The Honey & Lilies Blog
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Saints and Angels
At this time of year, probably more than any other, we are surrounded by images of Angels. Modern revelation tells us who they are and what their purpose is. There are two angels in particular who have something to offer us this Christmas season.
Preparing Ourselves to Find Christ in Christmas
Is it possible to have a Christmas that is both festive and holy? Is it possible to get all the “to-do’s” done and still have time to reflect on this Holy Baby? How do we balance the things that have to be done with the moments of peace we desperately need and want?
Seeking Him
We are introducing something new this year. A calendar created just for Latter-Day Saints to help you keep Christ at the center of your year. Featuring major Jewish and Christian holidays as well as days selected to help remember and celebrate the Restoration. Read more to get a peak of what is inside.
Pilgrims on the Road to Bethlehem
With all the noise and busyness of the days leading up to Christmas, rediscovering the ancient practices of Advent and spiritual pilgrimage can help us keep Christ at the center of our holiday.
Willing Heart and Willing Mind
How can we have a willing heart and mind as we prepare for Christ’s coming?
Autumn Holidays
How do we make the fall holidays a little more holy? Uniting the restoration with traditional holidays of Christianity and the Biblical feasts offers a unique opportunity.
Apostasy When?
Have you ever wondered what happened to the early Apostles after Christ’s death?
Where Are They Now
Have you ever wondered what happened to the early Apostles after Christ’s death?
Seeking Repentance
“For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: ‘In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness … shall be your strength;’” Isaiah 30:15
Building a 72-Hour Kit
Personally, I struggle with feelings of anxiety and inadequacy, developed through past experiences and (if we’re being totally honest here) too many hours dedicated to magazines and the internet. But, part of preparing for the Lord’s Second Coming means preparing in all areas of life. We know that as we move closer to His return, the more difficult challenges will become. As disciples of Christ, we can prepare emotionally for the upcoming challenges by developing emotional resiliency.
What is Emotional Resilience
Personally, I struggle with feelings of anxiety and inadequacy, developed through past experiences and (if we’re being totally honest here) too many hours dedicated to magazines and the internet. But, part of preparing for the Lord’s Second Coming means preparing in all areas of life. We know that as we move closer to His return, the more difficult challenges will become. As disciples of Christ, we can prepare emotionally for the upcoming challenges by developing emotional resiliency.
Pentecost at Kirtland
How often do you think about the events at Pentecost in Acts 2, or do you even recall what it is? Or perhaps you wonder why it matters since it occurred in the last dispensation before the great apostasy. On March 27, 1836, at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, events occurred that were readily compared by those who were there to what was experienced in Acts 2 at Pentecost. A few days later, as supernatural events continued to occur, Joseph Smith would declare to 300 Elders in the church that “the organization of the church was now complete” [1].
5 Ways to Boost Debt Repayment
Looking to better your financial situation this summer? Check out these five tips!
Passover and Baptism
Is there a connection between the feast of Passover and our personal baptismal covenants?
Take the Leap of Faith
The need for preparation is abundantly clear. The great blessing of being prepared gives us freedom from fear.
Budgeting 101
Trying to figure out how to budget? Check out these tips to help you find the budget that works for you!
Honey & Lilies
Why Honey & Lilies? The background story to how our blog got it’s name.
Looking Forward to the Son
Looking Forward to the Son | Article of Faith 5 Written by Christina Judd “We believe that a man must be called of God, by
Preparing for Difficult Days
Prophecies tell us that the days ahead will be difficult, so let’s look at various ways we can prepare our families for the future.
The Implicit Commandmet
Through a series of very difficult experiences early on in my life, the Lord taught me a way of
looking at the gospel as a blueprint for healing. This is what I would like to explore with you.
Week by week we will look at different aspects of the gospel, and how they can heal us from
challenges, trials, traumas, and the difficulties that we all go through, as well as prepare us for
difficult times to come.
The Passion of the Christ and Cosmic Covenant of Peace
Cosmic: Of or relating to the cosmos, the extraterrestrial vastness, or the
universe in contrast to the earth alone. Of relating to, or concerned with, the abstract spiritual or metaphysical. Characterized by greatness especially in extent, intensity, or comprehensiveness.
Opposition is Good
“For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things,” (2 Nephi 2:11).
10 Pantry Friendly Recipes
10 Pantry-Friendly Recipes Written by Cheri Stirling One of the biggest concerns I hear about food storage is being able to use it, so that
Ways to Produce Our Own Food
Maybe you’ve noticed the prices of groceries have gone up (a lot) lately. Or maybe you’ve heard rumors of bugs being added to food in order to add protein due to potential meat shortages? Or perhaps you have realized that our food supply is very dependent on our supply chain, and have seen the recent farmer protests or trucking protests in the news. These things can seem a little alarming when we think about how comfortable we are in our way of life.
What is Self-Reliance?
What is Self-Reliance? In our world today, there is this increasing pressure to become reliant on something. Reliant on support from governments, financial institutions, routines,
Articles of Faith 2 & 3
As members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we sometimes fall prey to a misconception that the law is our friend; that if we do it well enough, the law will work in our favor. This is inaccurate. If we want to clearly understand Jesus Christ—His role and purpose—and deepen our relationship with Him, we have to know what the law actually does to imperfect, fallen mortals:
Lent and the Word of Wisdom
“A Word of Wisdom, for the benefit of the council of high priests,
assembled in Kirtland, and the church, and also the saints in Zion—To
be sent greeting; not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation
and the word of wisdom, showing forth the order and will of God in the
temporal salvation of all saints in the last days—Given for a principle with
promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all
saints, who are or can be called saints.” – (D&C 89:1-3)
4 Ways to Maximize Your Tax Return
It’s the time of year where many of us are filing or preparing to file those not-so-favorite taxes. Tax returns often mean extra cash to burn for concert tickets, that brand new car we were wanting, but with inflation rising, and budgets getting tighter, it’s a good time to try to stretch those extra dollars as far as they can go!
Love Thy Neighbor
King Benjamin’s people did not cry with one voice—they did not become one—because their neighbor changed. The people became one because they viewed themselves in their own carnal state—saw their own weakness and sin—and cried out to God to change them.
4 Ways to Prepare Your Family for a Medical Emergency
What would you do if there were a shortage of medications? Do you have a plan to help keep your family healthy if there ever were a delay in the supply chain? One of the first things to disappear in an emergency is access to medical supplies. It’s important that we start to think ahead, especially if we have family members who have chronic health conditions.
First Article of Faith
1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
Creating a Family Emergency Plan for 2024
Welcome to 2024 friends! New Years is one of my favorite times of year. I love getting a new calendar, setting new goals and intentions for the year, and feeling like it’s a fresh start. I love to get notebooks, mark out big events and birthdays, and try to set new routines to build better habits for the year.
However, like we’ve learned in the last few years, we never know what is inside Pandora’s box, so this is also a great time to take an inventory of where we are in preparation for it. I like to use the first couple of weeks to reorganize the pantry, update 72 hour kits, and play a little ‘what if’ game.
Gardening 101: How to Start a Simple Garden This Year
My husband and I bought our first home recently, and so we are so excited to be planting our very first real garden with our family! Because of this, I’ve been doing research to help us plan ours, so if you are in the same position, or are looking for info on how to start, this is for you!
Let’s Talk About Water Storage
Do you have a plan in place for water? This week we are talking about how to prepare for an emergency that may affect the water supply!
10 Items to Stock Up on in Your Home
10 Items to Stock Up on in Your Home Last week, we talked about how to stock our food storage, but as we know, it
Building Up Our Food Storage
Last week we talked about several ways to improve our self-reliance, because each of our paths are going to look different. Some of us will be guided to focus on more temporal preparation, while others may be told that they should focus on emotional or physical health goals. As we go forward, we will be sharing ideas in all of these areas!
10 Easy Steps to Improve Our Personal Self-Reliance
As we work towards self-reliance, all of us will end up taking different paths to get there. Today, we will talk about several easy steps to help us improve!
Create an Emergency Plan for Your Family
The last step I would recommend is practicing your plan! We all grew up doing fire drills at school about once a month, so that if a real one happened, we would know what to do. There is a reason we did that, so we already had the automatic response. We want to create that in our homes too.
After creating your plan, make sure that each family member knows where to go, and what to do for each type of emergency. Can everyone get out? Can everyone fit in the space selected for tornado shelter? Where would you meet if you evacuated the house? Having practices and meetings sets routines for these situations so everyone knows what to do, and helps relieve some of the anxiety that comes with them.
Lessons from Dystopian Novels
Lessons from Dystopian Novels As Latter-Day Saints, and disciples of Christ, we talk a lot about building or becoming Zion. As a society, I think
10 Tips to Stretch Your Dollars
Money is tight these days, isn’t it? I personally teach a private homeschool group, so our budget is tighter in the summer than the rest
Drops in Our Lamp | Preparing for a Recession
I remember being in high school when the last major recession started. House prices tanked, people lost jobs, and gas prices rose. There are rumors
Christmas in July
The current inflation rate in the US is just over eight percent. According to Knoema, inflation is expected to continue rising between 1.5-4.3%. Starting early can allow us to save and stretch those dollars as best we can.
Staying Warm or Keeping Cool in a Blackout
Welcome to part four of our blackout preparedness series. We’ve talked about food, lighting and protecting our homes, and now it’s time to talk about what to do about surviving the cold or the heat, depending on the time of year, and where we live.
Keeping the Lights on in the Darkness
It’s time for part three of our power outage series! This week, how to fortify our homes in the case of an extended power crisis. Our homes have so much that rely on electricity. So as we prepare, we need to think about what we need to keep our families safe and their needs met.
Feeding Your Family in a Power Outage
Cooking in a Blackout Written by Cheri Stirling Hey friends! Last week I left you with a lot of questions to think about should
What If I was in a Power Outage?
What if I Was in a Blackout? Written by Cheri Stirling I think that all of us recognize that our world is reliant on technology.
Five Health Benefits of Water
Did you know that it is estimated that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated? The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has recommended
How to Save Money on Summer Fun
We made it guys! The weather is warm, school is out, and it’s time to enjoy the sunshine! But if you are like us, you
Building Zion Now
I’ve been thinking about this for a few months now. Many of us are seeing the signs of the Second Coming, and may be even
Let’s Talk About Eggs
Many of you have probably heard about the Avian Flu outbreak that we are currently experiencing. The current death toll on our nation’s poultry industry