My Post-Food Coma Obligatory Christmas Blog Post

Its Christmas Day. I'm sitting on my couch with my favorite wife and dog next to me watching Elf! (which has since become the Doctor Who Christmas Special). They're my favorite because they're mine. I'm sure many of you have a favorite wife and dog as well. We just returned from a friend's house where we chit chatted all day while our host cooked up an extreme Christmas Dinner, which filled our bellies much like one fills a size 6 shoe with a size 10 foot.

This Christmas season really gave us a chance to look at the season of Christmas, and refocus our Christmas spirit. We had spent most of our money on things we didn't need, like rent, electricity, food, and student loans, so didn't have much money for the things we need, like iPads, HD TVs, and sideline Denver Bronco's season tickets. Now, Christmas isn't about money. We all know that. Its all over the Ensign every year, and I'm sure somebody in your ward (church congregation) took up a good 5 minutes of your Sunday School nap to rant about the evils of Christmas consumerism.

However, Christmas really isn't the same when you're broke, and let me tell you why. When it comes down to it, Christmas is about giving, and serving. We give to those we love because of the happiness it brings them. We give because Jesus gave, and he is our examplar. And who doesn't love seeing the smile on their favorite wife's face when she opens a small box of designer rocks, or the look on their child's face at the sight of a brand new digital distraction? When you're broke, you miss out on the anticipation and excitement of brand new toys. Being broke on Christmas is like missing an opportunity to serve. You miss out on an opportunity to do as Christ would have done (though I'm sure he wouldn't buy your child the new iSomething.)

So, we had a choice to make. We could mope around for Christmas, or we could get into the Christmas spirit. So we forced it on ourselves. We took late night (9pm for old married couples) car rides to look at Christmas lights while listening to the local jazz station's Christmas program. We put up Christmas lights on the back patio, and got out our little tiny Christmas tree. We bought a few new shirts, and wrapped them up in last years wrapping paper. We watched some Christmas movies, drank some hot cocoa, and snuggled under the big red fleece blanket with our favorite dog between us. To top it off, we went caroling with the sister missionaries to the bishop, some random ward (church) families, and, by accident, a non-member family we'd never met.

In all, its been a good Christmas, partially because my in-laws mailed me a very nice Bronco's scarf, but mostly because I spent the Christmas season with my favorite wife, doing what we could to bring each other happiness, and bringing happiness to our ward family.

Quiet in Chaos

Sometimes we need to stop and listen

At home alone today, I found myself annoyed. It's muggy today, and I've had a growing headache, but really, it was just too loud. What was too loud? To be honest, the television. I was bored, so busied myself with a late 80's Keanu Reeves, and Alex Winter movie that has the power to numb the mind like no other movie in existence, except maybe it's sequel. Don't get me wrong now, it was an excellent time, but my mood was growing more bogus by the minute. After the movie I kept up the mind numbing going for another 20 minutes before I just turned it off. I needed something else. What was it?

Silence!

Silence is golden they say, and it's true. Man did not evolve in the constant stimuli of the Vegas Strip. No, man evolved in the quiet of forests, deserts, and plains. Even just a couple hundred years ago, your ancestors came home most nights to a dinner lit by the setting sun, and a few oil lamps if they could afford them. The family busied themselves with chores to ready themselves for the coming day, then lay down next to a coal stove with the rest of the family for the night, having prayed, and read a few words of scripture as a family. If that wasn't your family a couple hundred years ago, then go back a few hundred more.

The point of the story is that we are not meant to live with constant stimuli, yet we do. Some of us don't have a choice in the matter, but most of us do. Most of us can have silence, but choose not to. Why? Have we forgotten what our ancestors had to learn centuries before us; To live with their own thoughts? Maybe so. This is why so many of us can't sleep at night, and why all our best thoughts come to us in the shower. Those few moments of silence we find are the only times our brains have to think for themselves!

It's also the only time that the Holy Ghost isn't competing for our attention. Yes, these are the moments that we can allow God to speak to us, and are the perfect times for prayer, and contemplation.

The Manhattan Temple: Quiet among chaos

I also want to suggest another place to find that much needed silence. That is, the Temple of the Lord. When we enter the Temple we are asked to turn off our phones, and other devices. This isn't only for the sake of others, but for us, to foster a spirit of reverence, meditation, and contemplation within ourselves. Throughout most of the Temple we whisper when we speak, and in most cases, we don't speak at all.

My favorite room in the Temple is the Celestial room. For those who don't know, the Celestial room is a large room, beautifully, yet simply decorated. This is the room that, after making covenants with the Lord, we (Latter-day Saints) take time to sit, pray, meditate, and contemplate. This is a special place, set apart from the world. Temples are mostly built from granite, and the walls are all about 3 feet thick, so the silence of the celestial room, where nigh a whisper is heard, is a profound silence, even when nestled in snugly next to a 6 lane interstate.

This silence gives us an opportunity unlike any other to commune with the Holy Spirit. The Temple is God's house. The Holy Spirit is strong in his house. Compounded with almost complete silence, the silence truly does become profound. It is in the silence of God's Holy House that the Spirit can reveal God's deepest secrets, and desires for us. It is here that many of often come to contemplate big decisions, or come for confirmation of spiritual truths. It is in his Holy House that so many Latter-Day Saints come to simply feel that they have come home to their loving Father.

If you can, I encourage you to go to the Temple, and commune with your Heavenly Father. Linger longer in the Celestial Room, with the intent of embracing the silence, and letting the Lord's Spirit settle into your heart there. Give the Lord the time you would give an old friend you're meeting for brunch at a quiet diner downtown, after all, going to the Temple is a lot like meeting an old friend for brunch in a quiet diner downtown.

If you can't go the Temple, I encourage you to strive to do so. Whether you need some long talks with your bishop, or have yet to enter the waters of Baptism, you will be blessed for every effort in getting into the Lord's Holy House.