Autumn · October
The complete archive of Melissa Whitaker's essays and reflections on LDS Family Life, organized around family discipleship, honest motherhood, marriage, faith at home, and the home rhythms that shape a family over time. Showing older posts, page 25.
Practical essays on prayer, scripture study, Sabbath patterns, and building a faithful home culture in ordinary life.
First-person reflections on parenting, emotional honesty, family fatigue, closeness, and raising children without performance.
Home notes on homemaking, hospitality, steadiness, and the spiritual texture of ordinary family routines.
Essays
June 6
I was folding laundry when my second-grader asked if Heavenly Father has a body like ours. She added, 'Sometimes I pray and I do not feel anything.'
June 6
The doorbell rang at 4:47 on a Tuesday afternoon. I stood there for a second, hand on the doorknob, and I had a choice.
June 6
The bread was burning. I could smell it from the living room, that sharp edge of heat that means the smoke alarm is about to join the conversation.
June 6
The juice box had been sitting on the kitchen counter since Tuesday. I stood there holding it, thinking about how many things I mean to get to but do not.
June 5
The toast crumbs stuck to my palm as I wiped the kitchen table. My second-grader had left glitter glue uncapped and a horse drawing under a math worksheet.
June 5
The timer on the microwave read 6:42. I had eighteen minutes to leave for mutual, and there I was on the kitchen floor with an egg timer and dried beans.
June 5
A Utah-shaped pancake taught me that the Sabbath is about connection, not perfection. Here is how our family found real rest.
June 5
A toddler drew a circle on the floor with a permanent marker and said it was for the meeting. She was right about what a family council is supposed to be.
June 4
A bathmat conversation about who made God taught me that the best spiritual teaching happens in the unplanned moments.
June 4
I sat down with a notebook and a plan. It lasted nine minutes. Here is what I learned about family councils since that day.