Today in the Bloggernacle: The unexpected tenderness of a prophet and showing gratitude

Joseph F. Smith: When you think about President Joseph F. Smith what comes to mind? This blogger explains: “I have had a perception of him as strict, doctrinaire, and very stern. However, reading the journals and some letters to his adopted son, Edward Arthur Smith, I’ve seen the depth of feelings towards family, tenderness with those he loved, and more emotional undercurrents than his very formal public persona would seem to indicate. Nowhere do those feelings show up more than in notes he made in his journal while serving as President of the European Mission and learning that his cousin and close friend, George A. Smith had died.” And you just must read these beautiful entries he made, so sweet and full of love.

Gratitude idea: Here is an activity on “Gratitude” to get your Thanksgiving creativity flowing. It’s for an Activity Day girls group, but could be used for family home evening or for Primary or more. And instead of songs, you could do scripture stories or Primary lessons, or genealogy stories, or anything that gets your children thinking about the people in their lives who teach and serve them. Love it!

NaNoWriMo goal: A few weeks ago I wrote about how November is National Novel Writing Month and that LDS writers around the blogosphere are participating. Well, it’s Nov. 9 and LDS writer Heather Justesen is done. In fact, she finished with her 50,000-word NaNo novel on Nov. 5. Wow! Click in to see how she did it!

Nursery certificate: I really should save this blog for closer to the end of the year, but I’m afraid I’ll forget it, so you get to see this darling “Nursery Graduation Certificate” that you can print out and then fill out to give to the nursery kids as they take that big step into Primary. So cute!

Emily W. Jensen updates "Today in the Bloggernacle" on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, presenting the best from the world of LDS-oriented blog sites. Her extended "Bloggernacle Back Bench" appears on Tuesdays.

Email: ejensen@desnews.com