02/24/2019
Sunday 11 years ago on Feb 3, 2008 I sat in our church meeting and said one last prayer for my oldest sister. I prayed for her comfort. I prayed for her release. I prayed that God would take her, that he would end her suffering and that she would know that we would be ok. I had spent the previous 6 months holding on as tight as I could. Praying for a miracle. This last prayer marked when I accepted that no miracle would be hers and that she was not meant to stay. I prayed that I could let her go. Little did I know or perhaps a part of me did, that at the time I said this prayer she was quietly slipping from this life to the next. On the day I arrived in Alabama the last week I was there to help take care of her, I held her hand and received the impression that this would be the last time. I didn't want to believe it but the feeling was undeniable and it prompted me to ask my mom later that week "how do you know when to say good bye". She replied, "you don't say goodbye. You say see you later because that's what it is". So the day came for me to head back to Georgia. I sat with her, held her hand, told her embarrassing stories which made her laugh but time is never on our side and before I knew it, it was time for me to leave. So, holding back the sobs that threatened to escape me I thanked her. I thanked her for being a great big sister and then said the last words I would ever say to her, "I love you and I'll see you later".
06/28/2019
"...the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty. 'If ye love me, keep my commandments'...So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do...We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before...
I testify from the bottom of my heart, with the intensity of my soul, to all who can hear my voice that those apostolic keys have been restored to the earth, and they are found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To those who have not yet joined with us in this great final cause of Christ, we say, “Please come.” To those who were once with us but have retreated...The call is to come back, to stay true, to love God, and to lend a hand. I include in that call to fixed faithfulness every returned missionary who ever stood in a baptismal font and with arm to the square said, 'Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ.' That commission was to have changed your convert forever, but it was surely supposed to have changed you forever as well.
...the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, 'Do you love me?' And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, 'Yea, Lord, we do love thee.' And having set our 'hand to the plough,' we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world." Elder Jeffrey R. Holland October 2012 General Conference
07/15/2019
"Even if we’ve been a conscious, deliberate sinner or have repeatedly faced failure and disappointment, the moment we decide to try again, the Atonement of Christ can help us. And we need to remember that it is not the Holy Ghost that tells us we’re so far gone that we might as well give up...
Just as God rejoices when we persevere, He is disappointed if we do not recognize that others are trying too...
We will then recognize that regardless of perceived differences, all of us are in need of the same infinite Atonement...
My invitation to all of us is to evaluate our lives, repent, and keep on trying. If we don’t try, we’re just latter-day sinners; if we don’t persevere, we’re latter-day quitters; and if we don’t allow others to try, we’re just latter-day hypocrites. As we try, persevere, and help others to do the same, we are true Latter-day Saints. As we change, we will find that God indeed cares a lot more about who we are and about who we are becoming than about who we once were."
07/16/2019
"...there are some who...stand at the waters of baptism but do not enter. They wait at the threshold of testimony but cannot bring themselves to acknowledge the truth. Instead of taking small steps of faith on the path of discipleship, they want some dramatic event to compel them to believe...
They remain waiting for the Christ to be given to them...to remove once and for all their doubts and fears.
The truth is, those who diligently seek to learn of Christ eventually will come to know Him. They will personally receive a divine portrait of the Master, although it most often comes in the form of a puzzle—one piece at a time. Each individual piece may not be easily recognizable by itself; it may not be clear how it relates to the whole. Each piece helps us to see the big picture a little more clearly. Eventually, after enough pieces have been put together, we recognize the grand beauty of it all. Then, looking back on our experience, we see that the Savior had indeed come to be with us—not all at once but quietly, gently, almost unnoticed...
Often He speaks to us in ways that we can hear only with our heart. To better hear His voice, it would be wise to turn down the volume control of the worldly noise in our lives. If we ignore or block out the promptings of the Spirit for whatever reason, they become less noticeable until we cannot hear them at all. Let us learn to hearken to the promptings of the Spirit and then be eager to heed them...
Selfless acts of service and consecration refine our spirits, remove the scales from our spiritual eyes, and open the windows of heaven. By becoming the answer to someone’s prayer, we often find the answer to our own...
He...speaks to all who come to Him with a sincere heart and real intent.
Do not doubt.
...let us not wait too long on our road to Damascus. Instead, let us courageously move forward in faith, hope, and charity..."
Waiting on the Road to Damascus by
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
07/19/2019
"...treasure up wisdom in your bosoms, lest the wickedness of men...shall speak in your ears with a voice louder than that which shall shake the earth..."
08/26/2019
This sums up the point of the plan of salvation and why we are here better than anything I've ever read.
"The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.
A parable illustrates this understanding. A wealthy father knew that if he were to bestow his wealth upon a child who had not yet developed the needed wisdom and stature, the inheritance would probably be wasted. The father said to his child:
'All that I have I desire to give you—not only my wealth, but also my position and standing among men. That which I have I can easily give you, but that which I am you must obtain for yourself. You will qualify for your inheritance by learning what I have learned and by living as I have lived. I will give you the laws and principles by which I have acquired my wisdom and stature. Follow my example, mastering as I have mastered, and you will become as I am, and all that I have will be yours.'
This parable parallels the pattern of heaven. The gospel of Jesus Christ promises the incomparable inheritance of eternal life, the fulness of the Father, and reveals the laws and principles by which it can be obtained." The Challenge to Become, Dallin H. Oaks,of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
