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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!"

-Neal A. Maxwell

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When, As President Joseph

Neal A. Maxwell

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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!"

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

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.

When We Don't Like To Face Up To Hard Facts, We Use Soft Words. We Do Not Speak About Killing A Baby Within The Womb, But About "termination Of Potential Life." Words Are Often Multiplied To Try To Cover Dark Deeds.

A Friend Of Mine Who Passed Through A Most Severe Trial, When I Discussed It With Him, He Said Simply, If It’s Fair, It Isn’t A Trial.

We Can Tell Much By What We Have Already Willing Discarded Along The Pathway Of Discipleship. It Is The Only Pathway Where Littering Is Permissible, Even Encouraged. In The Early Stages, The Debris Left Behind Includes The Grosser Sins Of Commission. Later Debris Differs; Things Begin To Be Discarded Which Have Caused The Misuse Or Underuse Of Our Time And Talent.

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

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

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).

Patience Helps Us To View Imperfections In Others More Generously To The End That We May Learn To Be More Wise Than They Have Been.

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.

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. We Can Grow In Faith Only If We Are Willing To Wait Patiently For God's Purposes And Patterns To Unfold In Our Lives, On His Timetable.

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.

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.

Sometimes We Are So Busy Being The Hammer Or The Anvil, That We Forget Who Really Needs The Shaping.

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.

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.

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

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.

We Are Vulnerable If We Can Be Taken By A Wave Of Emotion, Invaded By An Invidious Impulse, Roughed Up By Resentment, Or Engulfed By A Surge Of Selfishness.

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

We Can Be Of So Much Service To Others In Many Thou-shalt Ways. Of Course, The Problem Is That Rendering Such Service Takes Time, And We Are All So Busy. Some Situations May Call For Service That Somehow Seems To Be Beneath Us. Besides, We Have Other Things To Do. The Thou Shalts Are So Convenient To Put Off. Who Will Notice The Procrastination Anyway? After All, We Are Not Robbing A Bank. Or Are There Forms Of Withholding That Constitute Stealing?

Procrastination

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

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

For Some Church Members The Book Of Mormon Remains Unread. Others Use It Occasionally As If It Were Merely A Handy Book Of Quotations. Still Others Accept And Read It But Do Not Really Explore And Ponder It. The Book Is To Be Feasted Upon, Not Nibbled (see 2 Nephi 31:20).

Life Is An 'open-book' Exam, But The Problem Is That Most Of The Students Don't Have The 'book', Or Refuse To Open It-a Fact That Ought To Spur Us On As Church Members To Share The Gospel More Widely So That Life Would Be Meaningful For More People.

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

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.

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

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

The Good Life Is The Best Preparation For Bad Times.

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.

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.

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.

There Will Be Many Fine And Wonderful Men And Women Of All Races And Creeds-and Of No Religious Creeds At All-who Will Lead Decent And Useful Lives.

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

All Of Us Must Walk The Same Strait And Narrow Path, Know The Same Kind Of Experiences As Those We Would Seek To Lead And To Serve. There Is Not One Strait And Narrow Path For The Officers-the Chosen-and Another For The Enlisted Men. We Are All To Experience Life "according To The Flesh"; There Is No Other Way, For It Is The Way To Immortality And Eternal Life. Given The Resplendent Riches Of The Promised Kingdom, Why Would Anyone Wish To Walk Another Path Than The One That Leads Us Back To Our Gracious And Merciful Father In Heaven?

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).

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!

I Assume, Gladly, That In The Allocation To America Of Remarkable Leaders Like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, And Abraham Lincoln, The Lord Was Just As Careful. After All, If You've Got Only One Abraham Lincoln, You'd Better Put Him In That Point In History When He's Most Needed-much As Some Of Us Might Like To Have Him Now.

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

On The Straight And Narrow Path, There Are Simply No Corners To Be Cut.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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. . . .

The Savior Knows What It's Like To Die Of Cancer.

A Good Friend, Who Knows Whereof He Speaks, Has Observed Of Trials, ‘if It’s Fair, It Is Not A True Trial!’ That Is, Without The Added Presence Of Some Inexplicableness And Some Irony And Injustice, The Experience May Not Stretch Us Or Lift Us Sufficiently. The Crucifixion Of Christ Was Clearly The Greatest Injustice In Human History, But The Savior Bore Up Under It With Majesty And Indescribable Valor.

Crucifixion Of Christ

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

Coming Unto The Lord Is Not A Negotiation, But A Surrender.

For The Faithful, Our Finest Hours Are Sometimes During Or Just Following Our Darkest Hours.

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.

A Society Which Permits Anything Will Eventually Lose Everything.

Listening Is One Of The Forms Of Love.

The Issue For Us Is Trusting God Enough To Trust Also His Timing. If We Can Truly Believe He Has Our Welfare At Heart, May We Not Let His Plans Unfold As He Thinks Best?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Letting Off Steam Always Produces More Heat Than Light.

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

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

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!

Clearly, When We Baptize, Our Eyes Should Gaze Beyond The Baptismal Font To The Holy Temple. The Great Garner Into Which The Sheaves Should Be Gathered Is The Holy Temple.

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

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.

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.

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

Unjust Criticism

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.

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

No Love Is Ever Wasted. Its Worth Does Not Lie In Reciprocity.

Good Homes Are Still The Best Source Of Good Humans.

We Are So Busy Constantly Checking Our Own Temperatures, We Fail To Notice The Burning Fevers Of Others.

You Must Not Mistake Passing Local Cloud Cover, For General Darkness.

The Submissive Will Make It Through To That Final Scene, For The Word Of God Will Lead The Man And Woman Of Christ "in A Straight And Narrow Course Across That Everlasting Gulf Of Misery . . . And Land Their Souls . . . At The Right Hand Of God In The Kingdom, To Sit Down With Abraham, And Isaac, And With Jacob, And With All Our Holy Fathers" (helaman 3:30) "who Have Been Ever Since The World Began . . . To Go No More Out."

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

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

Personal, Spiritual Symmetry Emerges Only From The Shaping Of Prolonged Obedience. Twigs Are Bent, Not Snapped Into Shape.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Mercy Can Purge The Soul Of Sin, Making Room For A Fresh Start. Truth Is Vital In Order That We Have An Unvarying Standard By Which To Determine What We Are To Be And To Do And What We Are To Rid Ourselves Of. All The Cardinal Virtues, Therefore, Carry Their Own Intrinsic As Well As Outward Reward. A Merciful Man Does Do Good To His Own Soul.

Ironically, As Some People Become Harder, They Use Softer Words To Describe Dark Deeds. This, Too, Is Part Of Being Sedated By Secularism. Needless Abortion, For Instance, Is A "reproductive Health Procedure, . . ." "illegitimacy" Gives Way To The Wholly Sanitized Words "non-marital Birth" Or "alternative Parenting."

If We Spent As Much Time Lifting Our Children As We Do Criticizing Them, How Effectively We Could Help Them To See Themselves In A More Positive Light!

These Transcending Truths Restructure Our Understanding Of Ourselves And Of The Universe And Bring Within Our View Resplendent Reality. To Be Seen Only By Those Who Have Eyes To See, These Flakes Of Fire Are Embedded In The Holy Scriptures. There These Tr.

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

Oh, How Great The Plan Of Our God!

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

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

Mother Lode Of Learning.

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!

God Will Facilitate, But He Will Not Force.

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.

Those Who Turn Against The Church Do So To Play To Their Own Private Gallery, But When, One Day, The Applause Has Died Down And The Cheering Has Stopped, They Will Face A Smaller Audience, The Judgment Bar Of God.

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

Education Brightens A Darkened World.

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

The Acceptance Of The Reality That We Are In The Lord's Loving Hands Is Only A Recognition That We Have Never Really Been Anywhere Else.

Anger Should Never Be An Overnight Guest.

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

Though We Have Rightly Applauded Our Ancestors For Their Spiritual Achievements (and Do Not And Must Not Discount Them Now), Those Of Us Who Prevail Today Will Have Done No Small Thing. The Special Spirits Who Have Been Reserved To Live In This Time Of Challenges And Who Overcome Will One Day Be Praised For Their Stamina By Those Who Pulled Handcarts.

It's Service, Not Status, That Counts.

Defectors Often Cause More Difficulty Than Disinterested Disbelievers.

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.

One Day The Faithful Will Have It All!

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

We...live In A World That Is Too Prone To The Tasteless, And We Need To Provide An Opportunity To Cultivate A Taste For The Finest Music. And, Likewise, We’re In A World That’s So Attuned To The Now That We Need To Permit People To Be More Attuned To The Best Music Of All Ages.

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

The Great Challenge Is To Refuse To Let The Bad Things That Happen To Us Do Bad Things To Us. That Is The Crucial Difference Between Adversity And Tragedy.

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!'

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

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.

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.

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. Trust In The Lord As He Leads You Along. He Has Things For You To Do That You Won't Know About Now But That Will Unfold Later. If You Stay Close To Him, You Will Have Some Great Adventures. You Will Live In A Time Where Instead Of Sometimes Being Fulfilled, Many Of Them Will Actually Be Fulfilled. The Lord Will Unfold Your Future Bit By Bit.

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

We Can't Dwell Upon Another's Ingratitude Without Using Up Our Time And Talents Unprofitably.

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

Truly We Work And Live On A Streetful Of Splendid People, Whom We Are To Love And Serve Even If They Are Uninterested In Us!

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.

Joshua Didn't Say Choose You Next Year Whom You Will Serve; He Spoke Of "this Day," While There Is Still Daylight And Before The Darkness Becomes More And More Normal.

Our Goals Should Stretch Us Bit By Bit. So Often When We Think We Have Encountered A Ceiling, It Is Really A Psychological Or Experiential Barrier That We Have Built Ourselves. We Built It And We Can Remove It.

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

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.

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.

At Times God's Best Pupils Experience The Most Rigorous And Continuous Courses. Eventually Those Who Prove To Be Men Of Christ Will Thereby Become Distinguished Alumni Of Life's School Of Affliction, Graduating With Honors.

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

Just As Meekness Is In All Our Virtues, So Is Pride In All Our Sins. Whatever Its Momentary And Alluring Guise, Pride Is The Enemy, "the First Of The Sins." One Reason To Be Particularly On Guard Against Pride Is That "the Devilish Strategy Of Pride Is That It Attacks Us, Not In Our Weakest Points, But In Our Strongest. It Is Preeminently The Sin Of The Noble Mind." Not Only Of The Noble Mind, But Also Of The Semi-righteous.

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!

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.

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

We Can Hold To The Iron Rod Even If Others Slip Away And A Few End Up Mocking Us From "the Great And Spacious Building."

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

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).

To 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. No Wonder The Prophet Joseph Smith Urged, "let Every Selfish Feeling Be Not Only Buried, But Annihilated" (teachings Of The Prophet Joseph Smith, P. 178). Hence Annihilation - Not Moderation - Is The Destination! . . . Meekness Is The Real Cure, For It Does Not Merely Mask Selfishness But Dissolves It!

When One Comes To Know God And His Son Jesus Christ Through The Scriptures, The Spirit, And Personal Revelation, It Is Impossible To Feel Anything Other Than Overwhelmed By The Attributes So Perfectly Developed In Them And So Tentatively And Superficially Developed In Oneself. Even So, We Are Told To Strive To Become Like Them.

How Can You And I Really Expect To Glide Naively Through Life, As If To Say, 'lord, Give Me Experience, But Not Grief, Not Sorrow, Not Pain, Not Opposition, Not Betrayal, And Certainly Not To Be Forsaken. Keep From Me, Lord, All Those Experiences Which Made Thee What Thou Art! Then, Let Me Come And Dwell With Thee And Fully Share Thy Joy!'

. . . Just As God Cannot Look Upon Sin With The Least Degree Of Allowance, As We Become More Like Him, Neither Can We. The Best People Have A Heightened Awareness Of What Little Of The Worst Is Still In Them! Indeed, The Divine Discontent, The Justifiable Spiritual Restlessness That We Feel, Is A Natural Follow-on Feeling In The Disciple Who Has Taken The Lord's Counsel To "make You A New Heart And A New Spirit." (ezekiel 18:31.)

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

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.

The Cumulative Weight Of All Mortal Sins--past, Present, And Future--pressed Upon That Perfect, Sinless, And Sensitive Soul! All Our Infirmities And Sicknesses Were Somehow, Too, A Part Of The Awful Arithmetic Of The Atonement. (see Alma 7:11-12; Isa. 53:3-5; Matt. 8:17.) The Anguished Jesus Not Only Pled With The Father That The Hour And Cup Might Pass From Him, But With This Relevant Citation. 'and He Said, Abba, Father, All Things Are Possible Unto Thee; Take Away This Cup From Me.' (mark 14:35-36.)

Don't Fear, Just Live Right.

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.

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

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!

The True Christian Is A Communicator.

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.

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

Exclamation Points

Let The Scriptures Refresh You.

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.

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.

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.

Every Dimension Of The Gospel Is Relevant To One Or More Of Our Social And Political Problems Of Our Time.

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

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

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!.

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

Frequently, We Busily Search For Group Service Projects, Which Are Surely Needed And Commendable, When Quiet, Personal Service Is Also Urgently Needed. Sometimes The Completing Of An Occasional Group Service Project Ironically Salves Our Consciences When, In Fact, We Are Constantly Surrounded By A Multitude Of Opportunities For Individual Service. In Serving, As In True Worship, We Need To Do Some Things Together And Some Things Personally. Our Spiritual Symmetry Is Our Own Responsibility, And Balance Is So Important.

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!

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

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

Ultimate Hope Constitutes The Anchor Of The Soul.

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.

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

Ironically, Brothers And Sisters, The Natural Man Who Is So Very Selfish In So Many Ordinary Ways Is Strangely Unselfish In That He Reaches For Too Few Of The Things That Bring Real Joy. He Settles For A Mess Of Pottage Instead Of Eternal Joy.

God, As A Loving Father, Will Stretch Our Souls At Times. The Soul Is Like A Violin String: It Makes Music Only When It Is Stretched. . . . God Will Tutor Us By Trying Us Because He Loves Us, Not Because Of Indifference!

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

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

Repentance Is A Rescuing, Not A Dour, Doctrine.

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

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.

Pray For Me To Learn Quickly What I Need To Learn.

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.

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."

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

If We Entertain Temptations, Soon They Begin Entertaining Us!

So Much Depends, Therefore, Upon Our Maintaining Gospel Perspective In The Midst Of Ordinariness, The Pressures Of Temptation, Tribulation, Deprivation, And The Cares Of The World.

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.

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?

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.

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

Perfect Love Is Perfectly Patient.

We Are Often Not Only To Slow To Get On Our Knees, But To Quick To Rise From Them.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!"

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