Welcome to A Personal Touch. I’m Rebecca Cressman, and throughout the month of December, we’ve been bringing you a special series called “How We Believe.” It’s a personal look at how different faiths celebrate the holidays. And this week, we have the honor to be joined by John Hilton III. He is an author, a speaker, a fulltime seminary teacher for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I should add a husband and the father of five beautiful children. Thank you so much and welcome to A Personal Touch, John.
A: Thanks for letting me come.
Q: Now, I’ve noticed that as you spoke and you have written, you have touched on multiple topics when it comes to faith and religion and it increases our own personal testimony of the Scriptures. You also released something that I thought was fantastic. It’s called, The Little Book of Christmas Spirit. And inside that electronic book, I found multiple, multiple opportunities to learn about what you as a seminary teacher, and what you as a member of the LDS Church, believe about the importance of Christmas and how we can rediscover Christ and its traditions. So help me understand, when you put that pamphlet together, where were you? Were you thinking as someone who teaches youth fulltime that they needed to understand that Christmas is all about Christ? Or was this about your own personal testimony?
A: That’s a great question. You know, a lot of it had to do with me trying to think, “What can I do to make this Christmas, this would be last year’s Christmas, more focused on the Savior? Because sometimes it’s not until December 24th when you are sitting around reading Luke 2 together that you start to say, “Oh, yeah. Well, that’s right. That’s what Christmas is all about.” So I was trying to figure out what are things we could do throughout the month to really bring that feeling.
Q: And when you say the feeling of Christmas that we are looking for—when you say there—because you have activities—you mentioned reading Luke 2—you also talk about going back and trying to understand the history behind the very first Nativity scene. Is it because you want to bring a greater sense of spirituality to Christmas that you wrote this or that you are hoping to help us?
A: Yes. Thomas S. Monson who’s the President and Prophet for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has said that the spirit of Christmas is the spirit of Christ. So I was trying to invite ways to bring in that true spirit of Jesus Christ into our lives.
Q: You also quoted not only President Thomas S. Monson but also a former LDS Prophet, Howard W. Hunter. And there was a list of 22 things someone could do to find or rediscover Christmas. Now you can’t list all 22 but they have some common threads in them, don’t they, about the importance of learning to forgive and be compassionate? Talk to me a bit about that, why you included that.
A: This is one of my favorite quotes. Several, like you said, are similar. Something like, “Examine your demands on others,” “Think first of someone else.” So often you can get a long line in the store and it just starts to dissipate the good cheery atmosphere one would hope to have at Christmastime. But instead, if I could step back and think, “How can I help this person? How can I help this poor cashier who is so tired?” All of a sudden a feeling comes in and we try to think more of how the Savior would view this time of year.
Q: And you mentioned that you had at one point a particularly stressful Christmas and you felt a lot of pressure and you said, “You didn’t feel enough of the Christmas spirit,” and you started thinking about a quote you had read about taking pleasure and the beauty and wonder of the earth. How does rediscovering maybe the outdoors play into rediscovering the spirit of Christmas?
A: That’s a great question. You know, it has to do with the creation of the world and that everything we have is a great gift from God to us. So sometimes in the hustle and bustle maybe I don’t pause to look around and see, “Oh, that is gorgeous! It’s beautiful!” Take time to reflect and be grateful for the gift of the beautiful world that we have been given.
Q: And interestingly, you focus not only on current leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and former leaders. You talk about the importance of immersing ourselves in the Scriptures. What is it about really understanding the story of the Nativity that helps you as a father of young children bring your children closer to the true meaning of Christmas?
A: I think that there are lots of perhaps small details that maybe are vital or crucial to understand, but if we do understand, can enhance our feelings about the birth of Jesus Christ. For example, one BYU Professor, Kelly Ogden, wrote an article that I had no idea that the distance Mary and Joseph traveled was about 92 miles. If you think about a woman who is approximately nine months pregnant walking 92 miles; to me gives a greater scope or an impact to the journey that we know happened but without knowing the length or the distance. This becomes more meaningful. I think there’s lots of little insights like that, that when we not only read but really study and ponder and think about the birth of Jesus Christ, the season takes on additional meaning.
Q: And when you suggest that we immerse ourselves in the stories and in the history of Christ, is it something that you suggest that we do a few days before Christmas? I mean, what is your tradition as a family?
A: I copied a good friend of mine, Stephanie Nixon, in Orlando, Florida, who told me that she noticed there were 24 chapters in the Book of Luke, and so her tradition was to read a chapter a day from the Book of Luke to kind of celebrate the whole breadth of the life and mission of Jesus Christ. And so this year I’ve tried to do that as well and I found that it’s been great to not only study the birth of the Savior but throughout the whole month to be thinking about his life and teachings.
Q: And as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, if I were to ask you to tell me what is the most powerful part of Christmas for you, what would that be? I mean, what is the most meaningful part of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ? And it may be kind of a deeper question in there, but when you do look at that and you look at all that you can read and all that you can celebrate and all you can do to try to help other people feel loved and appreciated, where does that bring you? To what specific point does that point you as a member of the LDS Church?
A: That’s really interesting because just this morning I was reading an article. It was talking about Elder Quentin L. Cook, one of the Twelve Apostles, and he said, “We should always be caring for the poor, visiting the sick, but especially at Christmastime. It’s significant we do that.” And for me, those have been the most touching moments, whether it was as a teenager: one time my parents took us to downtown Seattle where I grew up and we distributed little bags of food to people who were homeless or try to do secret Santas for those in need. I think that actual trying to serve others, trying to reach out and extend Christ’s love, for me, is the most meaningful and powerful part of Christmas.
Q: And when you—and easily understandable you have little ones in your home, what do they understand or how do you teach them about the importance of Jesus Christ as we celebrate His birth at this time of the year?
A: We try to put the Gospel into action. As you may know, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a family night once a week and so this month we’ve tried every family night to go out and find ways that we can serve others: going to carol at a retirement home, for example, or anonymously delivering little baskets of goodies. I think as we are out trying to live and experience the service that Jesus Christ might render if He were here for that is a powerful way to bring into our hearts the feeling of the love that Jesus Christ has for each one of us.
Q: What about symbols? Are there certain things that you do keep in your home to keep the Christmas holidays Christ-centered? Because we all kind of do. We open up our boxes, we open up the decorations, and we pull them out and the trees and you have got the garland and you have got the lights. But what about what do you use, or what do you suggest that we can use that will underscore keeping Christ at the center of the holiday?
A: I think that we probably have the same kind of traditions like trees, lights. Maybe the challenge and the opportunity for us is to see beyond the artifact and look to the symbol. For example, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” So when I look at the Christmas lights, do I just see a cheery glow or do those lights remind me of the light of Jesus Christ? When I look at the Christmas tree, do I remember the Tree of Life or do I just see the ornamentations? I think that’s the key, not just to have all these decorations, but to see beyond the decorations to how they testify of Jesus Christ.
Q: You know, as we talked about those, the strapping’s of the holidays, it’s very common for us to have books out not only to read the Scriptures or read the Bible and relive – and the Book of Mormon and relive the story of the coming of the Savior, but there are other traditional stories, like A Christmas Carol. And I was surprised to see that you think or you believe that Charles Dickens’, A Christmas Carol is inspired by God. Tell me about that.
A: Yes. It’s actually, again, President Thomas S. Monson who said, “I personally feel it is inspired of God,” and it’s the same kind of a saying where at least for me as I watch A Christmas Carol at the end I feel a desire to go help others, to be of service, to be more like Jesus Christ. Those things that inspire us and motivate us to be like Jesus Christ I believe are inspired of God. That’s become a tradition for our family that the second Saturday of December, we always watch either at a play or on a movie, A Christmas Carol. It always brings a special spirit to our home.
Q: And I hadn’t really thought about that. I’ve known it, and of course we have watched that movie. We read that book. We feel good inside. But drawing that connection, talking with your children, and us as adults seeing the connection to helping one another is the true spirit of Christ. That brings us back again to the true meaning of Christmas. John, thank you so much for The Little Book of Christmas and for taking a little bit of time and sharing with us ideas on how we can grow closer to Jesus Christ during this holiday season. Thank you so much.
A: You are welcome. And, Rebecca, your listeners may be interested to know that the book is free. You can easily access it at deseretbook.com/free. That’s for whoever would like a copy.
Q: And you indicated that the more copies that they give out free to others, the more joyful the Christmas gift from you to our listeners is, correct?
A: You got it.
Q: Great. Thank you, John Hilton, for joining us. We sure appreciate that.
A: Thank you.
Q: We also want to thank you for joining us for this special series of A Personal Touch. Be sure to check your email next week to find out who else like John Hilton III is making a difference in our world with a Personal Touch.
End of interview.
