Posts by JamesEKerns
One-Upmanship
My boys are competitors. They also enjoy practical jokes. They grew up competing with one another, harassing one another, and loving one another;
Read MoreNo Funeral
I look forward to the Millennium. I look forward to the Lord’s second coming when the earth will be cleansed of all unrighteousness,
Read MoreI Wish I Had Said That
Most of us are slow on the repartee. Those of us who have that problem could benefit by storing in our minds appropriate responses to be offered when opportunities present themselves.
Read MoreMy Father’s Day and Mine
“When my father was a young lad on the farm out west of Eugene he followed his father and four older brothers around the wheat field. Each carried a short steel sickle, and as the wheat fell from the blade, it fell onto the reaper’s left arm; and when a sizable bundle had accumulated, the reaper bound it together with a wisp of the newly cut straw, dropped it in the stubble and swung his blade to start another bundle. Around and around the field, each reaper cutting right at the heels of the man next before him.
Read MoreBlessings Unbounded
I want to tell you how the temple has blessed my life.
As a convert to the Church it has been my privilege to seek out my ancestors and to see that their temple work is done.
Temples and Ordinances
I don’t believe that any of us can appreciate or begin to comprehend the full significance of the monumental blessing that it is to have temples.
Read More100 Goals
When he was a young man, a BYU professor named Stacy T. Taniguchi made a list of 100 things that he wanted to accomplish in life.
Read MoreWorshiping the Lord
What does it mean to worship the Lord?
The shepherds came seeking and to adore Him.
The Old Headlight
I just awoke from a dream which has a good enough moral that it deserves recording. In the dream I was given a last-minute assignment to give a talk to a group of people.
Read MoreJoseph Smith, The Prophet
I was born in 1947, just over 100 years after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I didn’t know him in life, and I never knew anything about him for the first 20 years of my life
Read MoreMis-hearing and Mis-speaking
Mis-speaking and mis-hearing are two problems that everyone has, but especially so when you get older.
Read MoreThoughts Upon a Grandchild
Life and creation are miracles
That I have contemplated
School Bus
“Marjorie, look! There’s a sign that says that the Middleton School District wants to hire you to be a school bus driver.”
Read MoreWrought Upon
Some people get “wrought up” about things. As I started another reading of the Book of Mormon several days ago, I noticed a related phrase I’d never tuned into before,
Read MoreWhy Did We Go?
Journal entry, Sunday, 28 October 2018
Friday morning we suddenly decided to go to Rexburg to see Eli, Isaac, Ila, and Briton.
Pay Attention!
My mother once went into a car dealership to buy a pickup. She had the money in her purse and was ready to pay in full for the vehicle.
Read MoreSalamanders
Marjorie went out to feed the cat yesterday, and immediately came back in to tell me to go look at what was in Aspen’s dish.
Read MoreA Drop In Eternity
“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14)
Read MorePresident Nelson
We were privileged on 16 September 2018 to attend a special gathering of Latter-day Saints in the Safeco Stadium in Seattle where President Henry B. Eyring
Read MoreSwallows
Yesterday we drove down to Haines looking for swallows. We found just two dozen down at Delepierre’s corner. Here at our house there is one pair left.
Read MoreThe Art of Bucking Bales
Boyd Hill is my good friend. I’ve worked with him at both the Boise and the Meridian Temples. He is a retired Idaho legislator and farmer.
Read MoreAbraham Lincoln and the Civil War
Brother Giles asked me to prepare a lesson on Abraham Lincoln, obviously a follow-up to the lesson he gave on George Washington.
Read MoreIf I Had It To Do Over Again
I am a retired cattle rancher. I miss my cows. I don’t miss making the hay to feed them, and I don’t miss broken-down hay equipment, and I don’t miss irrigating, but I miss my cows.
Read MoreJames’ Fables – The Turtle on the Post
There was once a turtle perched upon a post. He thought it the grandest thing ever. He could see for miles, and was above the mud and the sordid things where he’d spent his life.
Read MoreThe Plan of Deliverance
Alma, interestingly, in just two chapters of his book, uses five different names for God’s plan. He calls it “the plan of restoration” in Alma 41:2
Read MoreInflation
Three or four stories about real estate and inflation: In 1967 Jim Hunt bought a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house in Boise for $16,500.
Read MoreBorn Again
As a new member of the Church I had just come from darkness to light, from depression to joy, from ignorance to knowledge,
Read MoreRescued From Hell
On Monday 23 June 2018 twelve boys on a soccer team in Thailand entered a cave with their 25-year-old coach.
Read MoreA Sledgehammer and a Gong
Two or three weeks ago David Huntsman asked me to take his son, Raul, to dialysis on this date. (Saturday, 14 July 2018).
Read MoreEnvironment
As I prayed this morning, waiting for the sunrise, I thanked my Father in heaven for the beauties with which I’m surrounded.
Read MoreFollow the Prophet
Listening to prophets and paying heed to their counsels can save us physically as well as spiritually.
Read MoreMurmuration
I have learned a new word. Murmuration is the astonishing display of aerobatics of thousands of starlings flying in perfect synchronization.
Read MoreNovel Ways of Communicating
It’s a fun and clever thing to be able to openly say and do things which are perfectly plain and understandable to those who are properly indoctrinated,
Read MoreA Single-engine Prop, or a Jet?
While serving our mission in Vanuatu we lived on the largest of the nation’s 83 islands. We had supervisory responsibilities for it and for several outlying islands, including Ambae.
Read MoreA Few Quarter Notes
Marjorie just found a piece of music that she hasn’t been able to find for a long time. She’s thrilled. It is “Toccata” by Pietro Domenico Paradisi.
Read MorePromised Lands
Promised lands aren’t what they’re cracked up to be. Utopias don’t come ready-made. We have to create them.
Read MoreMy Articles of Faith
My missionary grandson, Caden, sent a picture of a sign on the front of a church in Texas which was a statement of their beliefs.
Read MoreThe Treasure That Is the Book of Mormon
Last April President Thomas S. Monson gave his last talk to the Church. It was a plea to the members to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day.
Read MoreDaughter’s Laughter
I’ll tell you the thing that I’m after
Is to know how to pronounce “aughter,”
Awkward Christmas Moments
Eli had work to complete with his lab partner at BYU-Idaho. The lab partner and his wife managed an apartment complex.
Read MoreMore Thoughts on Covenants
This thought came to me during prayer last night: The greatest and most important thing we can do with our lives is to make and keep covenants.
Read MoreChrist’s Birth
Joseph was there to protect;
Mary was there to nurture;
The shepherds came to behold;
Erratics
I have finished reading a book on geology, and have some thoughts on “erratics.” Erratics are “wandering rocks,” or rocks out of place.
Read MoreCovenants
Covenants: Covenants are:
Keep me safe A safety belt
Blessed by the Spirit
In the last 50 years as I’ve given blessings to the sick and set people apart in their callings, I have given hundreds, and probably a thousand or more priesthood blessings.
Read MoreIf You’re Looking, You’ll Find It
At 5:15 this morning Venus rose. Exactly an hour and a half later the sun rose. Each clear morning finds me sitting on the couch and watching.
Read MoreEverything Is Still
Everything outside on this clear October morning is still. Yet there is movement. I’m astonished at Venus’ progress up the sky.
Read MoreThank Goodness for Climate Change
The mountain man, Jim Bridger, met with Brigham Young on 28 June 1847 as the Saints were headed to the Rocky Mountains.
Read MoreMy Ancestors and The Mormons
Teaching a Primary class about the exodus of the Saints from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters, I realized that the Saints went right by Osceola, Iowa where many of my ancestors settled.
Read MoreThe Wonder of the Gospels
A certain man sat in his quiet house reading the gospels. He’d read them all before, but this time it was as if he was hearing the stories for the first time.
Read More