This Des News profile does a very good job summarizing the life of Sen. Harry Reid, who passed away today at 82.

To summarize: Sen. Reid was a good family man, a quiet but faithful supporter of the Church and an awful politician.

This is the man who never apologized about lying about Mitt Romney’s taxes and even bragged about it. But at the same time I would like to point out that Church officials were always appreciative of Sen. Reid’s work to promote the work of the Gospel behind the scenes:

Ralph Hardy Jr., a lawyer and past chairman of the church’s public affairs advisory committee in Washington, D.C., said in 2017 that Reid’s leadership roles in Congress and his commitment to the church made him a natural person to turn to. He called Reid’s efforts on Latter-day Saint issues extraordinary.

“In my personal experience, Sen. Reid has extended himself and been willing to help and roll up his sleeves and get us introduced to the right people and speak well for us,” said Hardy, who served as an area authority and stake president.

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From the Epoch Times:

The nation’s recent lockdown policies and mask mandates will create a generation of children who exhibit lower IQs and signs of social brain damage, according to Dr. Mark McDonald, a clinical psychiatrist for children and adolescents, in an interview with host Cindy Drukier of a Dec. 25 episode of NTD’s The Nation Speaks.

McDonald cited an Aug. 11 study by Browns University (pdf) which found that “children born during the pandemic have significantly reduced verbal, motor, and overall cognitive performance compared to children born pre-pandemic.”

The masks, “zoom schools,” and lockdown mandates lead to “deprivation overall, of social contact, [of] not being able to see faces, being stuck at home all day long, has actually caused brain damage to the youngsters,” said McDonald.

In another interview in the episode, the director of Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Professor Carl Heneghan, cited evidence that pandemic restrictions and the “fear we instill into children” has led to “worsening” of “psychological problems.”

Heneghan cited his Oct. 2 study which concluded that “eight out of ten children and adolescents report worsening of behavior or any psychological symptoms or an increase in negative feelings due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“School closures contributed to increased anxiety, loneliness and stress; negative feelings due to COVID-19 increased with the duration of school closures,” the study reported. “Deteriorating mental health was found to be worse in females and older adolescents.”

Adolescents above the age of 12 also did worse than children under the age of 12, as adolescents face increasing peer pressure, social pressure, and are more aware of messages being delivered globally, according to Heneghan.

“The first thing is to de-escalate any fear and anxiety around COVID for children,” Heneghan said, adding that “for children, [COVID] is actually a very safe disease” and that children should not be worried about the impact of COVID “on themselves, or their future health.”

He also added that “shutting areas like schools was a mistake,” as keeping them open is good for education, “social connectedness, and well-being.”

“We should really prioritize education and those interventions that are in children’s best interest,” Heneghan stated.

According to a Dec. 20 study, data from the CDC (Center For Disease Control and Prevention) also showed that mental health-related visits in 2020, when pandemic restrictions were first imposed, increased by 24 percent in ages 5–11 and by 31 percent in ages 12–17 in comparison to 2019 data.

The story of Helmuth Hubener is one of heroic opposition to an evil regime. This much is clear. But it also should raise questions for all of us regarding our own stances on moral issues. In short: when must we speak out against tyranny in our own lives?

Hubener lived in Hamburg, Germany and belonged to an LDS branch in that city. He was a loyal German who wrote a paper when he was young praising Hitler, and he was a member of the Hitler Youth. But over time Hubener became disillusioned with the German regime. The key turning point appeared to be the time when his branch president, a Nazi party activist, put a sign on the church door saying no Jews were allowed in church. The branch had one young Jewish member who was excluded, and Hubener was upset.

Hubener’s older brother, who was a soldier, gave Hubener a shortwave radio, and Hubener began to listen to the BBC in German. This was illegal. Hubener began writing pamphlets against the Nazis and passing them out in Hamburg. One pamphlet called Hitler a murderer. Hubener, then only 16, recruited two of his teenage friends from church to help him pass out the pamphlets. Hubener seemed obsessed with telling the people of Hamburg the truthful things he had learned via shortwave radio, things that contradicted the propaganda from the media in Germany.

Hubener was eventually caught by the Gestapo, tortured and sentenced to death. His two friends were sentenced to years of hard labor. Hubener’s family was killed in the war, but his story was later discovered by Germans and publicized in the 1960s and 1970s. Hubener is now recognized as a hero in Germany.

Here is a very well done documentary about Hubener that I highly recommend watching:

Hubener’s case raises hundreds of moral questions for future generations to consider. Hubener broke the law, yet he is seen as a hero today. How do we know when laws are immoral and can be broken? President Heber J. Grant came to Germany in 1937 and did not tell Church members to rise up against the Nazi regime, and in fact the evidence indicates he encouraged them not to rebel. Did Hubener violate prophetic counsel? Hubener’s branch president was a supporter of the Nazis. How was it possible that an apparently good Christian like this man could support such an evil group? Was Hubener justified in acting in a way that his branch president condemned? Remember, he went against the wishes of his local priesthood leader. After the war, tens of millions of Germans regretted not speaking out against the Nazis. What can we learn from that regarding our own behavior during difficult times?

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During our ward Christmas party, our bishop suggested a great gift for others — and for yourself — this holiday season: forgiveness.

I really try hard not to hold grudges, so I usually tell myself I don’t need to forgive anybody, but when the bishop said this a few names came to mind. One of my gifts this Christmas will be to try to forgive these people.

Of course forgiving others can also be a gift to yourself. I will never forget a friend of mine who held a grudge against a family member, and I was inspired to say: “do you honestly think you are hurting this person by not forgiving him? You are hurting yourself more than you are hurting him. That guy is in your head. You are allowing that person to have power over you by holding that grudge. Just forgive him and let it go, and you will benefit most of all.”

We can repair family relationships and friendships by forgiving, but we can also heal our own wounds. Of course there is this important scripture: “Ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:9–10).

But it is also true that practicing forgiveness helps us become better and less bitter people. President James E. Faust said the following in 2007:

“If we can find forgiveness in our hearts for those who have caused us hurt and injury, we will rise to a higher level of self-esteem and well-being. Some recent studies show that people who are taught to forgive become “less angry, more hopeful, less depressed, less anxious and less stressed,” which leads to greater physical well-being. Another of these studies concludes “that forgiveness … is a liberating gift [that] people can give to themselves.”

So, a suggested present for Christmas: think of somebody to forgive and do your best to truly let go of that grudge.

Every once in a while you see an article with great practical advice, and this is one of them. I wanted to share with M* readers because this article really cheered me up. Yes, even in our sometimes dark times there is good news, and here it is: being grateful is likely to improve your health. Read on:

Gratitude is a simple practice that can have profound effects on your health and well-being. Positive effects linked to gratitude include social, psychological, and physical benefits, which increase the more you make gratitude a regular part of your daily routine.

“The limits to gratitude’s health benefits are really in how much you pay attention to feeling and practicing gratitude,” said neuroscientist Glenn Fox, a gratitude expert at the University of Southern California. “It’s very similar to working out, in that the more you practice, the better you get. The more you practice, the easier it is to feel grateful when you need it.”

….

Fox grew deeply interested in gratitude after his mother’s death from ovarian cancer. During her illness, he would send her studies on the benefits of gratitude in cancer patients, and she kept a gratitude journal in her final years.

In one example, 92 adults with advanced cancer engaged in mindful gratitude journaling or routine journaling. After seven days, those who kept a gratitude journal had significant improvements in measures of anxiety, depression, and spiritual well-being, so much so that the researchers concluded that “mindful gratitude journaling could positively affect the state of suffering, psychological distress, and quality of life of patients with advanced cancer.”

“Grateful people tend to recover faster from trauma and injury,” Fox told The Pulse. “They tend to have better and closer personal relationships and may even just have improved health overall.”

As it turns out, putting your gratitude in words can be an effective way to improve your mental health. Among 293 adults who sought psychotherapy services, those who engaged in gratitude writing reported significantly better mental health after four and 12 weeks than those who didn’t write or who wrote about their thoughts and feelings.

Modern-day prophets have told us this hundreds of times, of course. This is one of my favorite talks on gratitude:

Gratitude is a Spirit-filled principle. It opens our minds to a universe permeated with the richness of a living God. Through it, we become spiritually aware of the wonder of the smallest things, which gladden our hearts with their messages of God’s love. This grateful awareness heightens our sensitivity to divine direction. When we communicate gratitude, we can be filled with the Spirit and connected to those around us and the Lord. Gratitude inspires happiness and carries divine influence. “Live in thanksgiving daily,” said Amulek, “for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.”⁴

There you have it. There are practical and spiritual benefits to gratitude, and the more often we express them out loud the more we will take advantage of the benefits. This is such an important lesson for our times.