Presidency Message -- January

Dear Sisters:

We hope that the Christmas season found you surrounded by family and friends and that His spirit was felt in great abundance as you celebrated His birth.

As I was reading this week's church news, the article entitled “Christmas is Always Near” caught my eye and I wanted to share a few thoughts from it with you all.

           

“On that first Christmas, the angels sang, “Peace on earth, good will to men.”  The peace Christ brought, and still brings, was not intended for just one silent night and one glorious day.

            

President David O. McKay said: “At Christmastime, more than at any other, we think of others and try to express either in word or deed our desire to make others happy.  Herein lies the secret of true happiness.  ‘He that will lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s shall find it,’ is sound philosophy, which the true Christmas spirit helps us to understand.”

            

These thoughts of CHRISTMAS AS A YEAR-LONG EVENT have been expressed:

                                         

Christmas is not a day or a season,

but a condition of heart and mind.

If we love our neighbors as ourselves;

If in our riches we are poor in spirit

And in our poverty we are rich in grace;

If our charity vaunteth not itself,

But suffereth long and is kind;

If when our brother asks for a loaf,

We give ours instead;

If each day dawns in opportunity

And sets in achievement

however small;

Then every day is Christ’s day &
Christmas is always near.

Poem by John Wallingford; quoted by President Howard W. Hunter 1993

As we begin a new year, may we keep and magnify the love, peace, charity and joy in our hearts that we have felt during the past few weeks, for it truly does embody the spirit and the work of Relief Society as well.

With much love,

Sister Lisa Hunt

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