commonly called Elie, he was born Eliezar in September of 1928 in the Transylvanian (now Romanian) town of Sighet. At the age of fifteen, barely more than a boy, he and his family were taken by the Nazis and incarcerated in one of the most infamous concentration camps, Auchwitz. His mother and younger sisters died while there. Later, Elie and his father were transported to another camp, Buchenwald. His father died in 1945, just missing … Continue reading →

Stuck in Between–When We Have to Wait for Answers

There’s a strange and awful place that we sometimes have to go when we have a child with a developmental delay or chronic illness. It’s like a halfway point between two doorways: The “everything’s going to be alright” doorway, and the “my world and my child’s world is shattered” doorway. And we stand there, in limbo, waiting to see which one will open. The Agony of Waiting We find ourselves in this in-between place when we’re waiting for the doctor to call with results from our child’s blood test or biopsy. Or when we’re waiting to hear the psychiatrist’s analysis, … Continue reading →

Doom and Gloom—Finding Hope in Jesus

I don’t know anyone who particularly enjoys reading about doom and gloom. Have you ever had one of those moments where you just sit and ponder life and the direction society is taking it, or what your future will bring? Yes, that’s where I’m at now. I’m pretty sure I’m over analyzing things. Sometimes I wonder if I get stuck in a rut of thought opening myself to the enemy’s whispers of lies and hopelessness. Those thoughts need to be rebuked. I know too, it’s often times like this where I come to a better understanding about myself and am … Continue reading →

Lilies of the Field – William E. Barrett

Making waves in Hollywood in 1963 as a major motion picture starring Sidney Poitier and Lilia Skala, “Lilies of the Field” first appeared as a gentle novella, a triumph for author William E. Barrett. Homer Smith, a black man from South Carolina, was just honorably released from the Army and has decided to travel around the West for a while before returning home. He carefully saved his pay packets and had plenty of money for his travels, but every so often the urge to work strikes him and he stops for a while to do odd jobs. He’s never seen … Continue reading →

A Place Called Morning — Ann Tatlock

At the risk of making the other books I’ve reviewed recently feel unappreciated, I must start this blog by saying that “A Place Called Morning” is one of the best novels I’ve read this year. This is only Ann Tatlock’s second novel, but she writes like a seasoned professional with many, many books under her belt. Mae Demaray is a devoted mother and grandmother. A young widow, she turned her attention to her children and showers them with the love and affection she felt growing up. She volunteers at the children’s hospital, is active in her church’s auxiliaries, and tends … Continue reading →