Background Image

...

Listen To These Wounds Of Pain Put In The Form Of Questions To Me By A Young Woman Who Had Had Two Abortions: "i Wonder About The Spirits Of Those I Had Aborted, If They Were There, If They Were Hurt? I Was Under Three Months Each Time, But A Mother Feels Life Before She Feels Movement." "i Wonder If They Are Lost And Alone?" "i Wonder If They Will Ever Have A Body?" "i Wonder If I Will Ever Have A Chance Again To Bring Those Spirits Back As Mine?" Alas, Brothers And Sisters, "wickedness Never Was Happiness" (alma 41:10).

-Neal A. Maxwell

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Listen To These Wounds

Neal A. Maxwell

...

Listen To These Wounds Of Pain Put In The Form Of Questions To Me By A Young Woman Who Had Had Two Abortions: "i Wonder About The Spirits Of Those I Had Aborted, If They Were There, If They Were Hurt? I Was Under Three Months Each Time, But A Mother Feels Life Before She Feels Movement." "i Wonder If They Are Lost And Alone?" "i Wonder If They Will Ever Have A Body?" "i Wonder If I Will Ever Have A Chance Again To Bring Those Spirits Back As Mine?" Alas, Brothers And Sisters, "wickedness Never Was Happiness" (alma 41:10).

Views: 7

Topic

More From Neal A. Maxwell

The Unwillingness Of Most Leaders To Set Standards, To Administer Feedback When Standards Are Not Met, To Praise Clearly When Standards Are Met, Stands In The Way Of The Development Of Excellence. The Leader Who Makes No Demands Of His Disciples Cannot Really Lead Them At All. The Sense Of New Excitement And New Challenge Generated By The Gospel Will Be Blunted By Leaders Who Shield Followers From The Full Demands Of Fellowship.

Oh, How Great The Plan Of Our God!

To Be Cheerful When Others Are In Despair, To Keep The Faith When Others Falter, To Be True Even When We Feel Forsaken—all Of These Are Deeply Desired Outcomes During The Deliberate, Divine Tutorials Which God Gives To Us—because He Loves Us. These Learning Experiences Must Not Be Misread As Divine Indifference. Instead, Such Tutorials Are A Part Of The Divine Unfolding.

How Myopic It Is To View His Ministry As All Crucifixion And No Resurrection!

We Should Not Assume; However, That Just Because Something Is Unexplainable By Us, It Is Unexplainable.

Without Making A Fetish Of Goal Setting, And Without Letting "lists" Of Tasks We Desire To Do Dominate Us, Some Recording Of Goals Is Wise Not Only For The Self-reminder These Constitute, But Also For The Satisfaction Of Crossing Things Off.

Obviously, Family Values Mirror Our Personal Priorities. Given The Gravity Of Current Conditions, Would Parents Be Willing To Give Up Just One Outside Thing, Giving That Time And Talent Instead To The Family.

It Is Understandable How Some People Could Give Way To This Kind Of Pervasive Pessimism, But We Speak Of A Gospel Which Brings Good Tidings Of Great Joy And This Must Be Reflected In Our Lives, If We Are To Be Believable Especially As We Suggest To Others That There Is, In Fact, Not Only A Better Way, But Also The Way. Scriptures That Speak Of Man As A Being Who "might Have Joy" Have More Impact When Falling From The Lips Or Pens Of Men And Women Whose Lives Give Fresh Evidence Of The Validity Of That Scripture.

The Charity Of Good Women Is Such That Their 'love Makes No Parade'; They Are Not Glad 'when Others Go Wrong'; They Are Too Busy Serving To Sit Statusfully About, Waiting To Be Offended.

Even The Good Can Become Careless Without The Lord's Being There To Chasten.

We Must Endure The Contempt Of Others Without Reciprocating That Contempt.

Even If Work Were Not An Economic Necessity, It Is A Spiritual Necessity.

The Overwhelming Joy Of Conversion Or A New Calling Is Often Followed By Feelings Of Being Overwhelmed With Duties And Doctrines. The First Joyous Feelings Are Real And Give One Much-needed Initial Momentum. But The Genuine Exhilaration Is Soon Followed By The Need To Perspire And To Pedal.

Selfishness Is Much More Than An Ordinary Problem Because It Activates All The Cardinal Sins! It Is The Detonator In The Breaking Of The Ten Commandments.

The Laughter Of The World Is Merely Loneliness Pathetically Trying To Reassure Itself.

By Seeing Life's Experiences On Through To The End, On Our Small Scale We Can Finally Say, As Jesus Did On The Cross, "it Is Finished". We Too Can Then Have "finished [our] Preparations," Having Done The Particular Work God Gave Each Of Us To Do.

The "new" In Us Is Bound To Notice The "old" That Remains.

Of All The Errors One Could Make, God's Gospel Plan Is The Wrong Thing To Be Wrong About.

The More Seriously We Work On Our Own Imperfections, The Less We Are Judgemental Of The Imperfections Of Others.

Power Is Most Safe With Those Who Are Not In Love With It!

Daily Hope Is Vital, Since The ‘winter Quarters’ Of Our Lives Are Not Immediately Adjacent To Our Promised Land Either. An Arduous Trek Still Awaits, But Hope Spurs Weary Disciples On.

We Cannot Repent For Someone Else. But We Can Forgive Someone Else, Refusing To Hold Hostage Those Whom The Lord Seeks To Set Free!

Real Disciples Absorb The Fiery Darts Of The Adversary By Holding Aloft The Quenching Shield Of Faith With One Hand, While Holding To The Iron Rod With The Other (see Eph. 6:16; 1 Ne. 15:24; D&c 27:17). There Should Be No Mistaking; It Will Take Both Hands!

No "natural" Resource Is More Precious And To Be Used More Wisely Than Time. These Mortal Moments Matter More Than We Know. There Are No Idle Hours; There Are Only Idle People. In True Righteousness There Is Serenity, But There Is An Array Of Reminders That The "sacred Present" Is Packed With Possibilities Which Are Slipping By Us, Which Are Going Away From Us Each Moment.

A Society Which Permits Anything Will Eventually Lose Everything.

The Mortal Experience . . . Is Not Like A College Course Which We Can Passively Audit. Instead, We Are Taking Life's Course For Credit And There Are No Summers Off - Not Even Semester Breaks.

Sir Thomas More Was A Victim Of Injustice And Irony. Generously And Meekly, Just As He Was About To Be Martyred, He Said: Paul . . . Was Present, And Consented To The Death Of St. Stephen, And Kept Their Clothes That Stoned Him To Death, And Yet Be They [stephen And Paul] Now Both Twain Holy Saints In Heaven, And Shall Continue There Friends For Ever, So I Verily Trust And . . . Pray, That Though Your Lordships Have Now Here In Earth Been Judges To My Condemnation, We May Yet Hereafter In Heaven Merrily All Meet Together, To Our Everlasting Salvation.

Don't Fear, Just Live Right.

As Parenting Declines, The Need For Policing Increases. There Will Always Be A Shortage Of Police If There Is A Shortage Of Effective Parents! Likewise, There Will Not Be Enough Prisons If There Are Not Enough Good Homes.

We Must Not Fail, Individually, For If We Fail, We Fail Twice - For Ourselves And For Those Who Could Have Been Helped, If We Had Done Our Duty.

We Should Certainly Count Our Blessings, But We Should Also Make Our Blessings Count.

Do Not Write A Check With Your Tongue That Your Actions Cannot Cash.

Time Management Tips: One Can Make A Radar-like Sweep Of The Horizon To Identify Time And Task Challenges While These Are Still Manageable And While We Still Have A Choice. The Organizational Adage, "the More Parts, The More Trouble," Also Applies To Words. Multiplying Words May Actually Multiply The Probability Of Being Misunderstood; Economies In Expression (without Being Taciturn Or Aloof) Not Only Save Time, But Usually Are More Honest And More Clear.

Each Day I See All About Me The Fruits Of Commandment-keeping.

Like Jesus, We Can Decide, Daily Or Instantly, To Give No Heed To Temptation (see D&c 20:22). We Can Respond To Irritation With A Smile Instead Of Scowl, Or By Giving Warm Praise Instead Of Icy Indifference. By Our Being Understanding Instead Of Abrupt, Others, In Turn, May Decide To Hold On A Little Longer Rather Than To Give Way. Love, Patience, And Meekness Can Be Just As Contagious As Rudeness And Crudeness.

These Really Are Our Days, And We Can Prevail And Overcome, Even In The Midst Of Trends That Are Very Disturbing. If We Are Faithful The Day Will Come When Those Deserving Pioneers And Ancestors, Whom We Rightly Praise For Having Overcome The Adversities In The Wilderness Trek, Will Praise Today’s Faithful For Having Made Their Way Successfully Through A Desert Of Despair And For Having Passed Through A Cultural Wilderness, While Still Keeping The Faith.

I Know The Celestial Criteria Measure Service, Not Status; The Use Of Our Talents, Not The Relative Size Of Our Talent Inventories. I Know That Church Membership Is Not Passive Security But Continuing Opportunity.

If We Are Not Serving Jesus, And If He Is Not In Our Thoughts And Hearts, Then The Things Of The World Will Draw Us Instead To Them! Moreover, The Things Of The World Need Not Be Sinister In Order To Be Diverting And Consuming.

The Flame Of Family Can Warm Us And At The Same Time Be A Perpetual Pilot Light To Rekindle Us.

It Is Not The Years But The Changes That Make Us Grow.

God Does Not Begin By Asking Us About Our Ability, But Only About Our Availability, And If We Then Prove Our Dependability, He Will Increase Our Capability.

Comparatively, We Are So Much Quicker To Return Favors And To Pay Our Debts To Mortals - And We Should Be Responsive And Grateful. But What Of Him Who Gave Us Mortal Life Itself, Who Will Ere Long Give Us All Immortality, And Who Proffers To The Faithful The Greatest Gift Of All, Eternal Life? We Are Poor Bookkeepers, Indeed!

The Imperfections Of Others Never Release Us From The Need To Work On Our Own Shortcomings.

We Are In Bondage To That Which Overcomes Us. See Also 2 Peter 2:19.

Spent Time-like A Spent Bullet-tells Us Much About Its "processor." For We See Not Only The Residual Slug, But Indicators Of How Spent Time Is Grooved By A Man's Soul, A Reliable Indicator Of What A Man Is Like.

We Can Be Walking Witnesses And Standing Sermons To Which Objective Onlookers Can Say A Quiet Amen.

Each Of Us Is An Innkeeper Who Decides If There Is Room For Jesus!

Education Brightens A Darkened World.

All Crosses Are Easier To Carry When We Keep Moving.

Therefore, As We Strive To Become As The Father Is And As Jesus Is, We Are To Become More Gracious And Merciful, More Kind And Considerate. Even More, We Are To Do This In A World Which Does Little To Encourage Such Qualities Of Character.

Men And Women Of Christ Magnify Their Callings Without Magnifying Themselves.

Perfect Love Is Perfectly Patient.

The Authority Of Example And Considerations Of Character, Unlike Pudding, Are Not Whipped Up In An Instant.

To Think Of Enduring To The End As ‘hanging In There,’ Doing One’s Duty Relentlessly, Is Not Inaccurate. Yet Enduring To The End Is More Than Outlasting And Surviving, Though It Includes Those Qualities. We Are Called Upon, As Was The Prophet Joseph, To ‘endure It Well,’ Gracefully, Not Grudgingly. (d&c 121:8.) We Are Also Told That We Must ‘endure In Faith.’ (d&c 101:35.) These Dimensions Of Enduring Are Important To Note. Likewise, We Are Asked To Endure ‘valiantly.’ (d&c 121:29.)

Enduring To The End

Meekness, The Subtraction Of Self, Reduces The Multiplication Of Words.

When Our Minds Really Catch Hold Of The Significance Of Jesus' Atonement, The World's Hold On Us Loosens.

I Thank The Savior Personally; For Bearing All Which I Added To His Hemorrhaging At Every Pore For All Humanity In Gethsemane. I Thank Him For Bearing What I Added To The Decibels Of His Piercing Soul Cry Atop Calvary.

Trying To Observe The Slow Shift From Self-centeredness To Empathy Is Like Trying To Watch Grass Grow.

Just As Doubt, Despair, And Desensitization Go Together, So Do Faith, Hope, And Charity. The Latter, However, Must Be Carefully And Constantly Nurtured, Whereas Despair, Like Dandelions, Needs So Little Encouragement To Sprout And Spread. Despair Comes So Naturally To The Natural Man!

Man Can Learn Self-discipline Without Becoming Ascetic; He Can Be Wise Without Waiting To Be Old; He Can Be Influential Without Waiting For Status. Man Can Sharpen His Ability To Distinguish Between Matters Of Principle And Matters Of Preference, But Only If We Have A Wise Interplay Between Time And Truth, Between Minutes And Morality.

The Book Of Mormon Is To Be Feasted Upon, Not Nibbled.

If The Church Were Not True, Our Enemies Would Be Bored Rather Than Threatened, And Acquiescent Rather Than Anxious. Hell Is Moved Only When Things Move Heavenward.

In Gospel Grammar, Death Is Not An Exclamation Point, Merely A Comma.

Exclamation Points

Listen To These Wounds Of Pain Put In The Form Of Questions To Me By A Young Woman Who Had Had Two Abortions: "i Wonder About The Spirits Of Those I Had Aborted, If They Were There, If They Were Hurt? I Was Under Three Months Each Time, But A Mother Feels Life Before She Feels Movement." "i Wonder If They Are Lost And Alone?" "i Wonder If They Will Ever Have A Body?" "i Wonder If I Will Ever Have A Chance Again To Bring Those Spirits Back As Mine?" Alas, Brothers And Sisters, "wickedness Never Was Happiness" (alma 41:10).

Though We Live In A Failing World, We Have Not Been Sent Here To Fail.

When In Situations Of Stress We Wonder If There Is Any More In Us To Give, We Can Be Comforted To Know That God, Who Knows Our Capacity Perfectly, Placed Us Here To Succeed

Eventually, There Will Not Be Enough Prisons If There Are Not Enough Good Homes.

Our God Does Not Indulge Us, But He Is Merciful Toward Our Weaknesses As He Strives To Tutor Us.

In A Very Real Sense, All We Need To Know Is That God Knows All.

It's Service, Not Status, That Counts.

The Soul Is Like A Violin String: It Makes Music Only When It Is Stretched.

In One Degree Or Another We All Struggle With Selfishness. Since It Is So Common, Why Worry About Selfishness Anyway? Because Selfishness Is Really Self-destruction In Slow Motion.

As You Submit Your Wills To God, You Are Giving Him The Only Thing You Can Actually Give Him That Is Really Yours To Give. Don't Wait Too Long To Find The Altar Or To Begin To Place The Gift Of Your Wills Upon It! No Need To Wait For A Receipt; The Lord Has His Own Special Ways Of Acknowledging.

If We Entertain Temptations, Soon They Begin Entertaining Us!

The Cavity Which Suffering Carves Into Our Souls Will One Day Also Be The Receptacle Of Joy.

A New Calling Can Beckon Us Away From Comfortable Routine And From Competencies Already Acquired.

I Thank The Father That His Only Begotten Son Did Not Say In Defiant Protest At Calvary, "my Body Is My Own!" I Stand In Admiration Of Women Today Who Resist The "fashion Of Abortion, By Refusing To Make The Sacred Womb A Tomb!"

It Is Better To Trust And Sometimes Be Disappointed Than To Be Forever Mistrusting And Be Right Occasionally.

We Cannot Improve The World If We Are Conformed To The World.

I Fear That, As Conditions Worsen, Many Will React To The Failures Of Too Much Government By Calling For Even More Government. Then There Will Be More And More Lifeboats Launched Because Fewer And Fewer Citizens Know How To Swim. Unlike Some Pendulums, Political Pendulums To Not Swing Back Automatically; They Must Be Pushed. History Is Full Of Instances When People Have Waited In Vain For Pendulums To Swing Back.

It Is Extremely Important For You To Believe In Yourselves, Not Only For What You Are Now, But For What You Have The Power To Become.

Repentance Is A Rescuing, Not A Dour, Doctrine.

The Lord Knows Our Bearing Capacity, Both As To Coping And To Comprehending, And He Will Not Give Us More To Bear Than We Can Manage At The Moment, Though To Us It May Seem Otherwise. Just As No Temptations Will Come To Us From Which We Cannot Escape Or Which We Cannot Bear, We Will Not Be Given More Trials Than We Can Sustain.

Meanwhile, Spiritual Submissiveness Brings About The Wiser Use Of Our Time, Talents, And Gifts As Compared With Our Laboring Diligently But Conditionally To Establish Our Own Righteousness Instead Of The Lord's (d&c 1:16). After All, Lucifer Was Willing To Work Very Hard, But Conditionally In His Own Way And For His Own Purposes.

Unproductive Worry - Like Parkinson's Proverbial Law - Tends To Expand To Fill The Time Available.

Beware Not To Get Caught Up In The Thick Of Thin Things.

If The Kingdom Of God Is Not First, It Doesn't Matter What's Second.

Faith In God Includes Faith In God's Timing.

If We Are Serious About Our Discipleship, Jesus Will Eventually Request Each Of Us To Do Those Very Things Which Are Most Difficult For Us To Do.

I Have On My Office Wall A Wise And Useful Reminder By Anne Morrow Lindbergh Concerning One Of The Realities Of Life. She Wrote, "my Life Cannot Implement In Action The Demands Of All The People To Whom My Heart Responds." That's Good Counsel For Us All, Not As An Excuse To Forgo Duty, But As A Sage Point About Pace And The Need For Quality In Relationships.

Trials And Tribulations Tend To Squeeze The Artificiality Out Of Us, Leaving The Essence Of What We Really Are And Clarifying What We Really Yearn For.

Sometimes, If You're Like Me, [god] Will Brace Or Reprove In A Highly Personal Process Not Understood Or Appreciated By Those Outside The Context.

If, In The End, You Have Not Chosen Jesus Christ It Will Not Matter What You Have Chosen.

We May Never Become Accustomed To Untrue And Unjust Criticism Of Us But We Ought Not To Be Immobilized By It.

Unjust Criticism

Endurance Involves Much More Than Putting Up With A Situation; Patient Endurance Is More Than Pacing Up And Down Within The Cell Of Circumstance. True Enduring Represents Not Merely The Passage Of Time, . . . But The Passage Of Soul.

Some Mothers In Today's World Feel "cumbered" By Home Duties And Are Thus Attracted By Other More "romantic" Challenges. Such Women Could Make The Same Error Of Perspective That Martha Made. The Woman, For Instance, Who Deserts The Cradle In Order To Help Defend Civilization Against The Barbarians May Well Later Meet, Among The Barbarians, Her Own Neglected Child.

When, As President Joseph F. Smith Said, We "catch A Spark From The Awakened Memories Of The Immortal Soul, "let Us Be Quietly Grateful. When Of Great Truths We Can Say "i Know," That Powerful Spiritual Witness May Also Carry With It The Sense Of Our Having Known Before. With Rediscovery, We Are Really Saying "i Know - Again!"

Promptings For Us To Do Good Come From The Holy Ghost. These Promptings Nudge Us Further Along The Straight And Narrow Path Of Discipleship. The Natural Man Doesn't Automatically Think Of Doing Good. It Isn't Natural. How Many People Worry About The Car Behind Them Or The Person Below Them? The Natural Man Just Doesn't Do It. For Us, However, These Promptings Enlarge Our Awareness Of Other People's Needs And Then Prod Us To Act Accordingly.

Satan Delights To Have Us Put Ourselves Down. Self-contempt Is Of Satan. There Is No Such Thing In Heaven.

In The Economy Of Heaven, God Does Not Send Thunder If A Still, Small Voice Is Enough, Or A Prophet If A Priest Can Do The Job.

While Most Of Our Suffering Is Self- Inflicted, Some Is Caused By Or Permitted By God. This Sobering Reality Calls For Deep Submissiveness, Especially When God Does Not Remove The Cup From Us. In Such Circumstances, When Reminded About The Premortal Shouting For Joy As This Life's Plan Was Unfolded (job 38:7), We Can Perhaps Be Pardoned If, In Some Moments, We Wonder What All The Shouting Was About.

We, More Than Others, Should Carry Jumper And Tow Cables Not Only In Our Cars, But Also In Our Hearts, By Which Means We Can Send The Needed Boost Or Charge Of Encouragement Or The Added Momentum To Mortal Neighbors.

The Scriptures Offer Us So Many Doctrinal Diamonds. And When The Light Of The Spirit Plays Upon Their Several Facets, They Sparkle With Celestial Sense And Illuminate The Path We Are To Follow.

Within What Is Allotted To Us, We Can Have Spiritual Contentment.

The True Christian Is A Communicator.

Stubborn Selfishness Leads Otherwise Good People To Fight Over Herds, Patches Of Sand, And Strippings Of Milk. All This Results From What The Lord Calls Coveting "the Drop," While Neglecting The "more Weighty Matters." (d&c 117:8) Myopic Selfishness Magnifies A Mess Of Pottage And Makes Thirty Pieces Of Silver Look Like A Treasure Trove. In Our Intense Acquisitiveness, We Forget Him Who Once Said, "what Is Property Unto Me?"

The Winds Of Tribulation, Which Blow Out Some Men's Candles Of Commitment, Only Fan The Fires Of Faith Of Others.

Anger Should Never Be An Overnight Guest.

Our Journey Is Demanding Enough That The Need For Reassurance As Well As Reminders Is Constant.

Pure Religion Is Having The Courage To Do What Is Right And Let The Consequence Follow.

During Our Mortal Schooling In Submissiveness, We Will See The Visible Crosses That Some Carry, But Other Crosses Will Go Unseen. A Few Individuals May Appear To Have No Trials At All, Which, If It Were So, Would Be A Trial In Itself. Indeed, If, As Do Trees, Our Souls Had Rings To Measure The Years Of Greatest Personal Growth, The Wide Rings Would Likely Reflect The Years Of Greatest Moisture-but From Tears, Not Rainfall.

Do Not Let The Future Be Held Hostage By The Past

God's Extraordinary Work Is Most Often Done By Ordinary People In The Seeming Obscurity Of A Home And Family.

It Is One Of The Great Ironies Of Human History That Some Mortals With Incorrect Understanding Of God And Life's Purposes Sometimes Scold God Because Of The Abundance Of Human Misery And Suffering-which, Indeed, Lies All About Us. Such Individuals Almost Dare God To Demonstrate His Existence By Straightening Things Out-and At Once! But He Is A Much Different Kind Of Father Than That. Surely It Is Requisite To Eternal Life That We Come To Know God And Jesus Christ Whom He Has Sent (see John 17:3).

Sometimes The Best People... Have The Worst Experiences... Because They Are Ready To Learn

Our God Is A God Of Love. He Waits With Open Arms, And The Unfolding Of His Merciful Plan Of Salvation Is Not Only Therefore The Mark Of Divine Power But Also The Mark Of God's Relentless, Redeeming Love. It Is A Point Well Worth Pondering Because, Among Other Reasons, It Will Help Us To Understand Better Why God, Through The Prophets, Denounces Sin And Corruption In Such Scalding Terms. He Loves All Of Us, His Spirit Sons And Daughters, But Hates Our Vices. His Denunciation Of Those Vices May, If We Are Not Careful, Seem To Obscure The Enormous And Perfect Love He Has For Us.

Thus It Is That Our Faith And Trust In Our Heavenly Father, So Far As This Mortal Experience Is Concerned, Consists Not Simply Of Faith And Gladness That He Exists, But Is Also A Faith And Trust That, If We Are Humble, He Will Tutor Us, Aiding Our Acquisition Of Needed Attributes And Experiences While We Are In Mortality. We Trust Not Only The Designer But Also His Design Of Life Itself, Including Our Portion Thereof!

Your Task Is To Conquer Yourselves, Not Ships, Lands And Castles. This Battle Is The One In Which You Especially Are To 'come Off Conqueror.' It Is Fought Every Day. In Fact, It Is A Continuing Process Which Commenced A Long, Long Time Ago.

A Vague Goal Is No Goal At All. The Ten Commandments Wouldn't Be Very Impressive, For Instance, If They Weren't Specific, But Simply Were Couched In A Phraseology Such As 'thou Shalt Not Be A Bad Person.

Ten Commandments

How Can We Truly Understand Who We Are Unless We Know Who We Were And What We Have The Power To Become?

A Father Who Finds It Difficult To Express His Love Vocally For His Children May Need, At First, To Be Humbly Obedient In Holding Family Home Evenings In Order To Help Him To Discover, Or To Increase, His Appreciation For His Children. Next Can Come To Him The Courage To Say I Love You To Each One.

Most Of Our Suffering Comes From Sin And Stupidity; It Is, Nevertheless, Very Real, And Growth Can Occur With Real Repentance. But The Highest Source Of Suffering Appears To Be Reserved For The Innocent Who Undergo Divine Tutorial Training.

When We Rejoice In Beautiful Scenery, Great Art, And Great Music, It Is But The Flexing Of Instincts Acquired In Another Place And Another Time.

Although Goal Setting Can Clearly Be Overdone, Only A Few People Are Overly Involved With Goals And Goal Setting; Most People Do Far Too Little Goal Setting, Including The Reflecting That Precedes The Setting Of Such Goals. Too Many Marriages Have Financial Goals But Not Other Explicit Goals. Yet The Gospel Is Certainly Goal-oriented.

Financial Goals

Our Little Pebble Of Poor Performance Helps To Start, Or To Sustain, An Avalanche.

In Contrast To The Path Of Selfishness, There Is No Room For Road Rage On The Straight And Narrow Way.

We Can Learn That At The Center Of Our Agency Is Our Freedom To Form A Healthy Attitude Toward Whatever Circumstances We Are Placed In! Those, For Instance, Who Stretch Themselves In Service- Though Laced With Limiting Diseases-are Often The Healthiest Among Us! The Spirit Can Drive The Flesh Beyond Where The Body First Agrees To Go!

There Are Certain Mortal Moments And Minutes That Matter. Certain Hingepoints In The History Of Each Human. Some Seconds Are So Decisive They Shrink The Soul, While Others Are Spent, So As To Stretch The Soul.

How Good You And I Get At Repenting Will Determine How Good Life Is.

When We Are Unduly Impatient With An Omniscient God's Timing, We Really Are Suggesting That We Know What's Best. Strange Isn't It-we Who Wear Wrist Watches Seek To Counsel Him Who Oversees Cosmic Clocks And Calendars.

It Is One Of The Ironies Of Religious History That Many Mortals Err In Their Understanding Of The Nature Of God And End Up Rejecting Not The Real God But Their Own Erroneous And Stereotypical Image Of God. Frequently This Is Because They Have Thought Of God Solely In Terms Of Thunderings At Sinai Without Pondering Substance. . . .

Having Faith In The Plan Of Salvation Includes Steadfastly Refusing To Be Diverted From Our True Identities And Responsibilities. In The Brief Season Of Our Existence On Earth We May Serve As A Plumber, Professor, Farmer, Physician, Mechanic, Bookkeeper, Or Teacher. These Are Useful Activities And Honorable Designations; But A Temporary Vocation Is Not Reflective Of Our True Identities. Matthew Was A Tax Collector, Luke A Physician, And Peter A Fisherman. In A Salvational Sense, 'so What!'

Love, Patience, And Meekness Can Be Just As Contagious As Rudeness And Crudeness.

C. S. Lewis Pointed Out That Some People Are Angry With God For His Not Existing, And Others For His Existing But For Failing To Do As Mortals Would Have Him Do. Instead Of Such Childishness, We Are Urged To Know God And To Learn Of His Attributes.

The Hardest Work You And I Will Ever Do Is To Put Off Our Selfishness. It Is Heavy Lifting!

In Racing Marathons, One Does Not See The Dropouts Make Fun Of Those Who Continue; Failed Runners Actually Cheer On Those Who Continue The Race, Wishing They Were Still In It. Not So With The Marathon Of Discipleship In Which Some Dropouts Then Make Fun Of The Spiritual Enterprise Of Which They Were So Recently A Part!

Naive Optimism And Pervasive Pessimism Are Both To Be Avoided, Therefore. It's Not An Easy Balance To Maintain, To Be Asked To Work Away In The Ninevehs Of Our Lives Without Being So Conscious Of The Coming Cataclysm That We Are Not Serious Citizens Of Our Communities And Nations. By Living And Sharing The Gospel Of Jesus Christ, We Are Doing The Most Relevant Thing We Can Do By Way Of Helping. (there Are Civic And Other Chores To Be Done, Of Course.) Day In And Day Out, The Gospel Is The One Thing That Is Most Relevant, And We Are To Be Of Good Cheer.

It Is Possible To Know When, At Least Basically, We Please God. In Fact, Joseph Smith Taught That One Of The Conditions Of Genuine Faith Is To Have "an Actual Knowledge That The Course Of Life Which [one] Is Pursuing Is According To [god's] Will."

A Patient Willingness To Defer Dividends Is A Hallmark Of Individual Maturity.

I Find That Goal Setting, When Done This Way, Leads To Goal Achieving. The Chronic Failure To Achieve Goals Lowers Self-esteem. Show Me A Failure To Achieve A Goal, And Usually I Can Show You The Violation Of One Or More Of The Above Criteria. Imposed Goals, Vague Goals, And Unrealistic Goals Tend To Produce Only Partial Successes And Outright Failures.

Love Is Never Wasted, Even If It Is Not Reciprocated.

Mother Lode Of Learning.

Crowds Cannot Make Right What God Has Declared To Be Wrong.

We Cannot Lead Or Draw Others To Christ Unless We Stand Closer To Him Than They Do.

A Narcissist Society, In Which Each Person Is Busy Looking Out For Number One, Can Build Neither Brotherhood Nor Community. Aren't We Glad In This Easter Season And In All Seasons That Jesus Did Not Selfishly Look Out For Number One? No Wonder We Have Been Told, 'thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me,' And This Includes Self-worship! (ex. 20:3; Emphasis Added). One Way Or Another, The Grossly Selfish Will Finally Be Shattered, Whimpering, Against The Jagged, Concrete Consequences Of Their Selfishness.

The Dues Of Discipleship Are High Indeed, And How Much We Can Take So Often Determines How Much We Can Then Give.

God’s Grace Will Cover Us Like A Cloak-enough To Provide For Survival But Too Thin To Keep Out All The Cold.

In Conclusion, The Submission Of One's Will Is Really The Only Uniquely Personal Thing We Have To Place On God's Altar. The Many Other Things We 'give,' Brothers And Sisters, Are Actually The Things He Has Already Given Or Loaned To Us. However, When You And I Finally Submit Ourselves, By Letting Our Individual Wills Be Swallowed Up In God's Will, Then We Are Really Giving Something To Him! It Is The Only Possession Which Is Truly Ours To Give!

Our Afflictions Brothers And Sisters Often Will Not Be Extinguished, They Will Be Dwarfed And Swallowed Up In The Joy Of Christ. That’s How We Overcome, Most Of The Time. It’s Not Their Elimination, But The Placing Of Them In That Larger Context.

Occasionally Some Individuals Let The Seeming Ordinariness Of Life Dampen Their Spirits. Though Actually Coping And Growning, Others Lack The Quiet, Inner-soul Satisfaction That Can Steady Them, And Are Experiencing Instead, A Lingering Sense That There Is Something More Important They Should Be Doing . . .as If What Is Quietly Achieved In Righteous Individual Living Or In Parenthood Are Not Sufficiently Spectacular.

Patient Endurance Permits Us To Cling To Our Faith In The Lord And Our Faith In His Timing When We Are Being Tossed About By The Surf Of Circumstance. Even When A Seeming Undertow Grasps Us, Somehow, In The Tumbling, We Are Being Carried Forward, Though Battered And Bruised.

The Enlarging Of The Soul Requires Not Only Some Remodeling, But Some Excavating.

I Testify That He Is Utterly Incomparable In What He Is, What He Knows, What He Has Accomplished And What He Has Experienced. Yet, Movingly, He Calls Us His Friends

Men's And Nations' Finest Hour Consist Of Those Moments When Extraordinary Challenge Is Met By Extraordinary Response. Hence In Those Darkest Hours, We Must Light Our Individual Candles Rather Than Vying With Others To Call Attention To The Enveloping Darkness. Our Indignation About Injustice Should Lead To Illumination, For If It Does Not, We Are Only Adding To The Despair-and The Moment Of Gravest Danger Is When There Is So Little Light That Darkness Seems Normal!

As We Come Closer To Him, We Not Only "stand All Amazed"-we Even Kneel All Amazed!

Our Goals Should Stretch Us Bit By Bit. So Often When We Think We Have Encountered A Ceiling, It Is Really A Psychological Or Experimental Barrier That We Have Built Ourselves. We Built It And We Can Remove It. Just As Correct Principles, When Applied, Carry Their Own Witness That They Are True, So Do Correct Personal Improvement Programs. But We Must Not Expect Personal Improvement Without Pain Or Some 'remodeling.' We Can't Expect To Have The Thrills Of Revealed Religion Without The Theology. We Cannot Expect To Have The Soul Stretching Without Christian Service.

The Harrowing Of The Soul Can Be Like The Harrowing Of The Soil; To Increase The Yield, Things Are Turned Upside Down.

When The Real History Of Mankind Is Fully Disclosed, Will It Feature The Echoes Of Gunfire Or The Shaping Sound Of Lullabies? The Great Armistices Made By Military Men Or The Peacemaking Of Women In Homes And In Neighborhoods? Will What Happened In Cradles And Kitchens Prove To Be More Controlling Than What Happened In Congresses? When The Surf Of The Centuries Has Made The Great Pyramids So Much Sand, The Everlasting Family Will Still Be Standing, Because It Is A Celestial Institution, Formed Outside Telestial Time.

What We Insistently Desire, Over Time, Is What We Become.

Conscience Warns Us Not To Sink Our Cleats Too Deeply In Mortal Turf, Which Is So Dangerously Artificial.

Time Is Clearly Not Our Natural Dimension. Thus It Is That We Are Never Really At Home In Time. Alternately, We Find Ourselves Wishing To Hasten The Passage Of Time Or To Hold Back The Dawn. We Can Do Neither, Of Course, But Whereas The Fish Is At Home In Water, We Are Clearly Not At Home In Time--because We Belong To Eternity.

If We Knew How Often The Obedience Of Others Is Affected By Our Own, And How Often Our Stepping Forth Soon Brings Forth A Whole Platton Of Helpers, And How Often Our Speaking Forth Soon Creates A Chorus - We Would Be Even More Ashamed Of Our Slackess And Our Silence.

It Is So Easy To Be Confrontive Without Being Informative; Indignant Without Being Intelligent; Impulsive Without Being Insightful.

Enthusiasm Needs To Be Effective Enthusiasm. We Must Distinguish Between The Contribution And Enthusiasm Of The Cheerleader And The Enthusiasm Of The Player. While Cheerleaders Serve An Important Purpose, The Real Contest Involves Players On The Field Or On The Court Of Life. We Must Not Go Through Life Acting Only As Enthusiastic Cheerleaders Available For Hire; We Must Be Anxiously And Personally Engaged.

The Gross Size Of Our Talent Inventories Is Less Important Than The Net Use Of Our Talents?

Those Who Do Too Much For Their Children Will Soon Find They Can Do Nothing With Their Children. So Many Children Have Been So Much Done For They Are Almost Done In.

The Lord Doesn't Ask About Your Ability, Only Your Availability; And, If You Prove Your Dependability, The Lord Will Increase Your Capability.

At The Center Of Our Agency Is Our Freedom To Form A Healthy Attitude Toward Whatever Circumstances We Are Placed In!

You Rock A Sobbing Child Without Wondering If Today's World Is Passing You By, Because You Know You Hold Tomorrow Tightly In Your Arms.

Many Of Those Engaged In A Lemming-like March To The Sea Are Proud Of Their Individualism.

God's Anger Is Kindled Not Because We Have Harmed Him But Because We Have Harmed Ourselves.

Long Ago When A Child Lay In A Manger, A Special Star Appeared. It Didn't Just Show Up That Evening. It Had To Have Been Placed In Its Orbit Centuries Before In A Trajectory That Would Make It Appear At That Special Moment Of Time To Announce The Birth Of A Special Child. Just As There Is Divine Design In The Universe, So Each Of Us Has Been Placed In Our Own Orbits In This Life To Love, To Serve, To Help Light The World.

There Are Also Flat Periods In Life Which May Well Be The Periods During Which-before New Lessons Come- The Past Lessons Of Life Are Allowed To Seep, Quietly And Deeply, Into The Marrow Of The Soul. These Outwardly Flat Periods, When Enduring Well May Not Seem Very Purposeful,, Are Probably The Times When Needed Attitudinal Alignments Are Quietly Occurring.

Our Inspired Constitution Is Wisely Designed To Protect From Excesses Of Political Power, But It Can Do Little To Protect Us From The Excesses Of Appetite Or From Individual Indifference To Great Principles Or Institutions. Any Significant Unraveling Of The Moral Fiber Of The American People, Therefore, Finally Imperils The Constitution.

One Day The Faithful Will Have It All!

Let Us Have Integrity And Not Write Checks With Our Tongues Which Our Conduct Cannot Cash.

Any Assessment Of Where We Stand In Relationship To Him Tells Us That We Do Not Stand At All. We Kneel.

A Basic Cause Of Murmuring Is That Too Many Of Us Seem To Expect That Life Will Flow Ever Smoothly, Featuring An Unbroken Chain Of Green Lights With Empty Parking Places Just In Front Of Our Destinations!.

If Another Person Only Had In His Storehouse Of Deserved Self-esteem What You Had Put There, What Would He Have To Draw Upon And To Sustain Him?

So It Is That Real, Personal Sacrifice Never Was Placing An Animal On The Altar. Instead, It Is A Willingness To Put The Animal In Us Upon The Altar And Letting It Be Consumed! Such Is The 'sacrifice Unto The Lord... Of A Broken Heart And A Contrite Spirit,' (d&c 59:8), A Prerequisite To Taking Up The Cross, While Giving 'away All [our] Sins' In Order To 'know God' (alma 22:18) For The Denial Of Self Precedes The Full Acceptance Of Him.

If The Nearly One-and-a-half Million Babies Aborted In America Each Year Could, Somehow, Vote, Chameleon Candidates Would Find Fresh Reason To Be Concerned About Abortion, Whereas Now They Are Unconcerned.

So Often Our Sisters Comfort Others When Their Own Needs Are Greater Than Those Being Comforted. That Quality Is Like The Generosity Of Jesus On The Cross. Empathy During Agony Is A Portion Of Divinity!

The Submission Of One's Will Is Really The Only Uniquely Personal Thing We Have To Place On God's Altar. The Many Other Things We 'give' Are Actually The Things He Has Already Given Or Loaned To Us.

How Could There Be Refining Fires Without Our Enduring Some Heat?

Brigham Young Observed, "man's Machinery Makes Things Alike" (jd 9:370), While God Gives To Seemingly Like Individuals Pleasing Differences. Secularism Is No Friend Of Righteous Individuality.

Ultimate Hope Constitutes The Anchor Of The Soul.

We Tend To Think Of Consecration Only As Yielding Up, When Divinely Directed, Our Material Possessions. But Ultimate Consecration Is The Yielding Up Of Oneself To God. Heart, Soul, And Mind Were The Encompassing Words Of Christ In Describing The First Commandment, Which Is Constantly, Not Periodically, Operative (see Matt. 22:37). If Kept, Then Our Performances Will, In Turn, Be Fully Consecrated For The Lasting Welfare Of Our Souls (see 2 Ne. 32:9).

It Is Our Job To Lift Others Up, Not To Size Them Up.

God Will Facilitate, But He Will Not Force.

In A 'wheat And Tares' World, How Unusually Blessed Faithful Members Are To Have The Precious And Constant Gift Of The Holy Ghost With Reminders Of What Is Right And Of The Covenants We Have Made. 'for Behold, ... The Holy Ghost ... Will Show Unto You All Things What Ye Should Do.' (2 Ne. 32:5.) Whatever The Decibels Of Decadence, These Need Not Overwhelm The Still, Small Voice! Some Of The Best Sermons We Will Ever Hear Will Be Thus Prompted From The Pulpit Of Memory—to An Audience Of One!

If One Is Devoid Of Hope And Thanksgiving, He Cannot For Long Remain Sinless, For He Will, In Despair, Have Slackened His Resolve. Feelings Of Futility Foster Vulnerability. Self-pity Is Such A Busy Stagehand, Rearranging The Scenery To Help Sin Make Its Entrance. No Wonder The Prophets Say That Without Faith In The Lord, There Is No Hope.

Patience Stoutly Resists Pulling Up The Daisies To See How The Roots Are Doing!

Real Hope Is Much More Than Wishful Musing. It Stiffens, Not Slackens, The Spiritual Spine.

Never Give Up What You Want Most For What You Want Today.

Walking And Overcoming By Faith Is Not Easy. For One Thing, The Dimension Of Time Constantly Constrains Our Perspective. Likewise, The World Steadily Tempts Us. No Wonder We Are Given Instructive Words From Jesus About The Narrowness And The Straightness Of The Only Path Available To Return Home: “i Am The Way, The Truth, And The Life” (john 14:6). And Then He Said, “no Man Cometh Unto The Father, But By Me.” Jesus Laid Down Strict Conditions.

A Few Little Flowers Will Spring Up Briefly In The Dry Gulley Through Which Torrents Of Water Pass Occasionally. But It Is Steady Streams That Bring Thick And Needed Crops. In The Agriculture Of The Soul That Has To Do With Nurturing Attributes, Flash Floods Are No Substitute For Regular Irrigation.

When Great Individuals Move So Marvelously Along The Straight And Narrow Path, It Is Unseemly Of Us To Call Attention To The Fact That One Of Their Shoelaces Is Untied As They Make The Journey.

Patience Is...clearly Not Fatalistic, Shoulder-shrugging Resignation. It Is The Acceptance Of A Divine Rhythm To Life; It Is Obedience Prolonged. Patience Stoutly Resists Pulling Up The Daisies To See How The Roots Are Doing.

The Prompting That Goes Unresponded To May Not Be Repeated. Writing Down What We Have Been Prompted With Is Vital. A Special Thought Can Be Lost Later In The Day Through The Rough And Tumble Of Life. God Should Not, And May Not, Choose To Repeat The Prompting If We Assign What Is Given Such A Low Priority As To Put It Aside.

God Is Very Serious About Joy In The Lives Of His Children.

Trending Author

Michael Ian Black

Category