milk & honey mamas

Contributed by Kristen And Moroni’s hope is audacious. There at the end, after the final battle, after the scent of blood and rot so thick the land repels it, after the haunted children and human offerings, after the war crimes lands the world over will repeat and repeat and repeat, there is stillness. There at…

Contributed by Kristen I had my first baby in March 2020, just as the pandemic lockdowns began. About a year later, I remember reading the words of another woman who became a mother around the same time. I don’t remember her name, but I remember what she said: “I had become this totally different person…

Contributed by Kristen And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried: O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! Behold,…

Contributed by Kristen Here’s how the book of 4 Nephi starts: And it came to pass in the thirty and sixth year, the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal…

Contributed by Kristen Shortly after both of my children were born, I remember at least one overwhelming moment of intense anxiety as their tiny little bodies nestled so close and so completely to mine. This is what absolute dependency looks like, my anxiety throbbed. They are entirely reliant on you. And in a mystery of…

Contributed by Kristen I walked today on a path swaddled in trees. Bridges cocooning water, I swayed over the earth as light sparkled like smoke between the trees.  What is spirit, I asked my daughter, and we talked as though words could bridge our way.  Who is Jesus? Why did he come? Does it matter? …

Theological Background by Kristen When I read these chapters looking for what I wanted to write about, I kept thinking about how important the stakes felt. I have read the Book of Mormon a lot of times. I know what’s coming next. I know that these chapters are the “before.” It’s the “always darkest before…

Story contributed by Kristen Samuel the Lamanite, or what to do when the message comes from someone you can’t stand  Brace yourself. Sink your heels deep into the ground. Take a deep breath. Listen.  Do you know how to listen? I don’t. I mean really, really listen. The kind of listening where you forget how…