Author Archives: Rebekah Richards

About Rebekah Richards

Born before the internet age, I recall reading my way through the set of encyclopedias in my parents home. In addition to non fiction, I also enjoy a good novel and love the written word. Music was a staple in my childhood home, I love to sing and often sing too loud. When I was 11 years old I went with my grandma and dad to visit Grandma's family in West Virginia where they had lived for generations. I fell in love with "my" people and have spent a lifetime learning their stories. I graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in History and am passionate about people and their stories, those who have paved the way for the life we live, those who impact our lives daily and those whose lives our decisions will affect. I am the sister to six wonderful siblings, the wife of my best friend and the mother to four very above average children. Most of all I find deep hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ and want to follow Him.

Getting Strong

Leave a reply

The “Rocky” movies that spanned my childhood were a favorite for my family.  We all cheered for and saw ourselves in the story of an underdog fighter taking on the undisputed champion without the help of premier coaching, facilities or talent that would indicate success.  He grew through determination, effort and grit. On one occasion, our family rented an executive meeting space in a Salt Lake hotel where we met our cousins, hunkered down in front of a television wheeled in on a cart, and watched Rocky I, II, and III in succession cheering for every gain together.  

Training in a dimly lit ring with seasoned but unheralded coaches, running the streets of Philadelphia and hitting sides of beef in a warehouse, “Rocky” gained endurance and strength while the music plays, “Trying hard now, It’s so hard now,…Getting strong now, Won’t be long now, Getting strong now.”  “Getting strong” wasn’t easy or conventional and the frames show the time lapse of his increasing capacity as he consistently pushes his body beyond its ability until his opportunity in the ring comes.  That opportunity is not the end of the effort, pain or endurance and in the first movie fifteen rounds in the ring does not result in the defeat of his opponent, but we cheered as though it was a victory. He did what no one thought he could do, he had become more than he had ever been.  

We too can be changed step by step, effort after effort when we consistently and continuously exercise our faith that the Lord can and will guide us, tutor us, coach us and strengthen us.   “The Lord understands our mortal weakness…He also knows of our great potential…. Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life…[and] will help you turn challenges into unparalleled growth and opportunity.”  (President Russell M. Nelson, April 2021)

We can be changed, we can become so much more, we can become like Him.

Fitly Framed

Leave a reply
Opening a large box full of finished boards with small bags of different kinds of screws, fasteners, handles and hinges, my son and I began to construct a piece of furniture whose instructions indicated that it would take 1-2 hours to complete.  It didn’t take us long to conclude that we would not be winning any furniture building competitions as we scanned incomplete line drawings with very few written instructions.  We spent the afternoon assembling the unit and sometimes taking it back apart again.
 
We pushed in pegs, lined up the grooves in the boards and used screws and fasteners on ninety degree angles.  As we built, I was reminded that it is often the smallest parts that create strength, stability and connection.  Which is more important, the large, finished boards or the screws and pegs that join them together and give them purpose and functionality?  Each one is needed.    
 
“For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God.  To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby” (D&C 46:11-12). The gifts of God are scattered among us.  Whether our gifts are easily seen or inconspicuous, we grow best, we serve best, we are our best, together.  We need each other and all our gifts for it is in combination that we become “fitly framed together…for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:21-22)
 

Lift Up Your Voice

Leave a reply
While attending a congregation that was not my own, I had the opportunity to sit by a woman who explained to me that she was new to the congregation and had spent many years away from church activity.  She held a manual in her lap, “Healing through the Savior, The Addiction Recovery Program” and shared that she had been on a difficult road to recovery.  As the opening hymn was announced, she and I shared a hymn book, during the sacrament hymn, she closed her eyes and hummed.  
 
As the organ began the closing song I knew well, she did not pick up the hymn book.  To my surprise and delight though, we sat side by side and sang all four verses together closing with the exultant chorus, “Hosanna, Hosanna to God and the Lamb, Let glory to Them in the highest be given.  Henceforth and forever, Amen and Amen.”  After the prayer, I leaned over to share how much I enjoyed singing with her and asked if she could read the hymn book from the pew in front of us.  She smiled and recounted the faith of her grandparents who she noted had helped to raise her.  “They devoted their lives to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” she told me, “I know the hymns.”
 
We sing with joy, we sing in our sorrow, we sing and feel the love of God.  She knew the hymns which “invite the Spirit of the Lord, create a feeling of reverence…move us to repentance and good works, build testimony and faith, comfort the weary, console the mourning, and inspire us to endure to the end.” (Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, preface). 
 
“Lift up your voice, lift up your voice, lift up your voice and sing.” (Richard C. Berg, Children’s Songbook)

Poor, Obscure, Plain and Little

Leave a reply
A family history class using as a title Jane Eyre’s famous line, “…I am poor, obscure, plain and little…” was taught at Rootstech last week.  The large room was full, every seat was taken and many stood to the side and in the back.  The volume of people was an indicator that most of us owe our existence to someone who was “poor, obscure, plain and little.”
 
Having been orphaned before the age of ten, Caleb Summerhays was “pressed” into the service of His Majesties Navy as a teenager and participated in the War of 1812 with the United States.  Returning from his service, he married and was eventually left childless and a widower twice.  One summer night, Caleb lay awake wondering if he would pass through this life without family, without anything or anyone left behind to mark his presence in the world.  He left his bed and went to the window where he saw three bright stars, one of which seemed to tip a shower of smaller stars.  He understood that he had been shown his future and that there would yet be a shower of children and posterity.  
 

Caleb was fifty two years old when he married Margaret Moore, a widow with two daughters and together they had three children.  The potato blight that devastated Ireland also caused a rise in food prices throughout Europe and brought hunger to their family as well.  Their son, Joseph, recalled that his energetic father, who worked as a stone mason and also as a lamp lighter in London, would sometimes lean against the wall for support when he was suffering from want of food.  He must have felt “poor, obscure, plain and little”, yet this family’s efforts to live and do good in the face of adversity continues to ripple through time and posterity.

Though we are all small in this vast world,  “God knows that some of the greatest souls who have ever lived are those who will never appear in the chronicles of history. They are the blessed, humble souls who emulate the Savior’s example and spend the days of their lives doing good.” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, October 2011)
 
As small as we are, we can take courage from the promise that with the  “weak and simple” of the earth, God will do His work.
 

Building Zion

Anna Elizabeth Ruesch was nine years old in June of 1873 when her family left their ten room home on the Rhine River in Switzerland to gather with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Salt Lake Valley to “build Zion”.  The reality of the work of building Zion began with difficult travel by ship that saw them bury her baby brother at sea just two days before reaching New York.  Eating the last of their provisions, stale bread, the family completed the journey by train to  Salt Lake City where her parents received the blessing of their endowments and sealing in the Endowment house.  Their traveling continued south by wagon train to St. George, Utah to help build the temple there.
 
Anna recorded, “We arrived in St. George in August.  How hot it was!  Flies everywhere.”  The sun reflecting off the sand and stone damaged her father’s eyesight and he spent his days in the dark cellar and nights bathing his eyes with cool water from the creek eventually regaining his sight.  They battled snakes and mountain fever that took her sister and on many days I’m sure they were discouraged. 
 
Yet along with the struggles, Anna recorded the sacred feelings she had as she entered His holy house, received her own endowment and was sealed to her parents, blessings received through days and years of faith in Jesus Christ.  With the blessings of the temple received, the family once again relocated to Manti where they helped to build another house of the Lord.  In this house Anna’s children would receive the same blessings.   The Savior promised, “In this world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer.  I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) 
 
“…The simple doctrine of Jesus Christ…allows us to be spiritually cleansed and ultimately be welcomed into God’s presence, to live with Him and His Son in glory forever in families.”  (President Henry B. Eyring, October 2024)
 
For every struggle, be of good cheer, He has overcome the world and we can overcome the world through Him.

What Works for Him

I sat in a sacrament meeting this week and looked around at the variety of people and circumstances in the congregation.  The chorister had gone grey years ago, while the new deacon’s heads just peered over the sacrament table.  A young missionary sat on the stand, a man sat in a wheelchair with a rest to prop up his head, and young families scrambled to contain exuberant children.  Some sat alone, some sat with friends and a woman with a blank face sat next to her caregiver.  The congregation was a witness that every life contains its own set of challenges, strengths and capacities.
 
As a younger mother, I drove a carload of boys whose conversation revolved around ranking themselves and their friends on their ability to play various sports, the fastest runner, the best soccer player, the second fastest runner, the third best soccer player, the categories were extensive.  
 
As mortals, it is so easy to compare and measure our experiences and capacities.  Yet often our perspective can bring error into our calculations. 
 
On Saturday, two golfers hit their individual shots from the fairway to the green.  The first was a good shot, but the second with our distant two dimensional view seemed placed well inside the first effort until we got to the green and realized that with the added depth brought by proximity, the balls were almost an equal distance from the hole.  
 
“During our sojourn in mortality, we often wrestle with what we think we know, what we think is best, and what we assume works for us, as opposed to comprehending what Heavenly Father actually knows, what is eternally best, and what absolutely works for children within His plan….While it is true that each of us travels an individualized discipleship journey on the covenant path…in things that truly matter, there is an inner space where we are free to choose whether or not we will decide to follow the pattern the Lord has prepared for our life.” (Elder Soares, October 2024)
 
While we may not always be able to see clearly, we can trust His eternal perspective and His intent to bring us all to the same place with every blessing He has to give. That’s what works for Him.
 

All Will Be Well

Jesse Knight, the son of Newel and Lydia Knight was born in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1845 as the Saints hurried to complete the house of the Lord and receive their endowments and sealings before they evacuated the city and wagons began to roll west.  His father died just outside of Winter Quarters when Jesse was not yet one and a half years old and his youngest brother was born just before Jesse’s second birthday.  

His mother, Lydia, joined a wagon company with her eight young children in 1850 and began their journey to the Salt Lake Valley.  Days after her baptism, Lydia had been given a blessing by the Prophet Joseph Smith promising, “The Lord, your Savior, loves you, and will overrule all your past sorrows and afflictions for good unto you….Therefore be comforted, and let your heart rejoice, for the Lord has a great work for you to do. Be faithful and endure unto the end and all will be well.” (Lydia Knight’s History by Susa Young Gates)

While Lydia continued to exercise faith in the promises and covenants of the Lord, as her son, Jesse, grew he did not feel the same conviction and his path concerned her.  One day he asked her why she had ceased preaching to him and she replied that in answer to her prayers, “…the Lord made known to me that I was not to worry about you any more, that you would one day understand for yourself.”(Jesse Knight, His Forebears and Family, 33)

Through a series of challenges, miracles and loss, Jesse reconsidered his lack of faith.  He recounted, “I suffered in my feelings.  I prayed for forgiveness and help.  My prayer was answered and I received a testimony.” (Jesse Knight, His Forebears and Family, 35). In his need, he learned, “There is no limit to the Savior’s capacity to help you. His incomprehensible suffering in Gethsemane and on Calvary was for you! His infinite Atonement is for you!” (President Russell M. Nelson, October 2024)

“Be faithful and endure unto the end and all will be well.”

Peacemakers Needed

In 1803, twenty one year old Spencer Phelps Jr. of Northampton, Massachusetts, traveled in the company of Elah Clapp the more than 500 miles to property they purchased in the newly formed Western Reserve in Ohio.  He and Elah cleared the land on their adjoining lots to prepare a place for their future families.  They were pioneers who along with their neighbors carved out homes, farms and villages from the wilderness.
 
By 1831 when “saints” began to fill the nearby town of Kirtland and  the surrounding areas, Spencer and his wife, Mary, were well established.  The youngest of their nine children was six years old and the oldest, Morris, like his parents had moved further west to carve out a place for his new family. 

While the family in Kirtland did not join themselves to the new religion that swept through the area, word spread by letter and then by missionaries to the home of their son, Morris, and his wife, Laura, who believed, were baptized and moved their family to the nearest gathering place, Missouri.  

As the “saints” with their different ideas and different ways grew in number, many of their neighbors and those in Missouri turned to harsh words, severe actions and mob brutality.  In spite of those around them, Morris, who served two missions to Kirtland, recorded of his family, “I have preached to all of my family faithfully, according to the best of my knowledge, and I have never heard a railing accusation from one of them.  They always treated us well…”  (As quoted in “Our Ancestors” by Zula Rich Cole). Though they didn’t embrace his faith, his family’s kindness was a refuge physically and emotionally for Morris and his wife when so many others threatened and vilified them.  

They seemed to understand, “Anger never persuades. Hostility builds no one. Contention never leads to inspired solutions…. The Savior’s message is clear: His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers.” (President Russell M. Nelson, April 2023) 

Whatever our circumstances then and always, peacemakers invite the power of Jesus Christ, Who promises His peace to those who follow Him.

So Many Ways to Par

I was watching my son play golf this weekend and was reminded that there are so many different ways to make par on a golf course. My son teed off on a par 5 with his ball headed left into the sage and red sandstone dirt. His ball was found in a bush so he took a penalty stroke and drop for an unplayable lie. His next shot was to the middle of the fairway 50-60 yards from the green. He landed his following shot fifteen feet from the hole and rolled his putt in for par.

On the same hole, another in his foursome, hit his tee ball straight down the middle of the fairway. His second shot was just short of the green, he chipped it five feet away from the hole. His putt rolled just over the edge of the hole and did not fall so he tapped it in for a par.

The two routes to par were so different but the result was the same. The competitors were all giving their best efforts and some of those efforts played out the way they desired and some of them were decidedly not what they had hoped for. Over the course of the round, I watched a ball hit into a canyon gully bounce and land on the green, while another shot glanced off a bush in front of the player and ended up on a high sandstone ledge. A long putt was made for double bogey and some short putts rolled right past the hole.

A shot from the fairway bounced directly into the hole and a hard shot meant to barely extricate a ball from thick grass sailed over the green. The surprises both joyful and discouraging came with regularity.

“Some…surprises are wonderful, some confusing, some difficult to navigate, and some perfectly heartbreaking. But hold on to Him through it all. If you have eyes to see and if you choose faith, He will surprise you with His goodness and love. He will surprise you with His wisdom and foresight. He will surprise you with His miracles and His perfect divine design for
your life. He really is that good.” (Sister Jennifer Kearon, BYU Speeches, (September 17, 2024)

When surprises come, we can take the long view, trusting that the Savior knows how to link the experiences of our lives and bring us to where we ultimately desire to be. He really is that good.

Temple Blessings

Saturday afternoon my husband and I went to the Bountiful Temple to participate in a sealing session and found the sealer assigned to our session was the bishop who interviewed me to go to the temple for the first time. I was twenty three years old, graduated from college, working full time, serving as a young women’s advisor and continuing to pursue one of the joys of my life, family history.

As I connected my family and came to know the relatives whose lives had shaped mine, I felt their persistent desire to make covenants in the house of the Lord. I was not going on a mission or getting married, the primary times most went to the temple at that time, yet it was the diligent promptings of my ancestors that caused me to go to my bishop asking for the opportunity to make covenants myself so that I

could more readily help them do the same. I did not take making covenants lightly and tried to learn all that I could. I read The Holy Temple by Elder Boyd K. Packer multiple times, studied the temple preparation manual and felt I understood and was ready for what the Lord would ask me to do. In this frame of mind, I went to the temple to make covenants with God.

What I had failed to consider was what the Lord wanted to give me. I was astounded and overwhelmed by the blessings given in His holy house, blessings that are not conditioned on the circumstances of our lives, what happens or does not happen. He knows what He has promised and all of His promises are conditioned on our faithful reliance on the commandments, merits, and mercy of Jesus Christ. He is the guarantor of our covenants.

“Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple. You will feel His mercy. You will find answers to your most vexing questions. You will comprehend the joy of His gospel….There is no limit to the Savior’s capacity to help you.” (President Russell M. Nelson, October 2024).

Come to the temple.