"Our worst prayers may really be our best. God seems to speak to us most intimately when he catches us off guard."
-C.S. Lewis

"If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves. I want to go back to the beginning, and so lift your minds into more lofty spheres and a more exalted understanding than what the human mind generally aspires to."

-Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 6:303–5, 308 (see this.)

"Create your future from your future, not from your past." 
- Werner Erhard

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men!

This is worth the whole 8 1/2 minutes. Please watch!





Merry Christmas!

Image found here.

Image found here.

"The process of growing up is to be valued for what we gain, not for what we lose."
-C.S.Lewis

"I feel there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."

-Vincent Van Gogh

“Grow old along with me! 

The best is yet to be, 

the last of life, for which the first was made. 

Our times are in his hand who saith, 

'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; 

Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!'”

-Robert Barret Browning

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."
-e.e. cummings

Thanks for believing in me, honey. I love you :]

(Read about him here.)

Faith is always pointed toward the future.

"I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been....Faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yetbe efficacious in our lives. So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say that she did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had. Apparently she thought—fatally, as it turned out—that nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as those moments she was leaving behind....

Some of you may be having thoughts such as these: Is there any future for me? What does a new year or a new semester or a new major or a new romance hold for me? Will I be safe? Will life be sound? Can I trust in the Lord and in the future? Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to go home?

To all such of every generation, I call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come.”
- Elder Holland, "Remember Lot's Wife"

A Faith-Based work

"Oftentimes with young adults I’ll tell the story about the day my husband and I were married. We had three dollars. Even worldwide, that’s not very much money nowadays. It was a faith-based work when we got married. We didn’t get married because of money, or because our education was complete, or because we even had a place to live. We lived with Grandpa and took care of him for the first season of our marriage. We went to school and worked hard, but we entered that relationship as a faith-based work. We knew that we had made a covenant with the Lord and that He would bless us. It didn’t take money; it took faith."

-Julie B. Beck

"When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably." 
-Walt Disney

"Too often we want to be given answers to questions and problems that, if they were given in the manner we ask for them, would take away our agency and the blessings that come from reaching out to the Lord for answers and direction. Some think it would be nice to have 'spiritual fortune cookies' we could open to find the answers to life's challenges. Wouldn't it be nice to have a labeled jar we could reach into for our answers? But that is not the way it is meant to be." 
-Elder Robert D. Hales

"We can grow in faith only if we are willing to wait patiently for God's purposes to unfold in our lives, on His timetable."
-Neal A. Maxwell

Neglecting those more important causes

“We become so caught up in the busyness of our lives. Were we to step back, however, and take a good look at what we’re doing, we may find that we have immersed ourselves in the ‘thick of thin things.’ In other words, too often we spend most of our time taking care of the things which do not really matter much at all in the grand scheme of things, neglecting those more important causes.”

-Thomas S. Monson, “What Have I Done for Someone Today?”

"Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them - but do not let them master you." 
-Hellen Keller

Make your life a sweet and stiring song.

"Polly had fully intended to be very miserable and cry herself to sleep, but when she lay down at last her pillow seemed very soft, her little room very lovely...So much to do in the great, busy world, and she had done so little. Where should she begin....to be strong, and beautiful and go round making music all the time. Yes, she could do that, and with a very earnest prayer Polly asked for the strength of an upright soul, the beauty of a tender heart, the power to make her life a sweet and stirring song, helpful while it lasted, remembered when it died." 

-Louisa May Alcott, An Old Fashioned Girl

(Read my review of the book here!) 

"Come what may, and love it." 

-Joseph B. Wirthlin

"Having put our hand to the plow we must not look back, because when we are looking back, we are also holding back."

-Neal A. Maxwell

"Your mistake does not define who you are. You are your possibilities."

-Oprah Winfrey

"Those who drive steamrollers should know who they are."
-Monica Hymas

He wants you to succeed!

"My dear brothers and sisters, there will be days and nights when you feel overwhelmed, when your hearts are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Church. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose. He is the Son of the living God."

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?"

"Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
–Walt Disney 

You don't just quit

"Yes, the job was hard, but quit? No. This was the one time in my life when I knew I was exactly where the Lord wanted me to be. And when you know something like that, you don’t just quit because you’re sleepy."
-Heather Oman, "Breathing"

"I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait."
- C.S. Lewis

Both optimism and tears.

"I find comfort in the reality that we are sent to mourn with those that mourn. We are not sent to cheer them up. Even though Jesus knew that Lazarus would rise, He did not arrive at the tomb with smiles and assurances that all would be well. The loss was real. It is because He wept at the grave of His friend that I feel I can reach to Him with my own losses....My faith is rooted in both optimism and tears."

-Melissa Young, "Feeling the Loss"

"If God asks that you bend, bend and do not complain. He is making you more flexible, and for this be thankful."
-Terri Guillemets

"In this life we cannot always do great things. But we can do small things with great love."
- Mother Teresa

"To create something you must be something." 
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for."

-Elder Claudio R.M. Costa

"Virtue —even attempted virtue— brings light; indulgence brings fog." 
 - C.S. Lewis

Don't run out ahead of Him

"Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. 'Corrie,' he began gently, 'when you and I go to Amsterdam - when do I give you your ticket?'
I sniffed a few times, considering this.
'Why, just before we get on the train.'
'Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need - just in time.'"
-Corrie Ten Boom, "The Hiding Place"

"We shouldn't complain about life not being a rose garden when we remember who wore the crown of thorns."
-Neal A. Maxwell

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”  

- Winston Churchill

He thinks it's worth the risk.

"Of course God knows what will happen if we use our freedom the wrong way. Apparently He thinks it's worth the risk." 
- C.S. Lewis

“With ordinary talents and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable. ”  

- Sir Thomas Buxton

"Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike."
- Margot Fonteyn

However long and Hard the Road

"We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. 

You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. 

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory; victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival....

But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, 'Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.'"

-Winston Churchill

"I testify that you are holy, that just by being born, divinity is abiding within you, waiting to be uncovered--to be reborn." 
-Patricia Holland, "The Soul's Center"

“Just remember that the legacy is passed from heart to heart. Charity, the pure love of Christ, is part of the mighty change of heart which the Lord promises to His faithful disciples. So it is not hard to see what simple things you can and must do to pass the legacy along.” 
- Henry B. Eyring

Watching with Hope

"Perhaps watching can be painful at times, because I must acknowledge that time is passing - but not because, once passed, it's forever gone. Just like the sand that slips from the top of the globe to the glass floor below, it is not spilled or lost. It is stored.

My dad has always said that his favorite age for his children is the one they are at. I like that thought. To me, that is watching with hope.

Watching the change, and seeing what's not changing.

Watching it pass, and knowing it's not leaving.

Tasting every bite, but believing in God's everlasting covenant that the meal never ends. The food is perishable, yes, but there is more to come. And all of it, ingested, becomes a part of me." 

-Emily Halverson, "The Mother in Me"

"Our understanding of and faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ will provide strength and capacity needed for a successful life."

- Richard G. Scott, "He Lives! All Glory to His Name!

You don't have to be pretty.

"You don't have to be pretty. You don't owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don't owe it to your mother, you don't owe it to your children, you don't owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked 'female.'" 

-Erin McKean 

"We may ignore, but we can't evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito."

-C.S. Lewis

I am doing a great work and cannot come down

"The Lord is seeking men like Nehemiah—faithful brethren who fulfill the oath and covenant of the priesthood. He seeks to enlist unfaltering souls who diligently go about the work of building the kingdom of God—those who, when faced with opposition and temptation, say in their hearts, 'I am doing a great work and cannot come down.'”

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "We are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down"

Be nobody but yourself.

"To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." 

-e e cummings

Patience

"Patience is not indifference. Actually, it means caring very much but being willing to submit to the Lord." 
-Neal A. Maxwell

"Why would the Lord expect us to be happy? Because He has borne our sorrow that we might have joy, and He blesses us when we are obedient. The Savior atoned for our sins that we might be happy." 
-Lynne G. Robbins, "True Beauty"

“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart."
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

"You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost."

- Martha Graham

 

"If you hear a voice within you saying 'You are not a painter,' then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced."
-Vincent Van Gogh

"Take pride in your choices." 
-Kathleen Debenham

Lift Where You Stand

"Sometimes we do not hear the rest of what the Lord is telling us. 'Although you are worthy to serve in this position,' He may say, 'this is not my calling for you. It is my desire instead that you lift where you stand.' God knows what is best for us." 
-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.' " 
-Mary Anne Radmacher

"What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God." 
-Eleanor Powell 

"What attribute should define us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Let us be known as a people who love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and who love our neighbor as ourselves."

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Sunday will come.

"Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. 

"But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come....The Resurrection transformed the lives of those who witnessed it.  Should it not transform ours?"

- Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Sunday Will Come"

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." 

-Winston Churchill

Image found here.

They love you perfectly.

"Your Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son love you perfectly. They would not require you to experience a moment more of difficulty than is absolutely needed for your personal benefit or for that of those you love."

-Richard G. Scott

"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light."

-Helen Keller

"'Be ye perfect' isn't a command to do the impossible. Christ is going to make us creatures that can obey that command." 
-C.S. Lewis

"If I expend all of my energy defending the rightness of my position, I lose the opportunity to improve."

-Melissa Young

Untied Shoelaces

"When great individuals move so marvelously on the straight & narrow, it's unseemly to call attention to untied shoelaces"
-Neal A. Maxwell

Favorite Quotes from Last Weekend's Regional Conference

"When it comes to eternal progression, we must not rely on our long-term memory." 

-Elder Steven E. Snow

"You're doing better than you think you are!" 

-Sister Julie B. Beck

"If we could call upon the faith that Heavenly Father has promised, we could be doing better than we are." 

-Sister Julie B. Beck 

"The Spirit is key to knowing the mind and the will of our Heavenly Father." 

-Sister Julie B. Beck 

 "Miracles are happening and available for those who have enough faith in the Lord."

-Sister Julie B. Beck  

"Testimonies should be simple and deep, not complex and superficial."

-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"When we find ourselves failing, there is someone around to lift us up."

-President Boyd K. Packer

"Go play with the children!"

-Elder Richard G. Scott

"When you live the commandments of Jesus Christ, you qualify for the guidance of the Lord."

-Elder Richard G. Scott

"To love another righteously is to protect, to elevate, to revere, to respect."

-Elder Richard G. Scott

"Marriage enables you to really find out who you are."

-Elder Richard G. Scott

What do you enjoy from Regional Conference?

Found here.

"Day in and day out, the gospel is the one thing that is most relevant, and we are of to be of good cheer."

-Neal A. Maxwell

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. ” 
-Winston Churchill

"If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise."

-Johann von Goethe

My Second-Favorite Quote Ever!

"Choose your corner, pick away at it carefully, intensely, and to the best of your ability - and that way, you may change the world." 
-Charles Eames

Don't wait

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
- Anne Frank

The Joy and Glory of the Climb

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”

-Winston Churchill

"And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." 

- Doctrine and Covenants 78:19

Please God

"A Church leader whom I highly regard told me recently that in his earlier days he was preoccupied with trying to please the people of this Church until in utter fatigue and confusion he decided instead to focus on pleasing God, letting God then worry about pleasing the people. This decision freed him to be who he really was and to find powers he didn't know he had. He said, 'For the first time in my life I saw clearly my own divine potential.' " 
-Patricia T. Holland, "An Eye Single"

“All you have to do is trust your Heavenly Father. Trust Him enough to follow His plan.”

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Your Happily Ever After”

"No love is ever wasted. Its worth does not lie in reciprocity."
-Neal A. Maxwell

Patience.

"Patience—the ability to put our desires on hold for a time—is a precious and rare virtue. We want what we want, and we want it now. Therefore, the very idea of patience may seem unpleasant and, at times, bitter.'Nevertheless, without patience, we cannot please God; we cannot become perfect.'" 

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Continue in Patience"

There are no Ordinary People

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendors....Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat, the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden."

-C.S. Lewis

"The marvelous truths of the Restoration respond to these questions and are highly global, highly personal, and even galactic in their dimensions. Identity exists amid immensity. We are enclosed in divine purposes! There is no need for despair! No wonder the restored gospel is such 'good news.'"
-Neal A. Maxwell

"Every man and every person who lives in this world wields an influence, whether for good or for evil. It is not what he says alone, it is not alone what he does. It is what he is. Every man, every person radiates what he or she really is....It is what we are and what we radiate that affects the people around us.

"As individuals, we must think nobler thoughts. We must not encourage vile thoughts or low aspirations. We shall radiate them if we do. If we think noble aspirations, there will be that radiation when we meet people, especially when we associate with them."
- President David O. McKay

"Clouds, like children, open. They do not doubt, they open and pour, open and give." 
-Terresa Wellborn

A Study of Shoulders

You underestimate your shoulders. 
They are not a series of 
muscles, ligaments, tendons, 
where the humerus and scapula meet. 
They are emptying fields, 
living sunlight, blazing 
altars for hands, lips, 
a curving distance of sighs and weights, 
a thousand brush strokes 
of velvet and weather, 
a world where you 
carry your heart. 

--Terresa Wellborn 

"Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God."

-Karen Freeman

It lights the whole sky.

Image found here.

Peace

"Peace is when you can turn a corner without apprehension and look in the eye those you meet;it is the supremacy over fear, not fearlessness, but the courage to go forward in spite of fear; it is the hearing of the telephone bell without a start; the opening of your door to the police without a quiver; the receiving of a telegram without a tremble."

-President Spencer W. Kimball

"Rarely is anyone criticized into changing, but they just might be loved and appreciated into changing." 

-John Bytheway

"Fall in love with your life."

-Terresa Wellborn

Those Winter Sundays

Those Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early And put his clothes on in the blueback cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he'd call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?  Thanks for all those winter Sundays, Mom and Dad. I love you.

A long pull

"But you see, Jo wasn't a heroine, she was only a struggling human girl like hundreds of others...It's highly virtuous to say we'll be good, but we can't do it all at once, and it takes a long pull, a strong pull." 

- Louisa May Alcott