Good Habits

"Good habits are not acquired simply by making good resolves, though the thought must precede the action. Good habits are developed in the workshop of our daily lives. It is not in the great moments of test and trial that character is built. That is only when it is displayed."

—Delbert L. Stapley Ensign, Nov. 1974-

What Do You See

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

-- HENRY DAVID THOREAU

On My Way To Being Me

"Far from what I was once was but not yet what I am going to be."

Before You...

Before you act, listen.

Before you react, think.

Before you respond, earn.

Before you criticize, wait.

Before you pray, forgive.

Before you quit, try.

~Ernest Hemingway

Wounds

"Don't allow your wounds to turn you into a person you are not."

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Conquering

‎"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." 

Sir Edmund Hillary

There is Room

"There is room for improvement in every life. Regardless of our occupations, regardless of our circumstances, we can improve ourselves and while so doing have an effect on the lives of those about us."

Gordon B. Hinckley - Oct. Conf. 2002

You Control Your Destiny

Elder Ballard:

"You control to a large degree your own destiny. You control your own life. Some of you might cop out by saying, “Well, Brother Ballard, you just don’t understand my environment. You just don’t understand my circumstances. You just don’t understand what kind of a father I have, or what kind of a mother I have, or what kind of a this or that.”

“No,” I would say to you, “put all of that in the back of your minds and bring forward to the front of your mind the worthy goals that you want to obtain. Then practice personal self-discipline.”

Benjamin N. Woodson had some good things to say about self-discipline:

“For my part, I have concluded that the quality which sets one man apart from another—the factor which lifts one man to every achievement to which he reasonably aspires while the other is caught in the slough of mediocrity for all the years of his life—is not talent, nor formal education, nor luck, nor intellectual brilliance, but is rather the successful man’s greater capacity for self-discipline.”

Mr. Woodson offers a great suggestion:

“All you need to do is this: Beginning this very day, stop doing some one thing you know you should not do.” After you have written this one thing down, stop doing it!

Some of you will have the necessary self-discipline and courage to do this. Others of you will just sit here and say, “Oh boy.” You won’t pay any attention to it, and so a month from now you will still be dragging behind you the same habit that is holding you back from being your best self.

A few of you will stop doing that one thing today. Why? Because you are going to write it down and then you are going to discipline yourself in such a way that you are going to take a problem out of your life."

(M. Russell Ballard, “Go for It!,” New Era, Mar 2004, 4)

Self-Mastery

Elder Robert D. Hales:
"Everyone has something they must learn to master. Some are just more obvious than others."
(Ensign, May 1998, 77)

Ether 12:27:
“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

Handing Over Your Whole Self

Speaking of the necessity for the control of our desires and independence, C. S. Lewis wrote:

"The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions--to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call "ourselves," to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be "good." We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way--centred on money or pleasure or ambition--and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do".

[C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 168; book 4, chapter 8, paragraph 7]

Which One is Me?

There should not be, as someone has said, “one self for church, another self for business, another for recreation, home, travel, and so on.” This point is well expressed in the following verse by Edward Sanford Martin:

Within my earthly temple there’s a crowd;
There’s one of us that’s humble, one that’s proud,
There’s one that’s broken-hearted for his sins,
There’s one that unrepentant sits and grins;
There’s one that loves his neighbor as himself,
And one that cares for naught but fame and pelf.
From much corroding care I should be free
If I could once determine which is me!

(“My Name Is Legion,” in Obert C. Tanner, Christ’s Ideals for Living, Salt Lake City: Deseret Sunday School Union Board, 1955, p. 118.)

Successful Marriages

B y Spencer W Kimball: Successful Marriages Are Built on Selflessness

"Total unselfishness is sure to accomplish another factor in successful marriage. If one is forever seeking the interests, comforts, and happiness of the other, the love found in courtship and cemented in marriage will grow into mighty proportions. Many couples permit their marriages to become stale and their love to grow cold like old bread or worn-out jokes or cold gravy. Certainly the foods most vital for love are consideration, kindness, thoughtfulness, concern, expressions of affection, embraces of appreciation, admiration, pride, companionship,confidence, faith, partnership, equality, and interdependence."

(President Spencer W. Kimball, "Oneness in Marriage,"Ensign, Mar. 1977, 5)

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I just feel so grateful to be a member of the Church and to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ laid before me. When I think about all those qualities, most are ones which I hope to have and definitely all are ones I need to increase in, but I know that through the Saviour and His love, that I can become the daughter of God He knows I can be, and that His grace will be sufficient for me. It’s so wonderful that we can change and develop everyday don’t you think? Everyday is a brand new day:)

I hope you have such a lovely day today.

Spiritual Roots for a Spiritual Tree

I was just looking over Jacob 5 and was reminded of some things. In the Allegory of the Olive Tree we read:

"And we will nourish again the trees of the vineyard, and we will trim up the branches thereof; and we will pluck from the trees those branches which are ripened,that must perish, and cast them into the fire."And this I do that, perhaps, the roots thereof may take strength because of their goodness; and because of the change of the branches, that the good may overcome the evil."(Jacob 5: 58-59)

The Lord desires our happiness and in this situation there were some branches of the trees which needed to be trimmed as they had become bad, this was done to enable the roots to continue in goodness, and for it to take strength. I thought how this is similar to our lives, that sometimes the Lord sees things about our character that are becoming 'ripened', and that threaten our spiritual roots. Our spiritual tree can't survive whilst branches like pride, greed, lust, impatience, arrogance, negativity and the other gazillion things exist that drive away the Spirit of the Lord. Our strength lies in our roots, and the only real strength comes when Christ is our root. Through His goodness we can change, and we can find peace.

I am so thankful to know that I have a Saviour who cares about the life I am leading, and also cares enough not to allow me to continue in error without His intervention, I also LOVE the fact that I can make Him happy when when I freely choose to do right.

I hope no matter where you are today in this beautiful world, that you will be able to find an increase in happiness.

The Hearts Longing

"The gospel of Jesus Christ answers the heart's longing for fulness. The Father of our spirits knows where we belong— where our core being can say, "I was made for this." To that end, God would have us fulfill our deepest eternal yearnings and know the meaning of our very existence."

—Bruce C. Hafen, Marie K. Hafen, Belonging Heart

Pain & Progress

"Yes, there is pain in change, but there is also great satisfaction in recognizing that progress is being achieved. We need not feel that we must forever be what we presently are. When change is thought through carefully, it can produce the most rewarding and profound experiences in life."

—Marvin J. Ashton, Ensign, Nov. 1979

Setting Ourselves Free

I love this little bit from the article by Elder Holland in March 2005's Ensign on Elder Uchtdorf:

"Elder Uchtdorf’s son, Guido, remembers a German phrase his father often used when there was a problem or a difficulty in their lives. “Man könnte sichdarüber ärgern, aber man ist nicht verpflichtet dazu,”he would say, which roughly translated means, “You could be upset about it, but you are not obligated to be.” Dieter Uchtdorf feels that with agency and self-control, with the gospel of Jesus Christ and power in the priesthood, no one has to be victimized by circumstance. Terrible things can happen—and they have happened in his life—but with our hand in the hand of God, we can still chart a course that will set us free, that will eventually bring triumph. It requires courage, patience, optimism, and faith in God, but things can come out right if we stay with the task and stay in control."