He Will Honor Our Efforts

"Certainly there are times when getting the family together to read the scriptures does not stack up as a spiritual experience worthy of a journal entry. But we must not be deterred. There are special times when the spirit of a son or daughter is just right and the power of these great scriptures goes down into their heart like fire. As we honor our Heavenly Father in our homes, He will honor our efforts."
Neil L. Andersen, "Prophets and Spiritual Mole Crickets," Ensign, Nov. 1999, 17

Who to Cling to

Russell M. Nelson:
"As we go through life, even through very rough waters, a father's instinctive impulse to cling tightly to his wife or to his children may not be the best way to accomplish his objective. Instead, if he will lovingly cling to the Savior and the iron rod of the gospel, his family will want to cling to him and to the Savior.


"This lesson is surely not limited to fathers. Regardless of gender, marital status, or age, individuals can choose to link themselves directly to the Savior, hold fast to the rod of His truth, and lead by the light of that truth. By so doing, they become examples of righteousness to whom others will want to cling."
"Set in Order Thy House," Ensign, Nov. 2001, 69

Intellectual Pride

“Intellectual pride is very prevalent in our day. Some people exalt themselves above God and His anointed servants because of their learning and scholarly achievements. We must never allow our intellect to take priority over our spirit. Our intellect can feed our spirit and our spirit can feed our intellect, but if we allow our intellect to take precedence over our spirit, we will stumble, find fault, and may even lose our testimonies”.


(Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Press On,” Liahona, Nov 2004, 101–4)

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)

Finding Solutions

Elder Dallin H. Oaks:
“We are often left to work out problems, without the dictation or specific direction of the Spirit. That is part of the experience we must have in mortality. Fortunately, we are never out of our Saviour's sight, and if our judgement leads us to actions beyond the limits of what is permissible and if we are listening to the still small voice, the Lord will restrain us by the promptings of His Spirit.”

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught : “We consider that God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith).

It is a misconception to believe that we should consult Heavenly Father on every matter in life. He expects us to solve a portion of our problems without petitioning Him for potential solutions. It is through this process that we grow, develop, and become more perfect. He is not always concerned about mundane matters unless they are not in keeping with sacred principles. We should daily petition for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. With this presence of the Spirit, we will feel the promptings without petitioning Heavenly Father on every personal matter. This is the method in which Heavenly Father directs me. I have faith as long as my hand is in His that there are many things I don’t need to pray about, because Heavenly Father would tell me if I was going to be doing something wrong. I feel so strongly that members of the Church sometimes don’t act unless prompted, and don’t follow the Lord’s admonish to be “Agents unto ourselves”. We need to keep our feet moving.

Whirlwinds

"What to do when adversity strikes? There is only one thing to do. Stand steady and see it through. Stay steadfast, constant, and true. The real tragedy in the whirlwinds of life comes only when we allow them to blow us off our true course."

David S. Baxter - Oct. Gen. Conf 2006

The Time Has Come To......

"Now, my brethren and sisters, the time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of this The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a season to be strong. It is a time to move forward without hesitation, knowing well the meaning, the breadth, and the importance of our mission. It is a time to do what is right regardless of the consequences that might follow. It is a time to be found keeping the commandments. It is a season to reach out with kindness and love to those in distress and to those who are wandering in darkness and pain. It is a time to be considerate and good, decent and courteous toward one another in all of our relationships. In other words, to become more Christlike"
Gordon B. Hinckley - Gen. Conf. 1995 Apr.

Parental Influence

M. Russell Ballard:

"Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it. [Alma 56:47–48; emphasis added]

Our youth need steadfast, courageous mothers--and they need fathers like Enos had. As you will recall, Enos was Lehi's grandson, the son of Jacob. Enos recorded that his father was "a just man" who "taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord--and blessed be the name of my God for it" (Enos 1:1).

The scriptural record seems to suggest that Enos had a spiritual change of heart one day while hunting. He wrote that during this quiet time alone, "the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart" (Enos 1:3).

Notice that this moment of spiritual enlightenment did not come at the height of a lecture from a concerned father to a troubled son. As important as those occasional lectures are, they rarely result in immediate long-term change. Nor did it come in the midst of one of Jacob's great gospel sermons. It may be that Jacob wasn't even alive to enjoy his son's spiritual rebirth. None of that matters. The important thing is Jacob made sure that he taught his son "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Enos heard, and eventually he understood. And, as Enos said, "blessed be the name of my God for it."

He Doesn't Attack Jell-O or Peanut Butter Supplies!

M. Russell Ballard:

"When you stop and think about it, from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense. When Satan wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn't poison the world's peanut butter supply, thus bringing the Church's missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn't send a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn't legislate against green Jell-O or casseroles. When Satan truly wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he attempts to confuse gender and attacks God's plan for His spirit children. He works to drive a wedge of disharmony between a father and a mother. He entices children to be disobedient to their parents. He makes family home evening and family prayer inconvenient. He suggests family scripture study is impractical and not doable. That's all it takes, because Satan knows that the surest and most effective way to disrupt the Lord's work is to diminish the effectiveness of the family and the sanctity of the home."

(The Sacred Responsibilities of Parenthood, M. RUSSELL BALLARD, 19 August 2003, BYU)

Parental Certainty

"No child in this Church should be left with uncertainty about his or her parents' devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ."
- Jeffrey R. Holland, Ensign, May 2003, 85

Fiery Darts

Our sunday school lesson last week was on this subject, based on this scripture:

"Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked". (Eph 6:16)

Someone made a comment on this that really resonated with me. Paraphrasing, they said that fiery darts were much more dangerous than regular darts/arrows. A dart might be able to penetrate a chink in some armour, but it would only do localised damage, whereas a fiery dart once it has penetrated will consume the rest of the body, and quickly.

You can definitely see the correlation here to temptation and sin - that it is never localised, that it does affect 'all' of us, once acted upon. I think that the reverse is also true though that good attributes can consume the bad too. I hope that we will increase our faith, thereby increasing our protection from these nasty fiery darts, that just keep on coming!

Womanhood - Our 'Real' Gifts

"I wonder if you sisters fully understand the greatness of your gifts and talents and how all of you can achieve the 'highest place of honor' in the Church and in the world. One of your unique, precious, and sublime gifts is your femininity, with its natural grace, goodness, and divinity. Femininity is not just lipstick, stylish hairdos, and trendy clothes. It is the divine adornment of humanity. It finds expression in your qualities of your capacity to love, your spirituality, delicacy, radiance, sensitivity, creativity, charm, graciousness, gentleness, dignity, and quiet strength. It is manifest differently in each girl or woman, but each of you possesses it. Femininity is part of your inner beauty.

"One of your particular gifts is your feminine intuition. Do not limit yourselves. As you seek to know the will of our Heavenly Father in your life and become more spiritual, you will be far more attractive, even irresistible. You can use your smiling loveliness to bless those you love and all you meet, and spread great joy. Femininity is part of the God-given divinity within each of you. It is your incomparable power and influence to do good. You can, through your supernal gifts, bless the lives of children, women, and men. Be proud of your womanhood. Enhance it. Use it to serve others."
("Womanhood: The Highest Place of Honor," Ensign, May 2000, 96)

There is Always Hope!

More from John H. Groberg:

"Let me read something on this point written by Elder Orson F. Whitney, one of the Twelve Apostles some years ago:

You parents of the wilful and the wayward: Don't give them up. Don't cast them off. They are not utterly lost. The Shepherd will find his sheep. They were his before they were yours--long before he entrusted them to your care; and you cannot begin to love them as he loves them. Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend.

See how important it is to follow the admonition given by King Benjamin in Mosiah 4:9:

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; [most of us will go along with that, but the last part] believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend [sometimes we, by our actions, think we are smarter than he is].

Let's not spend our time hoping or worrying about justice being done to others. It will be done. Let's spend our time being just ourselves.

One of Satan's ultimate weapons (if not the ultimate) is to remove hope from your life. He tries to convince you that you can't do it, that there is no hope. Thus, by removing hope, he removes Christ from your life, for Christ is hope. Satan can never quite accomplish that fully--at least not here--because it is a lie. There is hope built within all of us. There is always hope.

On the other hand, the thing Satan cannot fight is one who is full of hope--for he is then full of the Spirit of Christ--and when that hope is perfected or full, Satan has lost completely.
(John H. Groberg, 'There is Always Hope', BYU 3 June 1984)

Counsel to Youth

I love this talk by Elder Packer, some great counsel for youth, parents of youth and leaders:

Climbing Personal Mountains

Carlos E. Asay:
"God help us all to climb our personal mountains of Moriah and place our all upon the altar..."
(Seven M's of Missionary Service)

Omni 1:26 "And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved."

Bind up the Testimony

2 Nephi 18:16
“Bind up the testimony…..”

I remember reading this scripture when I visited the island of Malta several years ago - I don’t know whether because I was in a place where there was so much ancient history, including temples which are older than the pyramids in Egypt – but when I read the words, “bind up the testimony” I thought about mummies.

In order to stop the body decaying once someone had died, the Egyptians discovered a way to defeat this process by drying it out, using basically salt and bicarbonate of soda, so that bacteria and fungi couldn’t grow, then they embalmed the body and wrapped it in bandages.

It seems to me that there are some similarities to ‘binding up our testimony’. The object being to protect it from decay, to preserve it, but unlike mummification not just to preserve and protect, but to foster growth. The way that we ‘bind’ our testimony is through performing good works, following the example of the Saviour who “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), This can be likened to wrapping our testimony in bandages. But this is not enough, as without the preparatory use of chemicals decay still occurs, albeit at a slower rate. I liken this to ‘faith’; all the good work in the world will have little effect until our motive is our faith in Christ. Faith is the foundation, Christ is our Example, when coupled with Good Works our testimonies are protected from decay.

A bit of a ramble I know for just a few words of scripture, but I hope you are able to glean something from what I have shared:)

Spiritual Snoozing

President Ezra Taft Benson, said as he spoke to regional representatives of the Church in 1977, while he was president of the Council of the Twelve Apostles:

"Do you know what peace and prosperity can do to a people—It can put them to sleep. The Book of Mormon warned us of how the devil, in the last days, would lead us away carefully down to hell.

"The Lord has on the earth some potential spiritual giants whom He saved for some six thousand years to help bear off the Kingdom triumphantly, and the devil is trying to put them to sleep. The devil knows that he probably won't be too successful in getting them to commit many great and malignant sins of commission. So he puts them into a deep sleep, like Gulliver, while he strands them with little sins of omission. And what good is a sleepy, neutralized, lukewarm giant as a leader?

"We have too many potential spiritual giants who should be more vigorously lifting their homes, the kingdom, and the country. We have many who feel they are good men, but they need to be good for something—stronger patriarchs, courageous missionaries, valiant genealogists and temple workers, dedicated patriots, devoted quorum members. In short, we must be shaken and awakened from a spiritual snooze."
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Given a choice (and maybe we were given such a choice long before we came to earth), who wouldn't choose ease and affluence rather than pain and suffering? It sounds so attractive, so generous of the Lord. And all we have to do is keep the commandments, using our affluence to build the kingdom of God and serve others. Why is that so difficult? Because ease and affluence tend toward self-indulgence and self-importance. We can become spiritually flabby and casual in our prayers because we seem to need nothing, indifferent to the needs of others because we do not know how it feels to go without. Not liking to be reminded that others have needs, we remove ourselves from the inner city of life to the "quiet hedonism of suburbia," both temporally and spiritually. We can gorge ourselves with temporal things to the point of spiritual death.

Alma provides the answer to where the spiritual 'smelling salts' can be obtained to bring us back to a conscious state:

"Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; ..." (Alma 5:7).

A love for, and a relationship with the Saviour is what gives us life. As we come closer to Him through studying the scriptures and prayer we will be snoozing no longer.

Liberty and the Spirit

In 1 Nephi 13, Nephi sees the discovery and colonisation of America, and tells us of a remarkable, divine involvement in this process. The following are descriptions of the Lord’s part in the establishment of America:

A. (13:11,14) He disperses the Lamanites
B. (13:12) He inspires Columbus
C. (13:13) He inspires other Gentiles
D. (13:13) His Spirit helps the Gentiles prosper
E. (13:16-19) God helps them win the Revolutionary War
F. (13:30) They are lifted by the power of God above all other nations.

Orson Pratt spoke of an even more dramatic divine involvement in the journeys of Columbus:

In those early and perilous times, our men were few, and our resources limited. Poverty was among the most potent enemies we had to encounter; yet our arms were successful; and it may not be amiss to ask here, by whose power victory so often perched on our banner? It was by the agency of that same angel of God that appeared unto Joseph Smith, and revealed to him the history of the early inhabitants of this country, whose mounds, bones and remains of towns, cities and fortifications speak from the dust in the ears of the living with the voice of undeniable truth. This same angel presides over the destinies of America, and feels a lively interest in all our doings. He was in the camp of Washington; and, by an invisible hand, led on our fathers to conquest and victory; and all this to open and prepare the way for the Church and kingdom of God to be established on the western hemisphere, for the redemption of Israel and the salvation of the world.

This same angel was with Columbus, and gave him deep impressions, by dreams and by visions, respecting this New World. Trammelled by poverty and by an unpopular cause, yet his persevering and unyielding heart would not allow an obstacle in his way too great for him to overcome; and the angel of God helped him was with him on the stormy deep, calmed and troubled elements, and guided his frail vessel to the desired haven. Under the guardianship of this same angel, or Prince of America, have the United States grown, increased, and flourished, like the sturdy oak by the rivers of water.
(Journal of Discourses, Vol.6, p.368, Orson Hyde, July 4, 1854).

Just as the Lord guided Columbus to discover a land where the Gospel could grow, so will the Spirit guide us as we seek to cultivate environments that bring about change, and foster love, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”
(2 Corinthians 3:17).

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Fire for the Deed

Columbus, in a letter to the Spanish hierarchy, wrote:
'Our Lord unlocked my mind, sent me upon the sea, and gave me fire for the deed. Those who heard of my emprise called it foolish, mocked me, and laughed. But who can doubt but that the Holy Ghost inspired me?'
(quoted in Mark E. Petersen, The Great Prologue, Deseret Book Co., 1975, p.26).

This reminded me of Nephi’s example:
1 Nephi 3:5 - 7
“And now, behold thy brothers murmur, saying it is a hard thing which I have required of them; but behold I have not required it of them, but it is a commandment of the Lord.
“Therefore go, my son, and thou shalt be favored of the Lord, because thou hast not murmured.
“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
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When we have confidence in God, we have that fire which drives us to accomplish His will, even against opposition – and that is how we build up the kingdom, and ourselves.

Gathering Daily

Do you remember the great lesson the Lord taught the children of Israel in providing manna for them which they had to gather daily? Exodus 16:4 says: "Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate (or portion) every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no."

They had been slaves in Egypt and had forgotten their relationship with the Lord. To teach them and prove them, the Lord required that they gather the manna every day except over the Sabbath. They could not collect it or store it. It had to be gathered every day. Spirituality, that condition of closeness with the Lord through his Spirit, is like manna to us. We cannot live well without it, and it must be gathered every day. It isn’t enough to have known, to have read, to have given, to have prayed, to have obeyed.

“If ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” (Alma 5:26). I hope so:)