In a Grove of Aspens
Pedigree Chart of Marjorie Shannon Hunt
Pedigree Chart of Marjorie Shannon Hunt
Read MorePedigree Chart of James E. Kerns
Pedigree Chart of James E. Kerns
Read MoreThe Ancestry of James E. Kerns
My ancestors emigrated from the various countries of Europe. They spoke English, Irish, Scotch, Dutch, German and French. Their languages demonstrate their different backgrounds, but little more can be said which would show one family as being very diverse from another.
Read MoreMotherhood
Every time I read the Book of Mormon I pause on a particular verse which I find remarkable. The verse is remarkable in and of itself, but even more so in what it doesn’t say. Yesterday, as I worked, I pondered on what lay behind that verse.
Read MoreSex
The world is awash in sex. We’re inundated with sexual images all around us. In all of world history there has never been such a preoccupation. We’re all affected by this flood, and too many church members are being swept up in it. We’re all vulnerable, and must be constantly on guard, or we’ll be caught in the net and be found inheriting a lesser kingdom in the Day of Judgment.
Read MoreMusic
Margie’s music is one of the things that originally attracted me to her. On one occasion I found myself in a car with Margie and our friend, Jim Fuller, on our way home from a party at the cabin of Margie’s friend up at McEwen. Margie had her ukulele. All the way back to Baker she sang and played her ukulele. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. If it wasn’t then that I fell in love with her, that evening was certainly a contributing factor.
Read MoreListening for the Spirit
John Burroughs, the naturalist, was once walking through a busy city park when he heard the beautiful song of a bird. He stopped to listen. As he did so he noticed that none of his companions nor anyone around him had heard it. He took a coin from his pocket and tossed it in the air. When it hit the pavement with a metallic ring, every head turned. That was a sound to which their ears were attuned.
Read MoreMarriage
Nowhere are kindness and love more important than between husband and wife. I find it distressing and unfathomable that so many marriages end up in divorces with the partners hating one another. It doesn’t have to be that way. It shouldn’t be that way. The man and wife should be best friends.
Read MoreKindness
The very basis for all of Jesus’ teachings may be summed up in His oft-repeated admonition to “love one another.”
We accomplish this through kindness. The measure of a person, and the measure of his Christianity, if you will, lies in how he treats others.
Rainbows
The very, very most difficult time of my life lasted from September 1965 through October 1966.
I graduated from high school in May 1965, and went off to college at Oregon State University in September. I was very homesick. Then the rains set in. Day after day the rains came down. It was dark and gloomy. I never, ever saw the sun. Corvallis set a new record that year with 120 straight days of rain.
Adversity
The best lessons of life are the hard ones. We’d like to avoid them entirely, but they’re one of the most basic reasons we’re here. The Lord told Joseph Smith to “be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many.” (D&C 24:8). Paul, recognizing the value of trials said that he gloried in tribulations. (Romans 5:3). Lehi told his son, Jacob, that the Lord would consecrate his afflictions for his gain. (2 Ne. 2:2). To Lehi’s statement I add “if we resist the urge to complain.”
Read MoreFamily and Stay-at-Home Mothers
In preparing for a talk that I was to give in stake conference some years ago, I asked each of my children, “What makes our family what it is?” Each had a different answer.
“It’s because we live on a farm.”
“It’s because we have no television.”
Proclaiming the Gospel
In the middle of the night several nights ago, my mind must have been dwelling upon this writing project and the question of how best to spend one’s time. My mind surfaced just long enough for the Spirit to speak one word and to embed it in my thinking. That word was “Proclaim.”
Read MoreSolitude
There’s nothing wrong with doing things just for ourselves. Indeed, a daily quiet time and some periods of solitude are necessities for me. One of the big problems with people in the world today is that they spend their time feeding their bodies and their passions, and completely neglect their spirits. Our bodies are designed to cry out for attention, so naturally we’re constantly busy providing them with food, warmth, comforts, and stimuli.
Read MoreService
Knowing what is really important in life has the effect of enabling one to quickly determine how time can best be used. With dozens of things clamoring for our attention at any given moment, we are constantly in a position of having to choose the one to which we’ll devote our efforts.
Read MorePriesthood Line of Authority
The Priesthood line of authority of James Elwin Kerns
Read MoreCovenants
What is important?
This is an easy question to answer. There are only two things of supreme importance in the universe. Everything else is merely interesting, and is collateral to the other two. One is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the other is family. The two are inseparably connected by covenants.
The purpose of the whole gospel plan is to make families eternal. Everything that we do in the Church, in every calling, has one basic, ultimate objective: That is to point individuals toward the temple and its crowning ordinances—sealings.
Read MoreAspens
One of the instructional films used at the temple concludes with our father, Adam, exhorting us, his children, about what is truly important. He does it while standing in a grove of aspens.
As a little boy, one of my very favorite places to play was in a grove of aspens which occupied a narrow strip of land between Markle’s road and the irrigation ditch just below the site where my father eventually built his last house. The grove was thick—so thick that you couldn’t see through it. Most of the trees were saplings less than 3 inches in diameter. They were small enough that I, a small boy, could cut them down to make “logs” for the little, hidden cabin that I envisioned building there in the grove.
Read MoreTable of Contents
Table of Contents of “In a Grove of Aspens”
Read MoreIllustration
Very early one morning when I had almost completed the writing of this book, I awoke with a picture in my mind. It was my first conscious thought, and came before I had even opened my eyes. The picture was a painting filled with symbolisms. My own mind didn’t create it. It was one of those things that’s given to you when you’re receptive. I got up, sketched it out, took my sketch to Heidi, and asked if she would be capable of reproducing what I’d seen in my mind. She did it exactly.
Read MoreIntroduction to “In a Grove of Aspens”
Introduction to “In a Grove of Aspens”
Read MoreIn a Grove of Aspens – Cover
Cover of “In a Grove of Aspens”
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