Yevet Tenney

For many in our world today, morals and family values have become a giant abstract painting where the paint is haphazardly slapped on the canvas without planning or purpose. Sexual intimacy is the guiding star, while children, families and continuance of the human family is only a brief afterthought and at best, an inconvenience.

Here I sit in the middle of January, with my goals and ambitions staring me in the face. Change is one of those tricky monsters, wielding a double-edged pen that plainly writes in bold print, “If you don’t choose to make the changes you want, life will change you into what you don’t want.”

Happy New Year’s! The sound reverberates through the world signaling a new beginning. I feel the weight of last year’s unkept resolutions lift off my shoulders and sail into the hope that this year will be different. It’s time to start over with a clean white sheet of new days brimming with possibilities.

Often, I am asked to write a Christmas program to commemorate the birth of our Savior. Here is the program I wrote for our church’s Christmas celebration. Perhaps you can use it in your family or congregation to bring the spirit of Christmas into your lives more abundantly.

The first time I remember singing the hymn of Thanksgiving, “Come Ye Thankful People Come,” written by Henry Alford, was at our eighth-grade Thanksgiving program for our parents back in 1963, the year President Kennedy was assassinated.

A few Sundays ago, I spent some time in the nursery at our church with my two granddaughters, Hazel and Darcy. Hazel is 1, and Darcy is 2. Like the other six or seven children in the nursery, their eyes shone with delight as they milled through the toys and played with each other.