Everyone Needs Their Own Spot

Judgment

2012-01-04T13:41:00.001-05:00

We also need to remember that the Lord’s judgment will be infinitely more merciful and kind than our own. Joseph Smith said, While one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard . . . He is a wise Lawgiver, and will judge all men, not according to the narrow, contracted notions of men.

- (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, edited by Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah, Deseret Book Co., 1938, 218.)

Health

2011-11-07T12:45:00.002-05:00

"Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction."

- William James (Born to Run, Christopher McDougall, pg. 112)

Health

2011-11-07T12:42:00.001-05:00

"Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don't [care] how high the hill is or how far you've got to go. When you've practice that so long that you forget you're practicing, you work on making it smooooth. You won't have to worry about the last one- you get those three, and you'll be fast."

- Born to Run, Christopher McDougall, pg. 111

Health

2011-11-07T12:40:00.001-05:00

Maybe the Ancient Hindus were better crystal-ball-gazers than Hollywood when they predicted the world would end not with a bang but with a big old yawn. Shiva the Destroyer would snuff us out by doing. . . nothing. Lazing out. Withdrawing his hot-blooded force from our bodies. Letting us become slugs.

- Born to Run, Christopher McDougall, pg 99

Trials

2011-11-01T18:53:00.001-04:00

We want lives of simple, predictable ease — smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see — but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension and yet don’t. By his love and grace we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise…

Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?

- Tony Snow

Living

2011-11-01T18:48:00.000-04:00

“How delightful is the company of generous people, who overlook trifles and keep their minds instinctively fixed on whatever is good and positive in the world about them. People of small caliber are always carping…. But magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere.”

-Brooks, 1948

Home

2011-09-21T13:49:00.001-04:00

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

-Maya Angelou

Family

2011-09-21T12:09:00.001-04:00

"Women friends fill up a certain space in our hearts," my mother told me following a presentation in Omaha, "and romantic love fills another. Family, though, has a special chamber that expands and expands." She'd widened her hands to show me how large a family place could be. "There's room for sunsets and rainbows and shiny rocks that remind us of our strengths, for dogs and horses and cats too. Room for the giggles of toddlers you don't even know. And over all is God's love, which flows through all the chambers, seeping into cracks and filling up the empty spaces until you're so full you almost cannot breathe. It's God who shines in the faces of all those other people looking back at you. You don't really need Forest Stapleton or anyone else."

- The Daughter's Walk, Jane Kirkpatrick, pg. 332

Living

2011-09-21T12:04:00.002-04:00

Olea often explored theological questions during the coffee time, posing thoughts like whether one ought to worship Jesus as a signpost or by following His direction. "If you see the sign saying 'Seventy Miles to Coulee City,' you don't stay there saying, 'Yes, this is what matters. I will worship the sign.' No, you follow the directions; you follow Him. That's true worship, by doing what He asks of us."

- The Daughter's Walk, Jane Kirkpatrick, pg. 155

Become as a Little Child

2011-06-24T19:42:00.001-04:00

I have been studying the General Conference talk by Jean A. Stevens called "Become as a Little Child". As I've watched my own children, I can see their innocence, curiosity, love, and joy and I understand why we are asked to become as little children. Sister Stevens said "These precious children of God come to us with believing hearts. They are full of faith and receptive to feelings of the Spirit. They exemplify humility, obedience, and love. They are often the first to love and the first to forgive." What wonderful traits to have. If the same could be said of most adults, imagine how much happier our lives might be. I'm also learning that even as adults we don't always know what is best for ourselves, just as little children often can't see past their immediate situation. We truly are like children in the sense that our Heavenly Father knows more than we do, and he will help us become who we need to be even if we can't quite understand it yet. I'm grateful to be serving in the Primary where I get to see and teach and learn from the children, and am continually reminded to "become as a little child". Sister Stevens describes children as "bright spirits who are untarnished by the world - teachable and full of faith." Let us all try to stay untarnished by the world and remain teachable throughout our lives.

- written by me for the ward newsletter, 6/24/11

2011-05-22T22:58:00.004-04:00

"We will [not] always be rescued from proximate problems, but we will be rescued from everlasting death! Meanwhile, ultimate hope makes it possible to say the same three words used centuries ago by three valiant men. They knew God could rescue them from the fiery furnace if He chose. ‘But if not,’ they said, nevertheless, they would still serve Him!"

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, (Ensign, Nov. 1994, 35).

Living

2011-03-08T14:07:00.001-05:00

“The sweetest experience I know in life is to feel a prompting and act upon it and later find out that it was the fulfillment of someone’s prayer or someone’s need. And I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, Tom Monson will run that errand for Him.”

- Pres. Monson

Faith

2011-01-03T19:58:00.001-05:00

"Because of the conflicts and challenges we face in today's world, I wish to suggest a single choice-a choice of peace and protection and a choice that is appropriate for all. That choice is faith. Be aware that faith is not a free gift given without thought, desire, or effort. It does not come as the dew falls from heaven. The Savior said, "Come unto me" (Matthew 11:28) and "Knock, and it shall be [given] you" (Matthew 7:7). These are action verbs-come, knock. They are choices. So I say, choose faith. Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism."

-Richard C. Edgley, "Faith-the Choice is Yours", Oct 2010 General Conference

Faith

2011-01-03T19:57:00.003-05:00

"When faith is properly understood and used, it has dramatically far-reaching effects. Such faith can transform an individual's life from maudlin, common every day activities to a symphony of joy and happiness."
-Richard G. Scott, "The Transforming Power of Faith and Character", Oct 2010 General Conference

Life

2010-11-06T16:28:00.000-04:00

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
- Douglas Adams, English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001)

Reading

2010-08-12T16:34:00.000-04:00

Life

2010-07-02T15:21:00.000-04:00

If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough.

- Mario Andretti

New York

2010-06-18T22:26:00.001-04:00

Living in New York is like being at some terrible late-night party. You're tired, you've had a headache since you arrived, but you can't leave because then you'd miss the party.

- Simon Hoggart

Living

2010-06-17T21:12:00.001-04:00

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you will begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Book

2010-03-28T21:11:00.002-04:00

Why had no one told me that my body would become a battlefield, a sacrifice, a test? Why did I not know that birth is the pinnacle where women discover the courage to become mothers? But of course, there is no way to tell this or to hear it.

- The Red Tent, Anita Diamant, pg. 224

Book

2010-03-28T21:09:00.002-04:00

Just as there is no warning for childbirth, there is no preparation for the sight of a first child. I studied his face, fingers, the folds in his boneless little legs, the whorls of his ears, the tiny nipples on his chest. I held my breath as he sighed, laughed when he yawned, wondered at his grasp on my thumb. I could not get my fill of looking.

- The Red Tent, Anita Diamant, pg. 226

Death

2010-03-28T21:02:00.001-04:00

Death is no enemy, but the foundation of gratitude, sympathy, and art. Of all life's pleasures, only love owes no debt to death.

- The Red Tent, Anita Diamant, pg. 320

Book

2010-03-28T21:00:00.001-04:00

If you want to understand any woman you must first ask about her mother and then listen carefully. Stories about food show a strong connection. Wistful silences demonstrate unfinished business. The more a daughter knows the details of her mother's life - without flinching or whining - the stronger the daughter.

- The Red Tent, Anita Diamant, pg. 2

Reading

2010-03-09T13:57:00.001-05:00

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

- G.K. Chesterton

Book

2009-10-24T14:56:00.002-04:00

"It is a good thing to learn the truth one's self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch. When as a woman life and people disappoint her, she will have had practice in disappointment and it will not come so hard. In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 84

Book

2009-10-24T14:34:00.001-04:00

The last time of anything has the poignancy of death itself. This that I see now, she thought, to seen no more this way. Oh, the last time how clearly you see everything; as though a magnifying light had been turned on it. And you grieve because you hadn't held it tighter when you had it every day. What had granma Mary Rommely said? "To look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 466

Book

2009-10-24T14:32:00.001-04:00

Katie heard the story. "It's come at last," she thought, "the time when you can no longer stand between your children and heartache. When there wasn't enough food in the house you pretended that you weren't hungry so they could have more. In the cold of a winter's night you got up and put your blanket on their bed so they wouldn't be cold. You'd kill anyone who tried to harm them... Then one sunny day, they walk out in all innocence and they walk right into the grief that you'd give your life to spare them."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 453

Book

2009-10-24T14:29:00.001-04:00

"People always think that happiness is a faraway thing," thought Francie, "something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up; a place of shelter when it rains-a cup of strong hot coffee when you're blue; for a man, a cigarette for contentment; a book to read when you're alone-just to be with someone you love. Those things make happiness."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 448

Book

2009-10-24T14:26:00.001-04:00

"Ai. I am eighty-five now and I feel that this is my last time of sickness. I wait for death with the courage I gained from living. I will not speak falsely and say to you: 'Do not grieve for me when I go.' I have loved my children and tried to be a good mother and it is right that my chldren grieve for me. But let your grief be gentle and brief. And let resignation creep into it. Know that I shall be happy. I shall see face to face the great saints I have loved all my life."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 434

Book

2009-10-24T14:23:00.001-04:00

"Dear God," she prayed, "let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry . . . have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere - be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 413

Book

2009-10-24T14:21:00.002-04:00

She knew from listening to her grandmother that old age was made up of such remembrances of youth. But she didn't want to recall things. She wanted to live things - or as a compromise, re-live rather than reminisce. She decided to fix this time in her life exactly the way it was this instant. Perhaps that way she could hold on to it as a living thing and not have it become something called a memory.

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith

Book

2009-10-24T14:17:00.002-04:00

"There's no other place like it," Francie said.
"Like what?"
"Brooklyn. It's a magic city and it isn't real."
"It's just like any other place."
"It isn't! I go to New York every day and New York's not the same. I went to Bayonne once to see a girl from the office who was home, sick. And Bayonne isn't the same. It's mysterious here in Brooklyn. It's like - yes - like a dream. The houses and streets don't seem real. Neither do the people."
"They're real enough - the way they fight and holler at each other and the way they're poor, and dirty, too."
"But it's like a dream of being poor and fighting. They don't really feel these things. It's like it's all happening in a dream."
"Brooklyn is no different than any other place," said Neeley firmly. "It's only your imagination makes it different. But that's all right," he added magnanimously, "as long as it makes you feel so happy."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 400

Book

2009-10-24T14:11:00.002-04:00

There was no different feeling about the train as it went over the Bridge. New York was disappointing. The buildings were higher and the crowds thicker; otherwise it was little different from Brooklyn. From now on, would all new things be disappointing, she wondered?
She had often studied the map of the United States and crossed its plains, mountains, deserts, and rivers in her imagination. And it had seemed a wonderful thing. Now she wondered whether she wouldn't be disappointed in that,to. Supposing, she thought, she was to walk across this great country. She'd start out at seven in the morning, say, and walk westward. She'd put one foot down in front of the other to cover distance, and, as she walked to the west, she'd be so busy with her feet and with the realization that her footsteps were part of a chain that had started in Brooklyn, that she might think nothing at all of the mountains, rivers, plains, and deserts she came upon. All she'd notice was that some things were strange because they reminded her of Brooklyn and that other things were strange because they were so different from Brooklyn. "I guess there is nothing new, then in the world," decided Francie unhappily. "If there is anything new or different, some part of it must be in Brooklyn and I must be used to it and wouldn't be able to notice it if I came across it." Like Alexander the Great, Francie grieved, being convinced that there were no new worlds to conquer.

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 370

Book

2009-10-24T14:09:00.002-04:00

"Maybe," thought Francie, "she doesn't love me as much as she loves Neeley. But she needs me more than she needs him and I guess being needed is almost as good as being loved. Maybe better."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 326

Book

2009-10-24T14:07:00.001-04:00

"...You want to live, don't you?"
"Yes. But I want to live for something. I don't want to live to get charity food to give me enough strength to go back and get more charity food."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 297

Book

2009-10-24T14:04:00.004-04:00

"Mama never..." Suddenly the right word about mama came to Francie. "Mama never fumbles."
No, Katie never fumbled. When she used her beautifully-shaped but worn-looking hands, she used them with surety, whether it was to put a broken flower into a tumbler of water with one true gesture, or to wring out a scrub cloth with one decisive motion - the right hand turning in, and the left out, simultaneously. When she spoke she spoke truly with the plain right words. And her thoughts walked in a clear uncompromising line.

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 292

Book

2009-10-24T14:01:00.002-04:00

"They learned no compassion from their own anguish. Thus their suffering was wasted."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 159

Book

2009-10-24T13:58:00.001-04:00

"Johnny knew he was doomed and accepted it. Katie wouldn't accept it. She started a new life where her old one left off. She exchanged her tenderness for capability. She gave up her dreams and took over hard realities in their place. Katie had a fierce desire fr survival which made her a fighter. Johnny had a hankering after immortality which made him a useless dreamer. And that was the great difference between these two who loved each other so well."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 96

Book

2009-10-24T13:54:00.001-04:00

"It's not better to die [than to live]. Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. It's growing out of sour earth. And it's strong because its hard struggle to live is making it strong. My children will be strong that way."

-A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith, pg. 93

Teaching

2009-10-12T12:41:00.001-04:00

"We teach our children to serve well by serving well ourselves. We teach them to forgive by forgiving. We teach love and kindness by being loving and kind, gratitude and appreciation by being grateful and appreciative. ... We teach them principles of honesty and integrity by being honest, truthful, trustworthy, and dependable. We teach them the virtues of responsibility and accountability by being doers, not doubters, by accepting opportunities to participate and to serve, by making our word our bond. When we exemplify love and kindness, are of good cheer, and engage in lifting others and bringing them joy, peace, and happiness, our children will learn by our example and our behavior to do the same. What we want them to be, we must be. If we want them to bear the image of Christ in their countenances, we must strive to wear it ourselves."

-Ronald L. Knighton, "Being Our Children's Greatest Teachers," Ensign, June 2001

Testimony

2009-10-12T12:40:00.002-04:00

"Within the walls of our own homes, we can and should declare our witness of things that are true. Within the walls of our own homes, we can and should bear pure testimony of the divinity and reality of the Father and the Son, of the great plan of happiness, and of the Restoration." ... "Our testimony of gospel truth should be reflected both in our words and in our deeds. And our testimonies are proclaimed and lived most powerfully in our own homes."

-Elder David A. Bednar, "More Diligent & Concerned at Home", October 2009 General Conference

Teaching

2009-10-12T12:40:00.001-04:00

"We have the greatest opportunity with the young. The best time to teach is early, while children are still immune to the temptations of their mortal enemy, and long before the word of truth may be harder for them to hear in the noise of their personal struggles. A wise parent would never miss a chance to gather children together to learn of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Such moments are so rare in comparison with the efforts of the enemy. For every hour the power of doctrine is introduced in to a child's life, there may be hundreds of hours of messages and images denying or ignoring the saving truths."

-President Henry B. Eyring, "The Power of Teaching Doctrine," Ensign, May 1999

Book

2009-06-02T09:09:00.001-04:00

"I've learned this much about marriage," he said now. "You get tested. You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accommodate or don't."
... "Still," he said, "there are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike.
"And the biggest one of those values, Mitch?"
Yes?
"Your belief in the importance of your marriage."

-Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom, pg. 149

Book

2009-06-02T09:05:00.002-04:00

"Mitch, it is impossible for the old not to envy the young. But the issue is to accept who you are and revel in that. This is your time to be in your thirties. I had my time to be in my thirties, and now is my time to be seventy-eight.
"You have to find what's good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And, age is not a competitive issue."
... "The truth is, part of me is every age. I'm a three-year-old, I'm a five-year-old, I'm a thirty-seven-year-old, I'm a fifty-year-old. I've been through all of them, and I know what it's like. I delight in being a child when it's appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it's appropriate to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age, up to my own. Do you understand?"
... "How can I be envious of where you are - when I've been there myself?"

-Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom, pg. 120

Book

2009-06-02T09:01:00.001-04:00

"It's very simple. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you'd always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it."
Yes, I said, but if aging were so valuable, why do people always say, "Oh, if I were young again." You never hear people say, "I wish I were sixty-five."
He smiled. "You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven't found meaning. Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more. You can't wait until sixty-five.
"Listen. You should know something. All younger people should know something. If you're always battling against getting older, you're always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow."

-Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom, pg. 118

Book

2009-04-13T13:58:00.000-04:00

Any morning the good Lord lets you open your eyes, that's a day he's got something for you to do.

- Follow The River, James Alexander Thom

Book

2009-02-27T21:10:00.001-05:00

And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal.

-As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, pg. 63

Book

2009-02-27T21:09:00.001-05:00

A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak, and abject, and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.

-As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, pg. 51

Book

2009-02-27T21:07:00.001-05:00

...But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all - such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.

-As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, pg. 37

Book

2009-02-27T21:06:00.002-05:00

Change of diet will not a help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desire impure food.

-As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, pg. 35

Book

2009-02-27T21:04:00.001-05:00

A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.

-As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, pg. 29

Book

2009-02-27T21:01:00.002-05:00

... beautiful thoughts of all kinds crystallize into habits of grace and kindliness, which solidify into genial and sunny circumstances: pure thoughts crystallize into habits of temperance and self-control, which solidify into circumstances of repose and peace: thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty, and freedom; energetic thoughts crystallize into habits of cleanliness and industry, which solidify into circumstances of pleasantness: gentle and forgiving thoughts crystallize into habits of gentleness, which solidify into protective and preservative circumstances: love and unselfish thoughts crystallize into habits of self-forgetfulness for others, which solidify into circumstances of sure and abiding prosperity an d true riches.

-As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, pg. 28

Book

2009-02-27T20:59:00.001-05:00

...The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for him who is pure. There would be no object in burning gold after the dross had been removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer.

-As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, pg. 24

Book

2009-02-27T20:57:00.000-05:00

Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.

-As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, pg. 17

Book

2009-02-27T20:56:00.002-05:00

As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances.

-As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, pg. 13

Book

2009-02-03T13:01:00.001-05:00

"Everything is possible to God, but we must help ourselves if we would be helped by Him. I have not asked aright, so my poor prayers remain unanswered. ..."

- A Long Fatal Love Chase, Louisa May Alcott, pg. 123

Book

2009-02-03T13:00:00.000-05:00

"Yes, you have my secret for keeping young and happy. I envy no one, I am free as air, I earn my bread honestly and make success sweet by sharing it with the poor. ..."

- A Long Fatal Love Chase, Louisa May Alcott, pg. 110

Book

2009-01-20T10:12:00.002-05:00

... All loneliness, angers, hatred, envies and itchings that [Hell] contains, if rolled into one single experience and put into the scale against the least moment of the joy that is felt by the least in Heaven, would have no weight that could be registered at all. Bad cannot succeed even in being bad as truly as good is good.

- C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, pg. 120

Book

2009-01-20T10:10:00.001-05:00

...But there is no such thing as being only a mother. You exist as {Michael's} mother only because you first exist as God's creature. That relation is older and closer.

- C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, pg. 91

Book

2009-01-20T10:08:00.002-05:00

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.

- C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, pg. 72

Book

2009-01-20T10:05:00.000-05:00

Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself.

- C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, pg. 11

Book

2009-01-20T10:00:00.002-05:00

I do not think all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A wrong sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot "develop" into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, "with backward mutters of dissevering power" - or else not. It is still "either-or." If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.

- C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, pg. 10

Book

2009-01-05T13:26:00.002-05:00

What is freedom to that young man, who sits there, with his arms folded over his broad chest, the tint of African blood in his cheek, its dark fires in his eye, -what is freedom to George Harris? To your fathers, freedom was the right of a nation to be a nation. To him, it is the right of a man to be a man, and not a brute; the right to call the wife of his bosom his wife, and to protect her from lawless violence; the right to protect and educate his child; the right to have a home of his own, a religion of his own, a character of his own, unsubject to the will of another.

-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, pg. 415

Book

2009-01-05T13:24:00.001-05:00

"Mas'r Legree, as you bought me, I'll be a true and faithful servant to ye. I'll give ye all the work of my hands, all my time, all my strength; but my soul I won't give up to mortal man. I will hold on to the Lord, and put his commands before all, -die or live; you may be sure on 't. Mas'r Legree, I an't a grain afeard to die. I'd as soon die as not. Ye may whip me, starve me, burn me, -it'll only send me sooner where I want to go."

-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, pg. 413

Book

2009-01-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

"Perhaps... it is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm."

-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, pg. 339

Book

2009-01-05T13:21:00.002-05:00

For, so inconsistent is human nature, especially in the ideal, that not to undertake a thing at all seems better than to undertake and come short.

-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, pg. 331

Book

2009-01-05T13:14:00.001-05:00

"If this world were all, George," said Simeon, "thee might indeed ask, Where is the Lord? But it is often those who have least of all in this life whom he chooseth for the kingdom. Put thy trust in him, and, no matter what befalls thee here, he will make all right hereafter."

-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, pg. 210

Book

2009-01-05T13:11:00.001-05:00

"Oh, Eliza, if these people only knew what a blessing it is for a man to feel that his wife and child belong to him! I've often wondered to see men that could call their wives and children their own fretting and worrying about anything else. Why, I feel rich and strong, though we have nothing but our bare hands. I feel as if I could scarcely ask God for any more. Yes, though I've worked hard every day, till I am twenty-five years old, and have not a cent of money, nor a roof to cover me, nor a spot of land to call my own, yet, if they will only let me alone now, I will be satisfied, -thankful; ..."

-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, pg. 204

Book

2009-01-05T13:08:00.001-05:00

Of course, in a novel, people's hearts break, and they die, and that is the end of it; and in a story this is very convenient. But in real life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us. There is a most busy and important round of eating, drinking, dressing, walking, visiting, buying, selling, talking, reading, and all that makes up what is commonly called living, yet to be gone through; ...

-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, pg. 169

Book

2009-01-05T13:05:00.001-05:00

Patience! Patience! ye whose hearts swell indignant at wrongs like these. Not one throb of anguish, not one tear of the oppressed, is forgotten by the Man of Sorrows, the Lord of Glory. In his patient, generous bosom he bears the anguish of a world. Bear though, like him, in patience, and labor in love; for sure as he is God, "the year of his redeemed shall come."

-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, pg. 144

Book

2009-01-05T13:02:00.001-05:00

"Obeying God never brings on public evils. I know it can't. It's always safest, all round, to do as he bids us."

-Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, pg. 89

Living

2008-11-14T12:36:00.002-05:00

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

- Maya Angelou

God

2008-11-10T10:31:00.002-05:00

Our Father in heaven is infinite; he is perfect; he possesses all knowledge and wisdom. However, he is not jealous of his wisdom and perfection, but glories in the fact that it is possible for his children who obey him in all things and endure to the end to become like him.
Man has within him the power, which the Father has bestowed upon him, so to develop in truth, faith, wisdom, and all the virtues, that eventually he shall become like the Father and the Son; this virtue, wisdom, and knowledge on the part of the faithful does not rob the Father and the Son, but adds to their glory and dominion. Thus it is destined that those who are worthy to become his sons and joint-heirs with our Redeemer, would be heirs of the Father's kingdom, possessing the same attributes in their perfection, as the Father and the Son now possess.

-Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:35

Living

2008-10-20T15:35:00.001-04:00

May I say to you that in reality a man cannot forget anything? He may have a lapse of memory; he may not be able to recall at the moment a thing that he knows, or words that he has spoken; he may not have the power at his will to call up these events and words; but let God Almighty touch the mainspring of the memory, and awaken recollection, and you will find then that you have not even forgotten a single idle word that you have spoken! ... Guard your words, that you may not offend even man, much less offend God.

-Joseph F. Smith, Improvement Era, May 1903

Prayer

2008-10-20T15:31:00.001-04:00

If pain and sorrow and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil - all would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, no Satanic controls.
Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment or even death; and if these were not, there would also be an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life, and godhood.

-Spencer W. Kimball, "Tragecy or Destiny", Improvement Era, Mar. 1966, pp. 180, 210

Christ

2008-10-20T15:29:00.002-04:00

... Each of us must surrender our sins if we are to really know Christ. For we do not know Him until we become like Him.

-Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign, Nov. 1983, p. 43

To know God in that full sense which will enable us to gain eternal salvation means that we must know what he knows, enjoy what he enjoys, experience what he experiences. In New Testament language, we must 'be like him.' (1 John 3:2)
But before we can become like him, we must obey those laws that will enable us to acquire the character, perfections, and attributes that he possesses. And before we can obey these laws, we must learn what they are; we must learn of Christ and his gospel.

-Bruce R. McConkie, Conference Report, April 1966

Living

2008-10-20T15:25:00.002-04:00

I believe that we... might well take to heart the admonition of Alma and be content with that which God hath allotted us. We might well be assured that we had something to do with our 'allotment' in our pre-existent state. This would be an additional reason for us to accept our present condition and make the best of it. It is what we agreed to do...
... We had our own free agency in our premortal existence, and whatever we are today is likely the result of that which we willed to be heretofore.

-Elder Henry D. Moyle, Conference Report, Oct. 1952, p. 71

God

2008-10-20T15:22:00.002-04:00

Can any man who has walked beneath the stars at night, can anyone who has seen the touch of spring upon the land doubt the hand of divinity in creation? So observing the beauties of the earth, one is wont to speak as did the Psalmist: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge" (Ps. 19:1-2). All of beauty in the earth bears the fingerprint of the Master Creator.

-Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign May 1978 p. 59

Faith

2008-10-20T15:14:00.002-04:00

Faith, to be faith, must center around something that is not known. Faith, to be faith, must go beyond that for which there is confirming evidence. Faith, to be faith, must go into the unknown. Faith, to be faith, must walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness. If everything has to be known, if everything has to be explained, if everything has to be certified, then there is no need for faith. Indeed, there is no room for it. ...
There are two kinds of faith. One of them functions ordinarily in the life of every soul. It is the kind of faith born by experience; it gives us certainty that a new day will dawn, that spring will come, that growth will take place. It is the kind of faith that relates us with confidence to that which is scheduled to happen...
There is another kind of faith, rare indeed. This is the kind of faith that causes things to happen. It is the kind of faith that is worthy and prepared and unyielding, and it calls forth things that otherwise would not be. It is the kind of faith that moves people. It is the kind of faith that sometimes moves things. Few men posses it. It comes by gradual growth. It is a marvelous, even a transcendent, power, a power as real and as invisible as electricity. Directed and channeled, it has great effect.
But faith must be faith. One man tried 'experimenting' with faith. He had spoken of his certainty that an event would transpire, and his desires were not brought to pass; the event he so much yearned for did not happen. Afterward, his bitter comment was, 'Well, you see, it didn't happen. I didn't think it would.'
In a world filled with skepticism and doubt, the expression 'seeing is believing' promotes the attitude, "You show me, and I will believe.' We want all of the proof and all of the evidence first. It seems hard to take things on faith.
When will we learn that in spiritual things it works the other way about - that believing is seeing? Spiritual belief precedes spiritual knowledge. When we believe in things that are not seen but are nevertheless true, then we have faith.

-Boyd K. Packer, "What Is Faith?" in Faith, pp. 42-43

Living

2008-10-10T11:01:00.002-04:00

To our young men who go into service, no matter whom they serve or where, we say live clean, keep the commandments of the Lord, pray to Him constantly to preserve you in truth and righteousness, live as you pray, and then whatever betides you the Lord will be with you and nothing will happen to you that will not be to the honor and glory of God and to your salvation and exaltation. There will come into your hearts from the living of the pure life you pray for, a joy that will pass your powers of expression or understanding. The Lord will be always near you; He will comfort you; you will feel His presence in the hour of your greatest tribulation; He will guard and protect you to the full extend that accords with His all-wise purpose. Then, when the conflict is over and you return to your homes, having lived the righteous life, how great will be your happiness - whether you be of the victors or of the vanquished - that you have lived as the Lord commanded. You will return so disciplined in righteousness that thereafter all Satan's wiles and stratagems will eave you untouched. Your faith and testimony will be strong beyond breaking. You will be looked up to and revered as having passed through the fiery furnace of trial and temptation and come forth unharmed. Your brethren will look to you for counsel, support, and guidance. You will be the anchors to which thereafter the youth of Zion will moor their faith in man.

-First Presidency, April 1942

God

2008-10-10T10:56:00.002-04:00

For us as individuals the course is crystal clear. By precept and example we should do all that lies within our power to take the message of the gospel, the Lord's solution to our problems, to the peoples of the earth and inspire them to look to him and live. For every individual in this world there is yet an option, and it is still open. But whatever others may do, let us not personally be diverted from our course. Let us 'be not faithless, but believing' (John 20:27).
Let us so long as we live continue to 'seek...the Lord to establish his righteousness' (D&C 1:16). Let us prove worthy to live with him eternally in the heavens. Let us not be divided by the learning and sophistries and the wickedness of this world. Let us not forget that God lives, that we are his children, that his purpose is to bring us to immortality and eternal life. Let us always remember and keep in mind that all man has learned and accomplished, together with all that he will yet learn and accomplish in mortality, is as a drop in the ocean compared to the knowledge and works of God. Let us remember that in the light of God's knowledge, and he knows all things, still his instruction to us - against that total knowledge - is that, above all else, the one things of most importance to us is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. ...

-Marion G. Romney, Look to God and Live, pp. 12-13

Living

2008-09-23T14:09:00.001-04:00

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Faith

2008-07-08T18:58:00.005-04:00

Essentially, when I am living in faith, I don’t fear change, or changing myself, for the better. But when I am living in fear, I find change and changing—for the better, at least—almost impossible. It is important to learn how to live in faith rather than in fear because the process of changing for the better is at the very foundation of the Father’s plan for us. Changing for the better is what we are here in this life to do, and it is what the mission of His Son enables us to do.

What is the source of fear? I think it is rooted in the assumption ... that I must solve all my problems and face all my challenges alone, using my own resources. That is frightening, because deep in my heart I know how limited those resources are. So when I am fearful, I am also hopeless. And without hope, I find myself paralyzed. Knowing that I am not capable of changing myself or my circumstances for the better, I stand frozen in fear.

Every time I find myself fearful, sooner or later I realize that I am not being particularly humble. I realize I have been trying to live my life and solve my problems on my own terms and with my own capacities—my own intellect, usually—and have forgotten to trust instead the power and plan of the Lord.

-Gregory Clark, Some Lessons on Faith and Fear, May 2008

Living

2008-06-30T16:32:00.003-04:00

God did not give me my life to throw away.
-Jane Eyre

God

2008-06-30T16:32:00.001-04:00

We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us: and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence... Looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty milky-way. Remembering what it was - what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light - I felt the might and strength of God. Sure was I of His efficiency to save what He had made: convinced I grew that neither earth should perish, nor one of the souls it treasured.

-Jane Eyre

Book

2008-06-30T16:31:00.000-04:00

"But where are you going to, Helen? Can you see? Do you know?"
"I believe; I have faith: I am going to God."
"Where is God? What is God?"
"My Maker and yours; who will never destroy what he created. I rely implicitly on his power, and confide wholly in his goodness: I count the hours till that eventful one arrives which shall restore me to him, reveal him to me."
"You are sure, then, Helen, that there is such a place as heaven; and that our souls can get to it when we die?"
"I am sure there is a future state; I believe God is good; I can resign my immortal part to him without any misgiving. God is my father; God is my friend: I love him; I believe he loves me."

-Jane Eyre

Gratitude

2008-06-30T16:29:00.002-04:00

Suppose for a moment, that God began taking from us the many things for which we have failed to give thanks. Which of our limbs and faculties would be left? Would I still have my hands and my mind? And what about loved ones? If God were to take from me all those persons and things for which I have not given thanks, who or what would be left of me?
- Patrick Henry Reardon

Learning

2008-06-30T16:29:00.001-04:00

A mind stretched to a new idea never returns to its original shape.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Living

2008-06-30T16:28:00.001-04:00

We are finally, all wanderers in search of knowledge. Most of us hold the dream of becoming something better than we are, something larger, richer, in some way more important to the world and ourselves. Too often, the way taken is the wrong way, with too much emphasis on what we want to have, rather than what we wish to become.
-Louis L'Amour

Christ

2008-06-17T13:02:00.001-04:00

The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.
-Ezra Taft Benson, “Born of God,” Ensign, Jul 1989, pg. 2

Choices

2008-06-17T12:56:00.002-04:00

With free agency there comes responsibility. If man is to be rewarded for righteousness and punished for evil, then common justice demands that he be given the power of independent action. A knowledge of good and evil is essential to man's progress on earth. If he were coerced to do right at all times, or were helplessly enticed to commit sin, he would merit neither a blessing for the first nor a punishment for the second. Man's responsibility is correspondingly operative with his free agency. Actions in harmony with divine law and the laws of nature will brings happiness, and those in opposition to divine truth, misery. Man is responsible not only for every deed, but also for every idle word and thought.
-David O. McKay, "Free Agency ... the Gift Divine", Improvement Era, Feb. 1962, pg. 86

Children

2008-06-15T15:33:00.002-04:00

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.
-Mark Twain

Christ

2008-06-12T14:56:00.004-04:00

NEW MEN IN CHRIST
To become new men means losing what we now call "ourselves." Out of ourselves, into Christ, we must go. His will is to become ours and we are to think His thoughts, to "have the mind of Christ" as the Bible says. And if Christ is one, and if He is thus to be "in" us all, shall we not be exactly the same? It certainly sounds like it; but in fact it is not so. . . .
Suppose a person who knew nothing about salt. You give him a pinch to taste and he experiences a particular strong, sharp taste. You then tell him that in your country people use salt in all their cookery. Might he not reply, "In that case I suppose all your dishes taste exactly the same: because the taste of that stuff you have just given me is so strong that it will kill the taste of everything else." But you and I know that the real effect of salt is exactly the opposite. So far from killing the taste of the egg and the tripe and the cabbage, it actually brings it out. . . .
It is something like that with Christ and us. The more we get what we now call "ourselves" out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of "little Christs," all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented - as an author invents characters in a novel - all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to "be ourselves" without Him. . . . It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own. . . .
But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away "blindly" so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. The real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring tuppence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up your self, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book IV Chapter II

Patience

2008-06-12T11:32:00.002-04:00

Patience is not indifference. Actually, it is caring very much, but being willing, nevertheless, to submit both to the Lord and to what the scriptures call the 'process of time.'
Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best - better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than his. Either way we are questioning the reality of God's omniscience, as if, as some seem to believe, God were on some sort of postdoctoral fellowship. ...
We read in Mosiah about how the Lord simultaneously tries the patience of his people even as he tries their faith (see Mosiah 23:21). One is not only to endure - but to endure well and gracefully those things which the Lord 'seeth fit to inflict upon us' (Mosiah 3:19), ...
Could it be that only when our self-control has become total do we come into true possession of our own souls?
-Neal A. Maxwell, Patience, Ensign Oct 1980

God

2008-06-12T11:29:00.001-04:00

I am confident one of the greatest feelings we can experience in this life is to know that God is pleased with our efforts. Nothing can compare to that. We should strive to know that our efforts are acceptable and that faith, love, testimony, and proper actions will always bring eternal blessings. What more could anyone desire?
-John H. Groberg

Living

2008-06-10T22:27:00.006-04:00

If there is one word that described all the woes and threats that exist today, it's indifference. ... Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

-From the Citation for an Honorary Doctoral Degree, awarded to Elie Weisel, 114th Summer Commencement Exercises at BYU, August 17, 1989

Living

2008-06-10T22:27:00.003-04:00

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experience.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson, journals

Simplify

2008-06-10T12:30:00.001-04:00

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
-Lin Yutang

Living

2008-05-20T11:40:00.004-04:00

"Well, I always tried to look nice and be feminine even in the war zones and refugee camps of Central America. Even in the worst tragedies and crisis, there's no reason to add to everyone's misery by looking miserable yourself. That's my philosophy. This is why I always wore makeup and jewelry into the jungle - nothing too extravagant, but maybe just a nice gold bracelet and some earrings, a little lipstick, good perfume. Just enough to show that I still had my self-respect."
-Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, pg. 265

Happiness

2008-05-20T11:35:00.002-04:00

... people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.
-Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, pg. 260