January's Bishopric Message: Change

As many of you may know, the bishopric divides the monthly conducting responsibilities for sacrament meeting throughout the year (along with doing sharing time in Primary and writing the bishopric message for the newsletter). Each of us also determines a general theme for the months we conduct to help our sacrament speakers focus on the gospel principles most needful for our ward. Of course, we do our very best to be inspired in our theme selections and speaker invitations.

In recent years, we’ve put together a list of our themes for the entire year to make it easier for Sister Nedra Christensen, our ward music chair, to select hymns that reflect those themes. We feel very blessed to have a tradition in our ward of spiritual sacrament meetings—thanks largely to speakers who always prepare well to give us the inspired messages the Lord would have us hear. I feel the Spirit in every sacrament meeting and also learn something I need to do personally to change my life for the better.

Usually, Sam and Jerry get their themes together way before I do, but this year I beat them both, much to their surprise. I did something a little different, too, choosing one-word themes with accompanying scriptures to help augment those themes. Sam and Jerry followed that pattern in their themes, and I think we ended up with some very timely and inspired themes for 2009.

When we were reviewing those themes during bishopric meeting one Sunday morning in early December, Mike Keetch, our incisive executive secretary, paused on the theme I had selected for January—“Change.” He surveyed everyone in the room and then looked directly at me with that half smile he always gets when he finds a little humor in something and said: “The election has been over for a month now. Can’t you give it a rest?”

As you can imagine, nothing I argued in denial convinced Mike, Sam, Jerry, and Lynn that I hadn’t chosen that theme consciously in celebration of Barack Obama’s January 20th inauguration. Every protest I made was greeted with more laughter, so I know any attempt to repeat those denials here would be futile. Instead, I think I’ll just go with it and write about “Change We Can Believe In.”

Of course, the real “change we can believe in” has very little to do with politics or even nationalism. It has everything to do with Jesus Christ and His atonement. Accordingly, the scripture theme for January comes from Alma’s sermon to the people of Zarahemla on the absolute necessity of seeking and maintaining a constant spiritual rebirth. Alma poses some key questions for us to ponder:

“And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?” (Alma 5:14-15)

Alma’s questions here also imply a pretty good definition of what it means to be spiritually reborn:

1. We need to reflect the image of God in our countenances.
2. We need to experience a change of heart.
3. We need to exercise faith in the Savior’s redemption on our behalf.
4. We need to look forward with faith to the resurrection and final judgment.

All this relates directly to the Church’s primary mission—to invite everyone to come unto Christ—which, in turn, reflects the Savior’s own invitation, made at multiple times and in multiple places, to “Come, Follow Me.”

The invitation to follow Christ is fundamentally an invitation to change. This invitation extends to everyone, of course, but it has special application, as Alma teaches us, to members of the Church because we have committed ourselves by covenant to follow the Savior and to become like Him. We cannot do that without being willing to change—to rid ourselves of every attitude and behavior that does not belong in a Christ-centered life.

We have often heard the aphorism that “the only constant in this world is change.” My experience tells me that this is true. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Malvolio (a comic and ironic figure) observes “[B]e not afraid of greatness: some are born to greatness, some achieve greatness, others have greatness thrust upon them.” Substituting “change” for “greatness” in Malvolio’s speech, I would write: “Be not afraid of change: we are born to change, we must achieve change, change will be thrust upon us.”

In our culture, the new year is a traditional time for making personal resolutions to change. As we do that, it’s important for us to remember that the new year comes just after Christmas, which should remind us that true change can come only through the Savior. So whatever resolutions we make for the coming year, let’s ground them all spiritually. We’ll have a much better chance of achieving them that way.

It’s our prayer that we’ll experience true “change we can believe in” throughout the coming year—as individuals, as families, and as a ward. Let’s renew our commitment to come unto Christ and to be perfected in Him. We know that we can live more Christ-like lives and that, through the atonement, we can each be given the power necessary to change—to transform our weaknesses into strengths and to enjoy greater inner peace and spirituality—whatever turmoil swirls about us in these troubled times.

Love, Bishop Snyder and the 12th Ward Bishopric

A Double Christmas Miracle by Marissa

Yesterday morning I was awakened around 8:30 by the sound of scraping. I jumped from my bed to see what was the matter. As I glanced through the front door glass I could hardly believe what appeared before my wondering eyes--Marissa dressed in her snowboarding pants and shoveling the walk and driveway. I dashed for the camera to record this Christmas miracle, calling for Delys to be a second witness to this remarkable event. Upon seeing this miraculous sight for herself, Delys exclaimed profoundly, "It's a double Christmas miracle, actually, Marissa shoveling the snow AND being up before noon on a holiday!"

Ward Christmas Party Miracle

It was the afternoon of the ward Christmas party, and the ward activities chair, Delys Snyder, still didn't have a Santa's helper lined up for the Primary children to visit. She had a great dinner, some music, a nativity, and a slide show of ward activities all ready to go--but no Santa. Delys had done everything she could, but nothing had worked out. It looked like the Salem 12th Ward was destined to party without the big man.

Then suddenly she had some inspiration. She knew that the bishop, being born on Christmas Eve, might have some special connections to Santa Claus, so she asked for his advice on how to get one of Santa's helpers to come to the party. The bishop, ever wise and inspired, counseled her to look toward Payson for help, and, sure enough, she got her Santa, a relative of the bishop. He arrived not a minute too soon and gathered his own posse of Santa's helpers to keep the Primary crowds at bay for the 90 minutes he was there spreading Christmas cheer.

It was a Christmas miracle.

I wanted to visit with Santa myself, but by the time I got finished with cleaning up the cultural hall, he was gone. As I stood there in the Relief Society room about five minutes too late, a half-dozen Primary children ran up to me all breathless, saying, "Bishop, Bishop . . . Santa Claus just left with your wife!" I started to panic a bit, but then they added, " We think she had to take him to the airport."

And that's how the ward Christmas party was saved.

Delys and Marissa Ride J.D.

This fall Delys and Marissa took some time out from their Saturday chores to do some riding.

J.D. needs more of this sort of thing, and so do Delys and Marissa. I had a good trot around the corral myself, trying to teach J.D. to be more supple and responsive.

There's nothing like being horseback on a beautiful fall day.

Revisiting Ben's Last Ride

Matt and Kerry Wickman and their daughters, Hadley and Elena, have enjoyed coming out to the Snyder place for barbeques and horse riding. The girls are especially fond of horses, especially Ben. One Friday afternoon a few falls ago, Matt brought Hadley and Elena over for a ride. It turned out to be Ben's last ride.

I noticed that he wasn't breathing well and took a long time coming in from the pasture when I called him. After the girls rode, I called my friend Jon Hunter, who's our vet, and he came over early the next morning. He examined Ben and told me Ben had pneumonia. Jon gave him an injection, and Ben seemed to perk up a bit that Saturday, but when I checked him before I left for bishopric meeting Sunday morning, I found him lying dead in his stall. He was 27 years old.

There's a Western tradition that everyone gets a horse of a lifetime--one that's better than all of the others. I was fortunate enough to have my very first horse be that horse of a lifetime. If there ever was a horse who filled the measure of his creation, that horse is Ben. It wasn't until I owned and rode other horses that I fully realized how truly remarkable Ben was--and how well he always took care of me. He always made me look to be a better horseman than I was. I still don't understand everything Ben taught me. As J. Frank Dobie once observed in The Mustangs ". . . a man who has had a good horse in his life . . . will remember him as a certitude, like a calm mother, a lovely lake, or a gracious tree, amid all the flickering vanishments."

It was sweet and fitting that Ben's last ride was with children. He gave many children their very first horse ride. I'll always remember Elena (who's pictured in the saddle) cradling Ben's drooping head in her arms as she told him goodbye that evening. They both seemed to sense what kind of parting it would be.

Cowboy Class Cowboy and Horse

Here are two photos of me and J.D. leading a class discussion of horses and tack at the Snyder Spread in idyllic Salem this past September.

Notice the custom-made, award-winning (2nd place at Elko) Mike Keetch saddle I'm riding. My goal is to become worthy of that saddle.

I've taken advantage of the beautiful Indian summer we've had this fall to do some riding with J.D. He's not Ben by any stretch, but he's good with kids and is learning to rein better. He remains stubborn and lazy, but is not at all jumpy like Ricks.

What I Did During My Summer Vacation: Part 2

This is a photo of our youth conference group at Camp Williams where we did rappelling and also divided into teams to go through the LRC (Leadership Reaction Course or something like that).

We stayed at Tracey's palatial estate just minutes away from Camp Williams and dined on gourmet food catered by Tracey herself. Everyone was impressed especially by Tracey's fine art collection. I am particularly fond of the tile work in the shower of the master bedroom. I spent some time there admiring it. I found that hot water coming from two different directions enhances the rich colors of the tile.