I am so sorry for ignoring you. I haven't meant too. I don't have much of an excuse, other than I have chosen not to write you. But I have now. I promise that I'll do better. I need to write to you more often. I need solace in my thoughts and you always have helped me.
For Church, given that I'm the Choir director, I created a Christmas program. Usually the program consists of speaking and rehearsing the same story of the birth of the Savior. Normally, I am not opposed to that, but it has become to trite to me, that I felt like I needed to help others to really connect with the Savior. I feel like He is hard to relate too, given that he lived so long ago and He was perfect. No one has a standard to compare perfection too. So I gathered up testimonies of others of how they relate too Christ. Then I had the Choir learn some really great songs that really connect the listener to those testimonies. Not everyone can relate to the spoken word, but music can really strike a cord with people in a way that words do not. So here is the program, with Youtube videos of the songs that would go with it.
DIRECTIONS:
1. Read the testimonies.
2. Listen to the Songs
Above all, pray and feel the Spirit of Christmas and of Christ fill your heart!
* The names of the testimonies have been changed to protect privacy.
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Mother has always been careful
To keep me from catching a sickness.
But one thing she hopes I come down with
Is a condition called “spirit of Christmas.”
Catching the spirit of Christmas
Is nothing like catching a cold.
It makes you feel warm
And new and transformed
And leaves your heart feeling like gold.
Catching the spirit of Christmas
Is the catchingest of all that goes ’round
During this season
When there’s no greater reason
To lift those whose heads hang down.
Catching the spirit of Christmas
Won’t leave you sick in your bed.
It’ll give you the zest
To start living your best
And love others as Jesus has said.
1. Doubt seems to come to me all the time. I often feel bombarded by feeling like no matter what I do, I'm never good enough. I try really hard to be the best person. I fall short a lot. I don't like to admit it, but I do. I am trying to feel the Saviors love for me when I put my energy and faith in believing that He does love me, that I'm worth it, that He will come when I need Him most. I sometimes doubt that He has come to me in my desperate nights of despair. But I cannot deny that He has come. He hasn't always come when I called, but He has always healed my broken heart time and time again. That is what keeps me going, He has always come to me and healed me.
- Charles-
2. I'm not always sure that God wants us always to believe all the time. I mean, there is no solid proof of anything in this life. Scientific communities of the greatest minds keep coming up with new discoveries in 2017. It seems really far fetched that there is absolute truth all the time. When I think of the story of the prophet Joseph Smith, it seems just that: far fetched. Yet, each time I read the Book of Mormon, every time I bow my head in a humble manner to speak to Him, when I strive to remain clean to commune with God at church and at the Temple, I can feel this power and peace that brings me back to my faith, my hope. When I try, I mean really try, my doubts disappear and I feel Him embrace me with love. I know he hears me and helps me. I have too.
- Sara-
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