(Preamble note to readers… Thank you! so much for your prayers regarding the recent programming problems. With the Lord’s help, after studying and consulting with zionwisdom administrator, Bill, all aspects are working better than they have in many months. Thank-you Bill)
Elder Henry B. Eyring, said in the First Presidency Christmas Devotional of 2012 :
“….Families also offer priceless gifts of love and testimony at Christmastime through music as well as words. As a young boy, I would gather with my family around our Winkler piano, now more than a hundred years old. That piano rests in our living room, near the treasure chest. The piano still is a precious heirloom because it was dear to my mother as a gift from her husband when they were poor. My parents had known poverty and so were frugal. The Christmas gifts we received were modest. But my mother had a rich soprano voice. She played her piano at Christmas as she led us in singing familiar carols and sacred hymns.
I don’t know if she thought of herself as inviting us to share in a lasting gift. But even as a young boy, I felt inexpressible joy in singing those songs. The music filled our small home with a spirit of peace. I could feel not only the love of my mother and father and two brothers, but of my Heavenly Father and the Savior Jesus Christ.
I sensed that the love I felt then was something I had experienced before this life in the spirit world. I wanted more than anything else to feel it someday in a home of my own. And I wanted to live so that I could return with a family of my own to our heavenly home, where I knew Heavenly Father and the Savior would be waiting. Now when I see the treasure box and that piano, memories of love with my family and love from the Savior flood back over me.
As we sing in choirs, families, and classes, and as we have listened together tonight, the carols of Christmas remind us of our shouts of joy when we learned that we could come to this world and be given a Savior to redeem us. Someday we will sing those songs with the hosts of heaven.
It is my prayer that the Spirit will bless us this Christmas and in the years to come with the power to offer other gifts of love and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. I know that the Spirit can lead each of us in many and simple ways to give love, faith, and joy to others at this season of rejoicing.
I testify that Jesus Christ was the literal Son of God and the Savior of the world. He was the perfect gift from our loving Father. At this and every season, our Savior invites us to join with Him and others to offer the priceless gift of joy. I pray that we will, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”~ For Elder Eyring’s complete talk click: ‘The Perfect Gift’
