Author Archives: Joyce Anderson

About Joyce Anderson

Her family and friends call her the Queen of the United States...and Mom -- Joyce Anderson has been involved in LDS apologetics for over 20 years and with the Millennial Star since 2010. Since the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic she has added homeschooler to her list things she does in addition to being the butcher, baker & candlestick maker. When not schooling the children, she reads, paints, declutters, teaches primary, and is happy to share a bowl of chips & salsa with anyone who stops by.

Church Music: I Will Walk With Jesus, and Go & Do

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In the Face to Face broadcast back in November, two new songs were introduced which go along with the new Children and Youth programs in the Church. Normally, I am not a fan of what I call “church pop”, but these songs are really good and have brought a very strong spirit into our home as we’ve listened to them. And as an FYI — there is an entire album of songs that go with this year’s youth program found by following THIS LINK.

We started learning I Will Walk With Jesus in Primary today. It was raining on my face is all, I was not weepy or anything — primary kids are the best! I am really starting to understand at a deeper level why Pres. Nelson talks about walking the “Covenant Path” so much. We need to walk that path, we need to teach our children to walk that path at very young ages, because the world they are going to live in will try and take them in so many ways off of that sacred path.

The song for the youth (kids age 11-18) is called Go & Do and is the youth theme for the year, based off of 1 Nephi 3: 7. . In the official video the song is sung by David Archuleta. This song also talks about walking with Christ. Do you see the theme of walking the covenant path and walking that path with Jesus Christ? What a great message for our kids. What an invitation for all of us.

Christmas Music: The Nutcracker Ballet

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Last year when I had more time, I shared some of my favorite Christmas music every day in December. Life is a bit more hectic this year, and I’m only getting to thinking about Christmas this week, and even then, it’s very passive thoughts. If anyone wants to come wrap presents, let me know …

One of my favorite memories of childhood Christmas time is dressing up in our Sunday best, piling in the station wagon with all of our cousins and Grandparents, and driving over to Grady Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, Arizona. Every year Ballet West would come thru town and perform the Nutcracker Ballet. We went every year. Gammage was magical, the Nutcracker was magical, and planted in my childhood heart a love of Russian classical music.

This weekend we’re going to watch the Nutcracker with our kids, on the TV, as we’re far away from Arizona, Gammage and have no station wagon to pile into. Enjoy this performance of the Bolshoi from last year.

Love Makes a Family and Other Lies

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This morning for our family devotional I felt prompted to take a slight detour from our regular Book of Mormon reading and read the Family Proclamation.  I found out a few days ago my older son was having a lesson on families today.  The school district we live in has partnered with a prominent LGBT activist group to teach “kindness, tolerance, and diversity”.  That’s not really their goal though.  Their goal is to introduce and normalize LGBT propaganda to young children.  There are plenty of programs out there that teach tolerance, kindness and diversity without an LGBT focus  I found out about this group and their program at the parent night which was held the first week of school.  As much as we all hate going to those things, it was a good thing I went, and noticed in the display of books on the teacher’s desk of the curriculum materials from this group.  Friends, pay attention, and be “that parent”.  I’ll share my experiences meeting with the superintendent of the school district about this program in a later post. Continue reading →

Fall of the Berlin Wall 30 Years Later

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Ten years ago today, I wrote my first post for The Millennial Star as a regular contributor. I wrote about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (see that post HERE).  Today is the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.  As I usually do on November 9th, I’ve spent some time thinking about that momentous event, and its impact on my life.  I’ve been thinking about my exchange-family and friends in Berlin.  We’ve sent messages this week celebrating, remembering, and giving thanks that, that wretched wall is gone.

As I wrote ten years ago, I served a full time mission behind the Iron Curtain in Bulgaria.  When I was there, the dreary grey of communism still stuck on all of the buildings.  People struggled to meet their most basic needs of feeding and clothing their family.  Sometimes basic food items like bread and meat were scarce. Inflation was rampant, sometimes the exchange rate even changed several times a day.  You didn’t change your American Dollars until the minute you needed to buy something it was so out of control.  With the rise of socialism’s popularity in this country, I find myself saying to anyone who promotes socialism to talk to me after they’ve waited in a bread line or 14 — believe me, it’s not as fun as you might think. Continue reading →

Live In Thanksgiving Daily

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I feel like this year has been a slog thru the trenches of life for me and my family. One of the things that has helped me this year as I have navigated some pretty big trials is to be grateful and to show gratitude is hand writing thank you notes. I bought a big box of thank you cards in the spring when I was recovering from a broken foot and spent time each day writing thank you notes to people that had come into our home to serve me and my family. It felt good to hand write a card, to stick a stamp on it and wait for the mailman to take it away. I love a well written thank you note. Its something we need to bring back, don’t you think? (The only answer is yes here).

Sister Bonnie D Parkin, former Relief Soceity General President said of 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.”

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to concentrate on gratitude in our family — even more than I already make my kids do — they roll their eyes most days, because I won’t let them complain until they’ve told me three unique things they are thankful for. Usually by the time they get to the second thing, their gripe is dampened, or gone altogether. I hope you will join me and my family in our daily thanksgiving, and comment here on my posts as I make them. I’m inviting you to reach deep inside and think and ponder on the things you are thankful for. I’m also inviting you to share that gratitude with those in your circle — and beyond just social media, which is fine, but let’s take it to the next level which is connecting with people. Reach out to the people in your life and share the spirit of gratitude with them I feel like if we can be grateful ourselves and encourage others to also be grateful, we might be successful in diffusing some of the angst in our respective circles, with the hope that we might all be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in the process.

Happy November!