Mormon Musings

“Oh, it is wonderful to know that our Heavenly Father loves us—even with all our flaws! His love is such that even should we give up on ourselves, He never will. “We [might] see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever. … “The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for the eternities.”   Joseph B. Wirthlin, “The Great Commandment,”  Liahona  and  Ensign,  Nov. 2007, 29–30.

A friend of mine recently wrote to me, confiding that he was having a difficult time keeping his testimony strong and vibrant. He asked for counsel. I wrote back to him and lovingly suggested a few specific things he could do that would align his life more closely with the teachings of the restored gospel. To my surprise, I heard back from him only a week later. The essence of his letter was this: “I tried what you suggested. It didn’t work. What else have you got?” Brothers and sisters, we have to stay with it. We don’t acquire eternal life in a sprint—this is a race of endurance. We have to apply and reapply the divine gospel principles. Day after day we need to make them part of our normal life. Too often we approach the gospel like a farmer who places a seed in the ground in the morning and expects corn on the cob by the afternoon. When Alma compared the word of God to a seed, he explained that the seed grows into a fruit-bearing tree gradually, as a result of our “faith, a...

In bygone days Elders have imagined in their hearts that their wisdom talent, and ability had something to do with it,—that the kingdom of God could not move unless their shoulder was at the wheel,—that if they held back in the breeching, they would stop the onward motion of the car. But the Lord left them covered with their own shame and folly, after he had suffered them to try the experiment; and the great car of truth still rolled steadily forward. Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses 7:127

...read and ponder the standard works of the Church and the words of living prophets. There is a promise of help from God that comes with that daily practice. Faithful study of scriptures brings the  Holy Ghost  to us. President Henry B. Eyring, April 2004 General Conference  http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/in-the-strength-of-the-lord?lang=eng

There are many things associated with the Church and kingdom of God that are very peculiar: it differs from all other churches, and is dissimilar to all other kingdoms. There is a spirit and wisdom associated with it that the world knows nothing of, and there is a power accompanying it to which mankind are entire strangers without that spirit. There is generally a great amount of obloquy and reproach associated with it; people are apt to treat the servants of God with contempt; yet there is a spirit, and power, and intelligence imparted by the gift of the Holy Ghost; that sustains his people under all circumstances, in all places, and among all nations; and hence Paul in his day said, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” Ordinarily speaking, Paul would have been considered a mean, contemptible fool by the world. He was whipped, persecut...

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/when-thou-art-converted?lang=eng

Christ  said, “I am the true vine, and … ye are the branches.”   2   “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”   3 “Abide in me” is an understandable and beautiful enough concept in the elegant English of the King James  Bible , but “abide” is not a word we use much anymore. So I gained even more appreciation for this admonition from the Lord when I was introduced to the translation of this passage in another language. In Spanish that familiar phrase is rendered “permaneced en mi.”  Like the English verb “abide,”  permanecer  means “to remain, to stay,” but even gringos like me can hear the root cognate there of “permanence.” The sense of this then is “stay—but stay  forever. ” That is the call of the gospel message to Chileans and everyone else in the world. Come, but come to remain. Come with conviction and endurance. Come permanently, for ...

President Wilford Woodruff said in 1894: “The Almighty is with this people. We shall have all the revelations that we will need, if we will do our duty and obey the commandments of God. … While I … live I want to do my duty. I want the Latter-day Saints to do their duty. Here is the Holy Priesthood. … Their responsibility is great and mighty. The eyes of God and all the holy prophets are watching us. This is the great dispensation that has been spoken of ever since the world began. We are gathered together … by the power and commandment of God. We are doing the work of God. … Let us fill our mission”  (in James R. Clark, comp.,  Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of  Jesus Christ  of Latter-day Saints,  6 vols. [1965–75], 3:258). Quoted by President Gordon B. Hinckley, April 2004 General Conference Full Address by President Hinckley:  http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/the-dawning-of-a-brighter-day?lang=eng

You can't live on amusement. It is the froth on water - an inch deep and then the mud. George MacDonald

It is a mistaken idea in the inhabitants of the earth to conclude that it will not do for them to yield obedience to the commandments of heaven, lest it should abridge them in their comforts and in their enjoyments; for there is no real peace, there is no real happiness in anything in heaven or on the earth, except to those who serve the Lord. In His service there is joy, there is happiness; but they are not to be found anywhere else. In it there are peace and comfort; but when the soul is filled with joy, with peace, and with glory, and is perfectly satisfied therewith a person even then has but little idea of that which is in store for all the faithful. Thrust a man into prison and bind him with chains, and then let him be filled with the comfort and with the glory of eternity, and that prison is a palace to him. Again, let a man be seated upon a throne with power and dominion in this world, ruling his millions and millions, and without that peace which flows from the Lord of...