Segullah Journal

When we moved our family from Massachusetts to Arizona more than six years ago, my good friend in Massachusetts invited me to join a discussion board for LDS women called “My Online Friends,” or MOF. “Some of the 120 women live in Arizona,” she told me. “They might be able to help you with the [...]

AS A MARRIAGE AND FAMILY therapist and a member of the LDS Church, I have been interested in how Latter-day Saints approach intimacy. In February of 2009 I began a blog, The Mormon Therapist, designed to provide LDS members with an anonymous venue to share personal struggles. I have been inundated with questions and stories [...]

During a Sacrament Meeting a few years ago, a man in our ward introduced his talk on “the peace the gospel brings” by reporting a dream in which he fought viciously with the contractor who was remodeling his home at the time. The man went on to explain that his remodel had been going very [...]

WHEN MY SON WAS A TEENAGER he was a little on the sober side—like Yao Ming is a little on the tall side. He kept to himself, answered questions in one-word grunts, and moaned about having to do awful things like take a vacation. He didn’t really seem depressed, but neither was he really engaged with [...]

MOST READERS of Matthew’s Gospel take one look at that first page full of “begats” and impossible-to-pronounce names and quickly turn the page. But Matthew was a deliberate writer; he didn’t begin his gospel with a boring list, but rather with a selective portrait of the progenitors who made Jesus. Perhaps the most interesting facet of [...]

“In 1847 Jedediah Grant led a company of Latter-day Saint pioneers from Winter Quarters, Nebraska, to the Salt Lake Valley. Not long before the company arrived in the valley, his six-month-old daughter, Margaret, contracted cholera and died. Her body was buried close to the trail, protected by only a mound of freshly dug clay. Soon [...]

I was ready to shower halfway through the class, but we had another hour and a half to go. We all situated ourselves into a circle and Raymond, my professor, asked, “Are you guys ready for a little improvisation?” My stomach sank to my knees as something blocked my airway. Although this was my second [...]

My first child was an unexpected gift. I’d never really thought about children, and it didn’t occur to me that I could be pregnant. I had no idea how that big watermelon-sized lump in my belly was going to get out. No one told me about birth, and I never asked. I was that ignorant. [...]

I watch my daughter, Tessa Joy, blow little puffs off of a dandelion head. My heart catches a little bit when she doesn’t get the cotton off right away. But I exhale with relief when she tries again and manages to send several seeds sailing. I tell her, “Good job!” and notice my eyes pooling [...]

Jane Manning James was a black Mormon pioneer known for her faith, endurance, and charity. She joined the Church at age nineteen in Connecticut. She and her family walked 800 miles to Nauvoo, where they were taken in by Joseph and Emma Smith at the Mansion House. Failing to find employment as her family members [...]

THREE YEARS AGO, film maker Scott Freebairn began filming tributes to black pioneers Jane Manning James, Green Flake, and Elijah Abel. Most of the footage was devoted to Jane James. Scott filmed Lita Giddins, Denise Cutliff and Tamu Smith—all of whom have portrayed that great pioneer—at “This is the Place Heritage Park” in Salt Lake City. [...]

CHANGE. It permeates our lives, constantly flavoring our existence. Sometimes it comes gently, freshening our daily routine with dewy sweetness. Other times its pungent sorrow steals our breath and leaves us gasping. Though we know to expect it, change often catches us off guard, leaving us unsettled and insecure. Times of transition are often the times [...]

SEGULLAH IS NOT A WORD you will hear on the streets of Downtown, USA. You’re not even likely to hear it in the halls of academia. First of all, it’s Hebrew. Secondly, it’s based on a concept that is out of style. Segullah is about divinely instituted covenants, and about a people who take them seriously. “For [...]