Friday, March 22, 2013


Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Deposition of a Disciple, 1976, Deseret Book Co. (Salt Lake City), p. 5
"I have on my office wall a wise and useful reminder by Anne Morrow Lindbergh concerning one of the realities of life. She wrote, "My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds." That's good counsel for us all, not as an excuse to forgo duty, but as a sage point about pace and the need for quality in relationships."

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Notwithstanding My Weakness, 1981, Deseret Book Co. (SLC, Utah), pg. 7
"A few little flowers will spring up briefly in the dry gulley through which torrents of water pass occasionally. But it is steady streams that bring thick and needed crops. In the agriculture of the soul that has to do with nurturing attributes, flash floods are no substitute for regular irrigation."

 
Elder Michael Otterson, March 5, 2013, BYU-Idaho Devotional

"Faith is so much more than mere belief or assent. Faith stretches us. It forces us to reach beyond our senses, and in that reaching we develop spiritual strength and greater trust in the Lord....

"I repeat: faith, therefore, is more than belief. Faith is an active force, not a passive condition. I suspect that one reason why we have to develop it here on earth is because of the expectations that will be placed on us when we are in the next sphere. I offer this only as personal opinion, but the Lord has promised that those who are faithful will inherit all that the Father has.

"In the eternities to come, will those who create worlds do so because they have learned the laws of physics that govern the universe, or will they work through the exercise of perfect faith, or a combination of both? How much reaching and stretching will it take? We don’t know, but when Jesus says that by faith we can move mountains, is he merely being figurative or is there something about the power of faith that we now only dimly perceive, but that we must learn while here on earth?"

Thursday, March 7, 2013

"Never Suppress a Generous Thought."

Sister Bonnie Parkin, BYU Devotional, February 13, 2007

     It's so important to realize that every interaction we have is an opportunity to minister, to nurture....  "To minister" is defined as attending to the needs and wants of others.  The Bible Dictionary adds, "The work of the ministry is to do the work of the Lord on the earth--to represent the Lord among the people."  Ministering involves extending charity--that pure of Christ--to others, one person at a time.  By doing so, we offer a kind, generous, peaceful, and pure heart. 
     Opportunities to minister may come within the formal stewardship of a calling or assignment, or they may come as we spontaneously extend ourselves to someone in need....Most ministering opportunities are spontaneous, not planed in advance.  Much of the Savior's ministering seemed almost incidental, happening while He was on His way to somewhere else--while He was doing something else....Please never suppress a generous thought!

Wonderful talk!--
                                      http://speeches.byu.edu/index.php?act=viewitem&id=1685