Finding the joy in Good Friday’s sorrow

In a letter to her husband, Joseph, Emma Hale Smith wrote, “I desire the Spirit of God to know and understand myself, that I might be able to overcome whatever of tradition or nature that would not tend to my exaltation in the eternal worlds. I desire a fruitful, active mind, that I may be able to comprehend the designs of God, when revealed through His servants without doubting.”

Author's note: I want to be clear that I am not a certified psychologist or a specialist on female adolescent development. I am one woman who is fortunate to have a job that exposes me to stories and gospel truths on a daily basis that expand my experience and knowledge. I hope some of what I can share will help others understand their place and purpose in the Church a little more fully.

Much of the happiness and unhappiness you will experience in mortality will be related to a powerful emotion—love. In the scripture quoted above, the Lord tells us that love is to characterize our relationships with each other. In the New Testament, we are even told “God is love” (1 John 4:8). It is my belief that He wants all of us to experience love in its deepest and fullest sense. On the other hand, Satan seeks to prostitute and distort love—making of it something tawdry and destructive. Many young people have been deceived by the counterfeit descriptions of love that are evident all around us. Perhaps you have known people who one day announce they are “in love” and the next that they have “fallen out of love.” You must be extremely careful also not to think of love as it is portrayed in the majority of TV sitcoms, movies, and romance novels. It has been said that there is a difference between Hollywood’s “reel love” and “real love.”

Summer has arrived, which means wedding season is in full swing once again. In order to ease the stress of finding the perfect dress for you, here are 30 beautiful and modest wedding dresses to choose from. Happy shopping!

Your teen comes home from school one day, starry-eyed and completely distracted. Uh-oh. She’s in love. How you wish you could return to the time when boys and girls yelled “Cooties!” and ran away lickety-split. Your teen’s sigh brings you back to the present. You remember what it was like to be in her shoes, but how do you deal with it from the other side?

Temples are popping up like dandelions in an untended lawn. We have the joy of living when only the most remote and economically deprived of people cannot make arrangements to visit a temple.

"It's according to divine law," President Nelson said of his work as a cardiothoracic surgeon. "I then learned indeed what I learned in Sunday School: Whenever you receive a blessing from God, it's because of obedience to the law upon which it is predicated."

Sister Cristina B. Franco, the second counselor in the Primary general presidency, shared a video called "Love in Our Hearts" on her Facebook on how our differences allow us to learn from and strengthen each other.

While the Lord’s power to miraculously heal physical infirmities is experienced by thousands, sometimes we or our loved ones are not physically healed. We have faith, we pray with real intent, we humble ourselves, we seek priesthood blessings, we place names on temple rolls, but the malady remains. We wonder: “Why didn’t the healing blessing work? Did I not have enough faith? Does God not love me as he loves others he has healed? Have I done something wrong?” I have asked myself similar questions in some of the unhealed physical problems I have personally experienced or seen loved ones endure. Why does he sometimes not heal?