“This ability and willingness properly to rear children, the gift to love, and eagerness, yes, longing to express it in soul development, make motherhood the noblest office or calling in the world. She who can paint a masterpiece or write a book that will influence millions deserves the admiration and the plaudits of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters, whose influence will be felt through generations to come, . . . deserves the highest honor that man can give, and the choicest blessings of God.”

-David O. McKay

Dating and Discipleship

"You want capability, safety, and security in dating and romance, in married life and eternity? Be a true disciple of Jesus. Be a genuine, committed, word-and-deed Latter-day Saint. Believe that your faith has everything to do with your romance, because it does. You separate dating from discipleship at your peril."

-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "How Do I Love Thee?"

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!) 

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

“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

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

"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

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

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"

"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

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

-John Bytheway

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.

You can be my sister.

"I was practicing the piano one day, and it made me cry because it was so bad. Then I decided to practice ballet, and it made me cry more; it was bad, too. So then I decided to draw a picture because I knew I could do that good, but it was horrid. Of course it made me cry.

"Then my little three-year-old brother came up, and I said, 'Duffy, what can I be? What can I be? I can't be a piano player or an artist or a ballet girl. What can I be?' 

"He came up to me and whispered, 'You can be my sister.'" 

-Mary Holland, at age 7

"Be a contribution."
-Monica Hymas

Should we not do the same?

“Christ knows how to minister to others perfectly. When the Savior stretches out His hands, those He touches are uplifted and become greater, stronger, and better people as a result. If we are His hands, should we not do the same?” 
- Dieter F. Uchtdorf