Tuesday, December 14, 2010

2 Nephi 25-27
Nancy Baird - December 14, 2010

"Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long'
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallowed and so gracious is that time."
Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1.i.158-64.


"As winter deepens, the loss of light saps spirit from even the sturdiest souls. It is a critical time of year - the earth has tilted as far as it will go in its orbit and sent the bright winter stars sliding over the western horizon. Days are short; the midday sun is low and weak. It is easy to feel despair, or at least a nagging uneasiness in the waning light. Could not day disappear altogether and we be left in darkness? Each morning...I impatiently count down the days to the moment when the planet makes its final great arc downward and joyously tilts back - to the winter solstice...the war with darkness is once more won and again the earth turns its beautiful, flawed face from death.
 Nancy Hanks Baird, "The Bundle of Life," Every Good Thing, Talks from the 1997 BYU Women's Conference, pp.13-18.




Two stories of healing read from:
Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., pp.242-244.


"The ordinary, comfortable, even safe life has been interrupted. Things are not what were hoped for; they are not what was planned for. God has interrupted, pushing aside the ordinary to conceive something out of ordinary. We may not understand it, and we may not be able to manage it. What can we do? We can receive it, as frightening as that sounds. And if we read the Christmas story right, this out-of-the-ordinary interruption will prove more valuable that anything we could ever plan......
Once a Savior is born in the world, you can't cradle Him to your breast without discovering that He is dragging the whole world into your heart as well.
So let us not get too sentimental about what is happening in the manger at our Christmas celebrations. The reason Christ was born among us was to change the world. The reason His arrival has interrupted your life is to call you to His work..."
"How Shall This Be?" Jane Wise, Clark Memorandum (BYU Law School), Fall, 2010, pp.22-23.


"We live our lives in the eye of God, and not at the periphery but at the center of His vision."
M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled, p.311.


"The French are a frugal people who have learned to give so that the recipient feels good in receiving. Sidney Harris says: One of the loveliest examples is a note that Corot the painter sent to his friend Daumier who was nearly blind and facing eviction on his 65th birthday: ' Friend, I have a little house at Valmondois which I could not for the life of me think what to do with. Suddenly I thought to give it to you. Liking the idea I have had your ownership legally confirmed. I had no idea of doing you a good turn. The whole scheme was carried out to annoy your landlord. Ever yours, Corot.' And Daumier wrote gratefully in reply: 'You are the only man from whom I could take such a present and not feel humiliated.'"
from Nancy Baird's files.


"With the birth of the Babe in Bethlehem, there emerged a great endowment, a power stronger than weapons, a wealth more lasting than the coins of Caesar...His glorious gospel reshaped the thinking of the world."
President Thomas Monson, Church News, 2001


2 Nephi 25-27 - Nancy Baird - December 14, 2010 (Audio)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

2 Nephi 17-24
Diane Adair - December 7, 2010

DVD viewed during class - "New Testament DVD Presentations 1-15; #5 The Nativity, #12 To this End Was I Born

2 Nephi 17-24 - Diane Adair - December 7, 2010 (Audio)