First Presidency Christmas Devotional: President Monson — 'A time to remember'
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Complete text:
President Thomas S. Monson: A Bright, Shining Star
President Henry B. Eyring: The Gift of a Savior
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf : Seeing Christmas Through New Eyes
The Christmas season brings to all people a measure of happiness that corresponds to the degree to which they have turned their minds, feelings and actions to the Savior, whose birth they celebrate, said President Thomas S. Monson.
"There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ," said President Monson during the annual First Presidency Christmas Devotional on Dec. 5.
President Monson offered a message of peace and hope to thousands gathered in the Conference Center, which was adorned with Christmas lights, trees and poinsettias. His counselors in the First Presidency, President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor, and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor, also offered holiday messages centered on the Savior.
Hundreds of thousands of Church members around the world heard the devotional, broadcast on the Church's satellite system, BYUTV and on KBYU in Utah.
Music for the evening was provided by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square.
During his remarks, President Monson said in approaching this special and sacred season, he has contemplated past Christmases.
"In looking back over the years, it is obvious that the Christmases I remember best, the Christmases which touched my heart the most, are Christmases filled with love and giving and the spirit of the Savior. I believe that such would be true for all of us as we reminisce concerning our best remembered Christmases. Bringing the Christmas spirit into our hearts and homes takes conscious effort and planning but can surely be accomplished."
President Monson said that he recently reread an account by John B. Matheson,Jr., describing an experience of more than 65 years ago during the 1945 U.S. Army occupation in Frankfurt, Germany. World War II had ended but, during the war, Frankfurt had suffered much destruction. Most of the city was rubble. John was living, with two other officers, in a three-story home cleaned by an elderly German woman who was hired by the army.
As Christmas approached, John thought he should give a gift to the housekeeper. He filled a box with candy bars, soap and cans for fruit juice that he had saved from rations he received at the post exchange. "He knew that in the system of barter among the Germans, his gift to her was worth many, many dollars, but the cost to him was negligible."
John left the gift and a Christmas greeting for the elderly woman on Dec. 24. It was a gift given out of pity and for self-satisfaction, said President Monson. "All day he felt rather smug as he thought of his generous gift. The housekeeper would be like an heiress in the poverty of her neighborhood. How lucky she was, he thought."
When he returned that evening his gift was gone and in its place a gift for him. "On that dimly lit table, along with her painstakingly written 'Merry Christmas,' were 10 old and dog-eared picture postcard scenes of Frankfurt as it had appeared before the war had so devastated it. The housekeeper had placed each card on edge and fastened them together so that every two cards formed a point and all ten together formed the Christmas star."
President Monson said the woman had little to give. "Though John Matheson lived to see many more Christmases, that little housekeeper's Christmas star shone brightly throughout his life. He said that star of Bethlehem implanted within him the Christmas spirit and taught him the true meaning of love and giving."
He asked the worldwide congregation to, during this Christmas season, rededicate themselves to the principles taught by the Savior.
"Let it be a time that lights the eyes of children and puts laughter on their lips," President Monson said. "Let it be a time for lifting the lives of those who live in loneliness. Let it be a time for calling our families together, for feeling a closeness to those who are near to us and a closeness also to those who are absent.
"Let it be a time of prayers for peace, for the preservation of free principles, and for the protection of those who are far from us. Let it be a time of forgetting self and finding time for others. Let it be a time of discarding the meaningless and for stressing the true values. Let it be a time of peace because we have found peace in His teachings.
"Most of all, let it be a time to remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds and the worship of the wise men.
"My brothers and sisters, may the spirit of love which comes at Christmas time fill our homes and our lives and linger there long after the tree is down and the lights are put away for another year."
