As you make your way though the halls and rooms of life, you may come to doors that are closed and won’t seem to budge. You may feel held back or unable to move forward in the direction you intended. I feel this way at times when there is something inside of me that I’ve …
Author Archives: benmortenson
He Sent Me to Heal
Jesus summed up His mission– what He was sent to do– with a scripture from Isaiah, which he read on a Sabbath in the synagogue in His hometown: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the …
Eliza’s Poem
In 1845, Eliza R. Snow wrote the words of this poem, which she titled My Father in Heaven. — O my Father, thou that dwellest In the high and glorious place, When shall I regain thy presence And again behold thy face? In thy holy habitation, Did my spirit once reside? In my first primeval …
Easter: Sunday will Come
I would like to share with you the words of Apostle Joseph B. Wirthlin, shortly after losing his wife Elisa. They had been married 65 years. He described of the pain of losing a loved one: “It gnaws at your soul.” Then he said, “I think of how dark that Friday was when Jesus Christ …
The Struggle and the Promise
The personal struggle to face questions and doubts and to gain real spiritual momentum is often a desperate battle. The personal cost is high and at times it feels the mountain looms too steep before you. Our Savior invites us to take our next few steps. If we do, we will soon notice that the …
Offroad
I was in the backseat when the wheel came off. It was spring of 2009 on a dirt road in eastern Mongolia. The problem was partly that a dozen people were packed in this minivan-sized “Mikro-bus”. But the main problem was the road from Choibalsan to Ulaanbaatar had long stretches of unpaved dirt roads, and …
His promises
For the past six months we have been studying the scriptures with a specific question: “What has God promised to do for his covenant people?” President Nelson defined the people of covenant Israel as those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives. They are “the house of Israel, even as many as …
The Stash of Chocolate
As part of my parents’ efforts to teach us kids emergency preparedness and food storage, my dad sometimes bought large boxes of food. He said that if the prediction was true that one day a bushel of wheat would be worth its weight in gold, then imagine how much a box of chocolate bars will …
Knots
This morning I woke up to my very frustrated son, who handed me a big ball of yarn tangled in knots. “Dad, can you fix this?” The yarn had been about 80 feet long, and it was clear my 8-year-old had been working on it with increasing frustration. There were a lot of tight knots. …
400th anniversary of the Mayflower
This year marks 400 years since the ship called the Mayflower sailed to Plymouth carrying the a group of pilgrims. Their journey was remarkable, and their legacy of seeking religious freedom even at great risk helped define Americans for generations. During the first year after arriving in the new land, about half of the people …
On the Path of Life... 