Welcome.

There is an absolutely celestial couple in our ward; they are mortal angels. They fly on the wings of love. Their faith in Christ gives them power to ascend, and everywhere they go, they bless countless lives.

Even now they have, arms wide open, welcomed refugees from Ukraine to live in their basement as they become accustomed to a new land and language.

They had several children of their own and adopted some more. With love, they fostered a great many.

They serve faithfully and whole-heartedly wherever they are called.

The wife is an incredibly talented musician, put one of my grandma’s poems to music in a couple of days, was Miss Idaho in the 1970’s I think it was, and plays the organ and piano with unmatched skill. She inspires us all.

The husband is a gifted counselor. He is known all over the valley for his compassion and help to those who are suffering in any mental or emotional way. I have heard from countless people of his professional goodness with not charging them a dime for services rendered, for getting them the help they needed, for his caring, kind, and accommodating disposition.

They are saints of the Most High.

And the handiwork of God – in other words, people – are their priority.

In 2012 while serving as mission president and wife in Tennessee, the wife unexpectedly suffered two strokes and one heart attack. After heart surgery and brain surgery, she spent 37 days in the ICU. Seventeen different doctors told her husband she was a lost cause and that he should unplug the machines and let her die. He told them he was a praying man and that he hadn’t received that revelation for himself.

And so he hung on.

To his faith.

And to her.

Seventeen times he said no.  

Instead, he pressed forward, setting up his mission office in the ICU, and there he worked for God while his wife lay unresponsive in a coma for many days. Family members and missionaries came to be inspired by her courage, grit, and faith. They sang to her, even though she didn’t stir. They clung to each other and to God who led them along – one song at a time.

On Christmas Eve, they filled the hospital waiting room.

Her husband’s hand often reached for hers.

And then one miraculous day, she awoke.

The miracle for which they had prayed came to them.

She was back but did not know the names of her children, could not speak, could not move herself, and did not know how to play her beloved music.

And so they began – hospital crews, family, missionaries, and babies – to remind her, to help her relearn. Families placed babies on her lap as she looked straight ahead, nearly lifeless. They sang to her, encouraged and praised her. They put a keyboard on her lap and placed her hands on it. She slowly remembered and began to press the keys.

The music came.

She began to relearn everything. She sat in a chair again for the first time. She took her first step again. “Happy Birthday” tunes rang from her keyboard.

After more than 70 days in the hospital and in rehab, she finally came home.

Two weeks later, she was teaching young women how to lead music.

She pressed forward relearning everything.

During that time, she wrote on an index card: “…I am a mother, a teacher, a student and a friend. I am also a Mormon. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.”

And then the day came that she could put her badge on again, and she wore it with humble joy as one who had conquered through Jesus Christ, her Lord. She stood, as mission president wife, and told those missionaries to live with “high integrity.”

Indeed she had.

Indeed she does.

I introduced my mom to her via the phone, because she had, after all, served our family by putting grandma’s poem to music, and my mom wanted to thank her herself.

I shared with my mom the video the family had put together of her recovery, and my mom wrote of it: “[She] is a miracle, and she glorified God through it all.”

Couldn’t agree more.

I’ve been thinking about that: glorifying God.

We know it is God’s work and His great glory “to bring to pass” our immortality and eventual exaltation! (Moses 1:39) What a noble godly quest! That is His paramount goal, the intent behind His everything.

Profound really.

If He is so invested in us, what about our investment in Him, in glorifying Him.

How are we to do it?

It has to start with our willingness to utter the same phrase our Redeemer once did: “…Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42) The beginning of glorifying God is found in the submission of our will to His perfect knowledge and plan for our lives. This form of praise and worship keeps us in our rightful place as child and does not overlook or displace our Father’s omnipotence.

Glorifying God is trusting Him when we don’t have all the answers, when they are slow to come or when they never come in this mortal life.

Glorifying God is believing He knows best when it feels the worst.

Glorifying God is loving others as He loves us: mercifully, kindly, consistently, unconditionally.

Glorifying God is striving for a holy walk. Walking imperfectly but fully focused on the Perfect One.

Glorifying God is devotedly (and with great preparedness and sincerity) making and keeping sacred and stretching covenants.

Glorifying God is finding joy in the journey, in our redemption, in the gift of His precious Son.

Glorifying God is “infus[ing] daily living with the sacred – to rejoice in daily bread amidst this world’s thistles and thorns.” (Elder Gong, “Holiness to the Lord in Everyday Life,” General Conference, 2024)

Glorifying God is to speak of God, to testify of Jesus, to proclaim truth, to stand for right, to defend all that is sacred and precious, to invite others to “come and see” for themselves.

Glorifying God is to pull open temple doors and linger inside to ponder and pray.

Glorifying God is to develop, use, and magnify the talents, skills, and abilities with which He has blessed us.

Glorifying God is to overcome and become.

Glorifying God is to keep trying, to make the effort towards holy, happy, and heaven every day.

It is to come back as it were, like this good woman of whom I have written, with a new lease on life because of our great life giver.

It is to live well on earth, to rejoice in the forthcoming day of glory when Jesus will return, and then in due time, take our places in celestial realms where it will be more glorious than we can now imagine.

Unto all the world: Let us glorify God!