Well. Sometimes reading from conference talks will give you a nudge in a right direction. :)
L. Tom Perry -"Serve Go Acceptably with Reverence and Godly Fear"
- I want to discuss reverence as an attitude--an attitude of deepest respect and veneration toward Deity. Of course, reverent behaviors follow reverent attitudes, but it is the attitude of reverence that we need to cultivate first among our members. Reverent behaviors without reverent attitudes are empty of meaning because they are performed for the praises of men, not God.
- If reverence is an attitude towards Deity, then it is a private feeling. It is something we feel inside our hearts no matter what is going on around us. It is also a personal responsibility. We cannot blame others for disturbing our reverent attitudes.
- Behavior learned at home determines behavior in church meetings.
- Let us never depreciate the value of our own personal example of being a living witness of the love and respect we have for Him.
- Decisions you first thought to be purely personal virtually always impact the lives of others.
- You are one of God's noble and great spirits, held in reserve to come to earth at this time.
- Agency is a divine gift to you. You are free to choose what you will be and what you will do.
- "Spencer, you have been called! You are not to die! You must do everything you need to do to care for yourself and continue to live."
- Faith, repentance, and obedience will qualify you for sublime gifts of justice and mercy, which are bestowed upon those worthy of the blessings of the Atonement.
- Yes, every test, every trial, every challenge and hardship you endure is an opportunity to further develop your faith.
- Remember that faith and prayer alone are seldom sufficient. Personal effort is usually necessary to accomplish your heart's desire.
- As you continue to face many challenging choices in life, remember, there is great protection when you know who you are, why you are here, and where you are going. Let your unique identity shape each decision you make on the path toward your eternal destiny. Accountability for your choices now will bear on all that lies ahead.
- The resurrection has to do with the restoration of the spirit to the body and the body to the spirit.
- "And assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, ... they who are righteous shall be righteous still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who are filthy are the devil and his angels."
- The good news is that everyone will be resurrected. All will live again! And all who have been righteous (have repented) will still be righteous. The bad news is that he that is filthy (which means the devil and those who have chosen to associate with him) shall be filthy still.
- In fact, the Master has indicated we should say nothing but repentance to this generation. Repentance seems to be the most important experience we can have on this earth to prepare for the resurrection, because "none but the truly penitent are save."
- Faith in Jesus Christ unto repentance is the saving power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- I do not believe there will be anyone in the celestial kingdom that is not nice.
- "To be nice" means much more than just to be good.
- You can tell what a man worships by what he does on Sunday.
- Brothers an sisters, the gospel is easy to live. All we have to do is stay everlastingly at it.
- I feel the spirit of noble prophets and leaders who made choices to be obedient to the Lord in spite of earthly trials. The examples of their faith, courage, love, humility, service, and endurance sustain me and give me strength to face challenges in my own life.
- The stories are familiar, yet the precepts we learn from them may be different each time we read them. The scriptures have the power to speak to our particular situations wherever we are in life. The insights you gain my be entirely different from the ones I gain, but they all can strengthen us personally.
- When the unknown looms ahead of me, I gain strength by remembering Lehi and exercising faith that the Lord will guide me.
- When tasks seem too great or even impossible, I think of courageous Nephi by the water's edge building a ship.
- "I have not commanded you to come ... that ye should fear me, or that ye should think that I of myself am more than a mortal man."
- When I feel inadequate and overwhelmed with my own weaknesses, I think of King Benjamin and try again.
- I gain strength from reading about Alma and Amulek as I endeavor to meet my individual trails.
- In a day of ever-changing values in which some say, "If it doesn't hurt anyone, do what you want," or "If it feels good, do it," or "It's only cheating when you get caught," I think about Helaman's stripling warriors. These young men, who were taught correct principles by their mothers, "were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all--they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted."
- Now, that means being true when you are tempted, being true when you don't want to be, being true when it means standing alone from the rest of the world. Remembering the example of these faithful young men strengthens me in my effort to be steadfast in obeying gospel principles.
- He blesses us daily, as he blessed the little children, with a love that gives me strength to go forth with assurance that he will guide me.
- These truths of the restored gospel only cause the light already had to shine with greater brilliance--any happiness and joy already experienced to be magnified, and inspired wisdom to be added to the knowledge already acquired.
- We should be grateful for the blessings which we seek and receive as well as for those blessings that come to us that are beyond our current capacity to comprehend.
- May human pride and pretensions never arise in us to cause us to imagine in those moments of personal victory or accomplishment that it is by our own merit that we have achieved, but rather may we recognize the hand of God in all things.
- "Therefore go, my son, and thou shalt be favored of the Lord, because thou hast not murmured.
- My dear brothers and sisters and family, can't you see what we need to do? Be submissive--do not murmur-endure to the end. If we will do this, the Lord will show us the way, if we will but follow his prophets and Apostles.
- Do not question their direction! It is as simple as that. No, I am not saying to have blind faith or blind obedience.
- The point I make is simply this: there is a MORAL and SPIRITUAL side to these issues which is universally ignored.
- The scriptures are generally positive rather than negative in their themes, and it is a mistake to assume that anything not specifically prohibited in the "letter of the law" is somehow approved of the Lord. All the Lord approves is not detailed in the scriptures neither is all that is forbidden. The Word of Wisdom, for instance, makes no specific warning against taking arsenic. Surely we don't need a revelation to tell us that!
- The laws of God are ordained to make us happy. Happiness cannot coexist with immorality.
- Always when these destructive life-styles are debated, "individual right of choice" is invoked as though it were the one sovereign virtue. That could e true only if there were but one of us. The rights of any individual bump up against the rights of another. And the simple truth is that we cannot be happy, nor saved, nor exalted, without one another.
- The word tolerance is also invoked as though it overrules everything else. Tolerance may be a virtue, but it is not the commanding one. There is a difference between what one is and what one does. What one is may deserve unlimited tolerance; what one does, only a measured amount. A virtue when pressed to the extreme may turn into a vice. Unreasonable devotion to an ideal, without considering the practical application of it, ruins the ideal itself.
- Nowhere is the right of choice defended with more vigor than with abortion. Having chosen to act, and a conception having occurred, it cannot then be unchosen. But there are still choices; always a best one.
- Little do we realize what we have brought upon ourselves when we have allowed our children to be taught that man is only an advanced animal. We have compounded the mistake by neglecting to teach moral and spiritual values. Moral laws do not apply to animals for they have no agency. Where there is agency, where there is choice, moral laws must apply. We cannot, absolutely cannot, have it both ways.
- When our youth are taught that they are but animals, they feel free, even compelled, to respond to every urge and impulse. We should not be so puzzled at what is happening to society. We have sown the wind, and now we inherit the whirlwind. the chickens, so the saying goes, are now coming home to roost.
- All of us are subject to feelings and impulses. Some are worthy and some of them are not; some of them are natural and some of them are not. We are to control them, meaning we are to direct them according to the moral law.
- Nobody is free from temptations of one kind or another. That is the test of life. That is part of our mortal probation. Temptation of some kind goes with the territory.
- Perhaps the worst of all conditions which we can create for ourselves is to become a tempter and lead an innocent one into a life-style that is destructive.
- He (Satan) promises emancipation and exhilaration without saying that such a course may be spiritually fatal.
- A tempter will claim that such impulses cannot be changed and should not be resisted. Can you think of anything the adversary would rather have us believe?
- Some have resisted temptation but never seem to be free from it. Do not yield! Cultivate the spiritual strength to resist--all of your life, if need be.
- Some are tortured by thoughts of covenants already forsaken an sometimes think of suicide. Suicide is no solution at all. Do not even think of it. The very fact that you are so disturbed marks you as a spiritually sensitive soul for whom there is great hope.
- The love we offer may be a tough love, but it is of the purest kind.
- "Let us be valiant in our testimony of Jesus all the days of our lives."
- "His word is one of the most valuable gifts He has given us. I urge you to recommit yourselves to a study of the scriptures. Immerse yourselves in them daily so you will have the power of the Spirit to attend you. ...Read them in your families and teach your children to love and to treasure them."
Elaine L. Jack -"These Things Are Manifested unto Us Plainly"
- Sisters compare themselves to others.
- For many of us, comparing ourselves to a practically perfect Latter-day Saint woman is part of how things are. While some of us are motivated and encouraged by such imagined or real-life models, others of us are disheartened and discouraged by this same ideal woman--whether she is a composite of many women, or someone of whom we have read, or even someone we know.
- Only by living His gospel can we find what is real. We can never accurately take the measure of our lives based on social, economic, ethnic, age, marital, or physical conditions.
- No greater heroine lives in today's world than the woman who is quietly doing her part.
- I promised to introduce you to the typical Relief Society sister. The good news is that she actually does exist. The better news is that she is wonderful. The best news is that she's you! And this is who you really are!
- If I could have the desire of my heart for you, it would be that you feel valued for your own goodness.
- I know who I am, I know god's plan, and this knowledge makes all the difference.
- We want you to live lives of spiritual maturity and fulfillment, free of unrealistic comparisons.
- First: Build personal testimony.
- Second: Bless the individual woman. I believe in you.
- Third: Develop and exercise charity.
- The challenge ahead is to become more active in meeting the real needs of the world around us--loneliness, neglect, illiteracy, homelessness.
- Fourth: Strengthen families.
- Fifth: Enjoy a unified sisterhood as we share our faith, our experiences, and our ideas in loving friendship.
- Build, bless, develop and exercise, strengthen, and enjoy--these are propelling, motivating action words that invite our personal best.
- Kindness has many synonyms--love, service, charity. But I like the word kindness because it implies action. It seems like something you and I can do. Kindness can be shown in so many ways.
- A person who is kind is sympathetic and gentle with others, is considerate of others' feelings, is courteous in his or her behavior, and has a helpful nature.
- "Kindness pardons others' weaknesses and faults. Kindness is extended to all--to the aged and the young, to animals, to those low of station as well as the high."
- "Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness."
- No act of kindness is ever wasted. You cannot do a kindness too soon. Acting kindly can change the giver and the receiver for good.
- Derek was born with serious physical handicaps. In his five years on earth, he knew little of the world of those who run, play hide-and-seek, skip rope, or feel free of pain. But he knew how he could feel better. When things were tough, when he suffered and those around him were weary and discouraged, he would hold up his arms and ask, "Let me hold you?" In his innocence, he knew he could kindly lift others--even while he endured hardship.
- We can develop our own sort of "kindness instinct" by consciously seeking opportunities to act kindly.
- There may be times when we excuse ourselves for unkindness because we are not feeling our best or our mood is not just right. It is easy to act kindly toward others when things are going well in our lives. But perhaps the real measure of kindness comes if we can be so when we are tired, disappointed, or suffering because of an unkind deed done to us. Are we kind when all is not well?
- "Twas a thief said the last kind word to Christ: Christ took the kindness and forgave the theft."
- "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."
- I want to be sensitive to your feelings.
- "You have been born at this time for a sacred and glorious purpose."
- This is a glorious time to live, to be young, to face an exciting future; but it is also a very threatening and frightening time, if you are not prepared. And if you are prepared, there is no need to fear.
- Young women, you are the tender crops of today, the promise of tomorrow.
- The crickets of our day are different than in times past. They are powerful, more dangerous and less noticeable.
- It's the little things that turn into big things. It's not easy to do, but the Lord will help us.
- Parents and leaders, I am convinced that most youth will respond when they see no faltering, wavering, or weakening on our part.
- Young women, we call upon you to increase your spirituality by living righteously. Raise your standards high, that others might follow. you are the promise of tomorrow, the hope of Israel. "Rise in might / With the sword of truth and right; / Sound the war-cry, 'Watch and pray!' / Vanquish ev'ry foe today."
- "Woman was taken out of man--not out of his feet to be trampled underfoot, but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved."
- "Men should take care not to make women weep, for God counts their tears."
- Anxiously you ask, "Is there a way to safety? Can someone guide me? Is there an escape from threatened destruction? The answer is a resounding yes! I counsel you: Look to the lighthouse of the Lord. There is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what its beacon light can rescue. It beckons through the storms of life. It calls, "This way to safety; this way to home."
- You are at a critical time in your lives. This is a time for you not only to live righteously but also to set an example for your peers.
- You have a heritage: Honor it.
- You will meet sin.: Shun it.
- You have the truth: Live it.
- You have a testimony: Share it.
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
The Dream
It had something to do with a princess and prince on the run....but that's all I remember really....
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