Not too much is written about the early life of Jesus. After the account of His glorious birth, His childhood remains a mystery until we read about Mary and Joseph leaving Him behind in Jerusalem when He was 12 years old.

As a parent who has survived various lost child incidents at the mall, the zoo, and Walt Disney World, I can relate to the anxiety Mary and Joseph must’ve felt when they realized Jesus was not with them after they left the big city. My emotions while one of my kids was MIA ran the gamut of paralyzing fear, immense relief upon seeing my child again, frustration at their constant wandering, and even shame at my less than stellar attentiveness to the most precious things in the world to me when it was my job to protect. I wonder if Mary and Joseph were worried about what God would think of them after they lost His only Son?

Today, we're sharing an experience that Sister Laurie Whitton sent us for the Miracle Monday music theme way back in April 2013. If you've got a talent that you want God to magnify or a desire that you hope He'll bless, then we pray this testimony inspires you.

When I was in high school, I played clarinet in the band. After graduating, there were no opportunities for me to play, so there my clarinet sat for 30 years.

About five years ago, I was encouraged to start playing again. At first, I said, "No, it's impossible after all these years. I do not remember how to play." The instrument had sat so long it probably wouldn't function.

Do you ever feel like the pressures of our culture practically "persecute" you because they're so strong? We hope today's Good Word encourages you to stand fast!

When thinking about what to write in my blog post, I did what I normally do when trying to search for something — I Googled it.

I searched for "upliftment" and came across a list of scriptures that this man, John Callahan, put together. They're supposed to give us hope when we feel down.

Even though I am not feeling down in any aspect of my life, just reading these 10 verses really uplifted me. How amazing is it knowing that God is always there and that He knew we would need to these words 2,000+ years later?

There have been times in my life when I wonder what people think about my testimonies of God's goodness and blessings on my family and me. Do they think that I am a good storyteller or that I made these things up for attention? Perhaps, they think that I am bragging?

None of these are true. Each testimony is told in thanks for God's tender mercies. When telling an experience, I often feel just as blessed as I did when it first happened — sometimes even greater. A blessing from God is a gift that keeps on giving!

The testimony portion of a meeting in The Church of Jesus Christ is an opportunity for people to publicly thank God for His goodness in their lives. Today, the day I'm writing this, a sister told us about a situation at work she struggled with and how she gave it over to God and it soon rectified. She said, "You might call it a coincidence, but I want to thank God ..." and went on to praise the Lord for caring for her circumstance and hearing her prayer.

I've heard it said that a coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous. Maybe that's true, but like my sister, I want to be more diligent about not allowing God's mercies and interventions in my life to remain in obscurity, glossed over or shrugged off.

For today's Miracle Monday, we're sharing a military-related experience — remember that theme from May 2014? The late Brother Dick Ackman experienced this miracle, and his grandson, Brother Rich Nath, submitted it.

In early 1952, my grandpa was on leave from the army and had received orders to return to camp. He knew what that meant — he was being shipped to Korea.

There was a significant chance that if he ended up in the warzone he would not return home, as those trained for his duties had a very high casualty rate. The night before he was scheduled to return to base, he had the following experience that he related many times before he passed away. The following excerpt is from his autobiography.

We hope that today's Good Word gives comfort to your soul today. Have a scripture that's been on your heart? Send it to us, and we'll make it into a graphic!

It's no secret that American society is rife with sinful stuff. Our culture promotes some seriously icky forms of entertainment — there wouldn't be porn movies and strip clubs without a market to support them, right?

And the current cultural climate condones all sorts of things that scripture calls sin: adultery, fornication, homosexuality, abortion, greed, pride, and the list goes on.

Many people believe the government isn't taking a stand on these matters. Worse, many worry that the government isn't going to protect religious freedoms much longer.

These social and political issues are alarming to say the least.

This article is part two of a two-part series.

Author's Note: I hope that you enjoy this. I believe that this idea is critical to our faith and our impact that we have as believers outside of the church walls.

Let me begin with a question:

Is contentment a blessing?

My answer is yes. As I discussed yesterday, contentment means that I can stop and appreciate the blessings that God has given me. Contentment means that I can understand the impact of what God has done in my life.

This article is part one of a two-part series.

Author's Note: Before the actual article begins, I would like to introduce you to this two-part series on the idea of "blessing." It was our Sunday school lesson recently, and it's had me thinking a lot, and I'd like to share some of my conclusions with you readers.

We started our Sunday school recently with the concept of "blessing." The first comment was from a brother who said that we're blessed because we have roofs over our heads and food on our tables, and that's very true.

But that is a physical state.

And I (as well as our teacher) am of the belief that being blessed is a mental state.

For the month of August, we're sharing Miracle Mondays that we received in the past but weren't able to publish. Today, we've got a testimony from Brother Larry Champine that he submitted for the October 2014 theme, which was "death."

The youngest of seven children, I was raised by loving parents in another faith. My father was one of the youngest of 14 children, and his father was one of 13 children. Needless to say, in my growing up years, I attended many, many family funerals. (I even grew to dread the smell of funeral flowers.)

Looking back, I recognize that although there was a devotion to our faith and we were reminded of God's promise of Heaven, it did not seem to bring much comfort. These occasions were always very sad.

To all of you who completed the Summer Reading Challenge, congratulations! We hope you recieved many blessings during your journey through the four gospels. 

We had over a dozen people tell us that they planned to participate. So, our question to ya'll ... how did you do? What did you learn?

Editor's note: We hope you enjoy this imagined newspaper story based on Mosiah 27.

Zarahemla — This weekend marks a major turnaround for the children of King Mosiah and High Priest Alma. For some time now, the king's sons, Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and Himni, along with Alma's son, Alma Jr., have been secretly trying to destroy The Church of God.

That's all changed.

According to eyewitness reports, Alma Sr. gathered a multitude to show what happened to these young men. He told those in attendance that King Mosiah's sons brought an unconscious Alma Jr. to the palace two days earlier. According to their own testimony, they were walking down the road a few hours earlier, and an angel of the Lord appeared. Afterward, Alma Jr. was unable to speak or move.

There are moments in the midst of the storm when all I feel like I can do is throw up my hands. It doesn't always make sense. I don't always understand or have all the answers — or even some of the answers for that matter.

What about those moments when waiting feels like too much to take? Or the trial or temptation just seems too much to handle? Are we just left to our own defenses? Satan wants us to believe so, but Christ loves us way too much for that to ever be the case.

If I read in James 1:5-7, it gives the key to finding help for those moments: