Thoughts and stories, by Pal

  This is one of the best articles I've read for quite a while! The Best Way to Motivate the Rebellious is to Get Out of God’s Way  By  Joseph Grenny  · June 29, 2022 The following is part 5 of a 5-part series. To read the previous part,  CLICK HERE . It was a cold and snowy December night in Utah. Seth was over eighteen at this point and had been living on his own for some time. This particular night he was staying with us. Three days before, he had begged for help to get off drugs. He had promised to do anything so he could. I told him—as we always did—that we would only help if we believed what we were doing would truly help. We were unwilling to rob him of the consequences of his choices. I explained we did not believe it was loving to keep someone from learning. But I added—as we always did—that if he was asking for help to turn his life around, there was nothing we would withhold. He assured me that turning his life around was the goal. I explained it woul...

I believe we all need to remember this important counsel!   Want Stress Relief? Change Your Questions By  Darla Isackson  · October 8, 2020 Editor’s Note: Beloved Meridian author Darla Isackson recently passed away. We will continue to share her wonderful insights here periodically. I want to tell you a poignant story I heard first-person from a father I admire and respect. Years ago he gave me permission to share it, but I’ll protect his privacy at this point by changing the father’s name in the story to Brother White and his son’s to Jared. God Does Not Give Us Power to Control Our Children, but to Control Ourselves Previous to the prayer scene I share below, Brother White had spent several miserable years trying to control his rebellious drug-addicted son’s behavior–and had utterly failed. He said All pride was gone; all self-assurance and power were gone. I was broken, beaten and I could not carry on another step. My son was being destroyed and it seemed that God woul...

I really love the writings of this dear lady, who had many problems in her life! How the Refiner’s Fire Purifies Our Beliefs By  Darla Isackson  · September 7, 2020 Editor’s Note: Beloved Meridian author Darla Isackson recently passed away. We will continue to share her wonderful insights here periodically. We can lean on the following words from the 4 th  verse of “How Firm a Foundation”: When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine. What flames of the refiner’s fire are you currently dealing with? Wayward children, financial reverses, disease, aging? Almost twelve years ago the suicide of my son was that kind of refiner’s fire for me. No event in my life has ever caused me to re-think what I believe as much as that one. As a practicing, believing Latter-day Saint, my identity was intertwined with “forever family” goals and “I am a c...

The Second Reason Socialism is The Anti-Agency By  Gary C. Lawrence  · August 23, 2020 The first reason,  as discussed last time , is excessive government control – control, if not outright ownership, of the means of production; a centrally planned economy; and wage and price controls.  By their very natures, all diminish individual choice and freedom.  The second reason, out of the seven we will discuss in coming weeks, has to do with wealth.  Socialism’s goal is a more equal distribution of wealth.  I submit such efforts stifle the incentive to work and run counter to agency as a commandment to act and do. Socialists suppose wealth to be a self-existing and finite commodity.  So for someone to have more means others have less.  What could be more fair, the thinking goes, than to make sure everyone has an equal slice of that miraculous pie and no one goes hungry? Oh, the things that go wrong. More t...

This was published on July 30, 2020, and I missed seeing it!  I'll publish this today in my blog, and tomorrow I'll post the followup article. Last week we had the Democratic convention, and this week the Republican convention, in the United States of America.  It is really on our minds today! Why Socialism is The Anti-Agency By  Gary C. Lawrence  · July 30, 2020 In my previous column, I related the story of Mikhail Gorbachev asking Margaret Thatcher who in the UK economy tells producers how much to charge.  It never occurred to him, or to socialists in general, that pricing can be left to the seller and the buyer – to supply and demand – to hammer out a mutually agreeable price.  Nope. Government has to be involved, socialist thinking goes.  If a third party such as government gets involved in what should be a two-party dance, you can be sure that one party will get a better deal than the other party.  Or tha...

This article is rather long, but it's all good!  So if you have to read part one time and then the rest later to read it all, you will be glad you did!    Seeking and Receiving Family Revelation By  Richard and Linda Eyre  and  Saydi Eyre Shumway  · April 29, 2020 Editor’s Note:  New York Times #1 Bestselling Authors Richard and Linda Eyre join forces with their daughter Saydi (an “in the trenches” mother of four young children) to produce this series on the why-tos and the how-tos of receiving the Direct-Stewardship inspiration, guidance, and revelation we need to create strong and righteous families in this difficult world.  This is article 2 in a multi-part weekly series which will run here in Meridian every Tuesday. ( Click  here  to read article 1 ) In today’s turbulent world, and with the challenge of home centered Gospel teaching, parents and grandparents need personal family revelation more tha...