Recently I was talking with a friend who is a faithful saint. He expressed his frustration that we sometimes conflate our religion and our politics. We sometimes act as if a faithful member of the Church could have only one … Read more
Author: H. Wallace Goddard
Wally Goddard is a retired professor of Family Life having served in Arkansas and Alabama. He developed programs on personal well-being, marriage, and parenting. He is well known for his many creative family programs, including The Marriage Garden, The Parenting Journey, and Blueprint for Happiness. Wally has authored or co-authored several books including Between Parent and Child, The Soft-Spoken Parent, and Drawing Heaven into Your Marriage. He has been recognized by his colleagues with several awards including the Outstanding Family Life Educator Award. Wally and his wife, Nancy, have three adult children, fourteen grandchildren, and have cared for many foster children over the years. Wally describes Nancy as the finest human being he has ever known.
THE SECRET TO SHOWING LOVE EFFECTIVELY
Dave Barry ironically observed that “Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the past 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.”… Read more
GOD’S UNEXPECTED (AND UNDER-APPRECIATED) PURPOSE IN MARRIAGE
The requirements for a successful date include having bathed within the previous 24 hours and being agreeable (naturally or artificially). Usually some amount of cash is also required. It’s really not too hard. When two freshly-washed and agreeable people spend … Read more
THE LAW IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH
We read a familiar scripture in priesthood meeting:
… Read moreThere is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated–And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to
The Struggle Between Two Truths
We Latter-day Saints have an interesting tension in two elements of our world view:
1. We prize self-sufficiency. We store food and teach people to care for themselves. This fundamental principle is one of the reasons that LDS have often … Read more
GOD DRAGGED BEFORE ANOTHER EARTHLY TRIBUNAL
A study in Nature magazine reported that the number of scientists who believe in a personal God has diminished over recent decades. In a new book, Duke University philosophy professor Owen Flanagan (2002) has stated the atheistic conclusion rather expansively: … Read more
Newton’s Third Law
Newton’s third law of motion teaches us that every action has an opposite and equal reaction. I suspect that his law applies to human relationships just as much as rolling rocks. Every action evokes a reaction. When we attack someone, … Read more
SELF-MASTERY
I have received permission to share the following interchange. I share it with the hope that it might stir some thinking and sharing.
————————————————————
Dear Wally,
Here’s another notion we have in the Church that troubles me – Self Mastery. … Read more
SIMPLE BLESSINGS
Every once in a while I am amazed by some simple blessing in our lives. For example, it is amazing to me that we can jump into our cars and travel in climate-controlled, music-filled comfort to our destinations with speed … Read more
The Perils of Excellence
If we were to create a caricature of the typical American commencement address, it would entail Famous Person X coming to say to a group of distracted students: “Take this one virtue (for which I am duly famous) and make … Read more