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You cannot tell the story of Jericho, critical to Joshua’s prophetic narrative, without a woman—Rahab[1]. I particularly like this story because it complicates our assumptions and judgments of others and remind us that though women may be a minority in scripture they always enter the narrative at critical junctures. Rahab was considered a “Woman of Valor” in Jewish Midrashim.

Years ago, I was part of a group of mothers who met together once a month to have an evening away from family, have fun, and talk about life. All of the women were Christian, not all were Mormon. Often we would come up with a discussion topic for the evening to help us get to know one another better and get through life better.

Hannah chose to be honest with herself and with the Lord. She was not afraid of her bitter soul, or that as she continued to pray, she “wept sore.” She knew, as Chieko Okazaki shared for our time, “The Lord doesn’t want just pretty prayers. He wants real prayers. Sometimes we think of those eloquent, gracious prayers in sacrament meeting and General Conference as the models for our personal prayers.

I have a vivid missionary memory — swooping along on my Graziella bicycle, coat buttoned tight against the Brenta valley fog, and sending up to the Lord what felt like a last-effort mental prayer, “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m here. At least I’m here.”

Developing gods means we have to learn to have perfect understanding and this takes practice. Probably more than this lifetime, but let’s work with what we’ve got. And while there are many proactive ways to develop, today I want to consider the ways I inadvertently curtail my growth.

This lesson focuses on David’s relationships with King Saul and his children, Jonathan and Michal. After the victorious battle with the Philistines, the women of the kingdom are heard proclaiming, “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Sam. 18:7). David’s defeat of Goliath has gone viral, raising his profile to celebrity status. This causes Saul to essentially lose his mind with jealousy. Saul nourishes his jealousy and hatred toward homicidal proport

A couple weeks ago the Maxwell Institute at BYU hosted a Forgiveness and Reconciliation symposium bringing together speakers from Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. Speaking of the aftermath of apartheid in South Africa, Mpho Tutu van Furth—Anglican theologian and daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, spoke about the steps required for forgiveness and reconciliation.

Recently I was involved in an art project that required me to do some research about the natural world. Now, this is not my forte. While I can spend oodles of dreamy time with line and color and form, researching biology…well, I passed that class, we’ll just say. Waffles with my study partner helped a lot. But, this time, I actually got enthralled.

Solomon was known as the wise king blessed with an understanding heart, and yet also sadly fulfilled Samuel’s prophesy of the ills that would befall the Israelites if they were ruled by a king. The abundance the Israelites enjoyed as God’s chosen people proved insufficient for their contentment as they also longed “to be like other nations” even at the cost of losing their sons, daughters, servants, and a significant portion of their income to the service of a king that Samue

My family recently returned from spending 18 days in another country for a combination of work and vacation. I absolutely loved visiting the different cities and sites and experiencing just a little of the richness and depth of the culture and history in this area. As we talked to local people, I also had the opportunity to reflect on the impact of good and bad—or wicked and righteous as this lesson calls them—leaders.

When Jesus taught about his own purpose, he frequently referenced two Old Testament figures: Moses and Elijah. These two embodied the Law and the Prophets, standing for the traditions that Christ both fulfilled and transcended. It was Moses and Elijah who appeared at Jesus’s transfiguration, ratifying Jesus’s messianic role with their own authority.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared that the COVID-19 virus was a global pandemic. The next day, President Russell M. Nelson closed every temple in the world, canceled all church events including local sacrament meetings and even one-to-one ministering visits, and started chartering flights to return missionaries to their home countries immediately.

In 2 Kings 2, we see an example of how the prophetic authority was transferred in ancient times. Elijah was given the heads up that he was to be translated. So, he embarked on a four-city-I’m-Gettin-Translated tour.

In this lesson, the Prophetess Huldah is the fulcrum of this story. I had no idea who Huldah was, which speaks to my neglect of Old Testament scripture reading. I will focus on the House of the Lord in this commentary and urge you not to follow my example of Old Testament reading.

The young future Relief Society President Bathsheba W. Smith read Eliza R. Snow’s first draft of the poem “Eternal Father and Mother” in Nauvoo—we know it as “O My Father.” This introduction to the Mormon doctrine of a Heavenly Mother was so pivotal for Bathsheba that decades later she still remembered the room, the furniture, and a litany of other little details surrounding her when she read the poem.