Security is not born of inexhaustible wealth but of unquenchable faith

The simple secret is this:

put your trust in the Lord, do your best,

then leave the rest to Him.

Joseph B. Wirthlin

Security is not born of inexhaustible wealth but of

unquenchable faith

Spencer W. Kimball

No matter how strong your faith is,

God will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. 

Rather He will respond with what in His eternal plan is best for you.

Richard G. Scott

Give God your best, and His best will come back to you.

Ezra Taft Benson

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that

He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can.

Ezra Taft Benson

begin to ponder

 

At this season when we usually celebrate the Savior's

Birth by giving generous gifts to each other, we all would

Do well to remember his supernal, unparalleled gifts to us.

We might think, too, of the gifts we could give to him.

Ted E. Brewerton

"May we leave enough room in our Inn,

So the Christmas spirit, can dwell within."

"As we seek Christ, as we find Him, as we follow Him,

we shall have the Christmas spirit, not for one fleeting day each year,

but as a companion always."

Thomas S. Monson

"Christmas means 'giving,' and the gift without the giver is bare.

Give of yourselves; give of your substance; give of your heart and mind.

"Christmas means 'compassion and love' and, most of all 'forgiveness'

How poor indeed would be our lives without the influence

of His teachings and His matchless example.

"He whose birth we commemorate this season is more than the symbol of a holiday.

He is the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace."

Gordon B. Hinckley

  

"What will you and I give for Christmas this year?

Let us in our lives give to our Lord and Savior the gift of gratitude by living

His teachings and following in His footsteps.

It was said of Him that He 'went about doing good.'

As we do likewise, the Christmas spirit will be ours."

Thomas S. Monson

"At the focal point of all human history,

a point illuminated by a new star in the heavens revealed for just such a purpose,

probably no other mortal watched none but a poor young carpenter,

a beautiful virgin mother, and silent stabled animals who had not the power to utter the

 sacredness they had seen. Shepherds would soon arrive and later,

wise men from the East. Later yet the memory of that night would bring

Santa Claus and Frosty and Rudolph and all would be welcome.

But first and forever there was just a little family,

without toys or trees or tinsel.

 With a baby—

that's how Christmas began. It is for this baby that we shout in chorus:

'Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King! . . . Mild he lays his glory by,

Born that man no more may die; Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth'

Jeffrey R. Holland

"How can we give to the Lord? What shall we give to him?

Every kind word to our own, every help given them, is as a gift to God,

whose chief concern is the welfare of his children.

Every gentle deed to our neighbor, every kindness to the poor and suffering,

is a gift to the Lord, before whom all mankind are equal.

Every conformity to the Lord's plan of salvation

and this is of first importance is a direct gift to God,

for thereby we fit ourselves more nearly for our divinely planned destiny."

John A. Widtsoe

"Giving, not getting,

brings to full bloom the Christmas spirit

 Enemies are forgiven, friends remembered, and God obeyed.

The spirit of Christmas illuminates the picture window of the soul,

and we look out upon the world's busy life and become more interested in people than things.

To catch the real meaning of the "spirit of Christmas,"

we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the

"Spirit of Christ."

Thomas S. Monson

"It is possible for Christ to be born in men's lives,

 and when such an experience actually happens,

a man is "in Christ" Christ is "formed" in him.

This presupposes that we take Christ into our hearts and make Him the living

contemporary of our lives. He is not just a general truth or a fact in history,

but the Savior of men everywhere and at all times. When we strive to be Christlike,

He is "formed" in us; if we open the door, He will enter; if we seek His counsel,

He will counsel us. For Christ to be "formed" in us,

we must have a belief in Him and in His Atonement.

Such a belief in Christ and the keeping of His commandments are not restraints upon us.

By these, men are set free. This Prince of Peace waits to give peace of mind,

which may make each of us a channel of that peace."

Howard W. Hunter

The things of God

  

You can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord

even in the most miserable experiences of your life,

in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices.

Jeffrey R. Holland

"The things of God are of deep import;

and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous

and solemn thoughts can only find them out."

Joseph Smith

"The process of adding one godly attribute to another,

becomes the key to gaining this knowledge that leads to eternal life"

Ezra Taft Benson

"Real charity is not something you give away;

it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself.

And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart,

you are never the same again.

Marvin J. Ashton

I think of the future with all of its wonderful possibilities…..

I wonder what will happen to you in the next 10 years.

 Where will you be? What will you be doing?

That will depend on the choices you make,

some of which may seem unimportant at the time

but which will have tremendous consequences.

Gordon B. Hinckley

"Above all the attributes of godliness and perfection, charity is the one most devoutly to be desired.

Charity is more than love, far more; it is everlasting love, perfect love,

the pure love of Christ which endureth forever.

It is love so centered in righteousness that the possessor has no aim or desire

except for the eternal welfare of his own soul and for the souls of those around him."

Bruce R. McConkie

"...the strait and narrow path, though clearly marked, is a path, not a freeway nor an escalator.

Indeed, there are times when the only way the strait and narrow path

can be followed is on one's knees!"

Neal A. Maxwell

All that we are, all that we've become

Twelve miles, that's all that's left to go.

We wash our faces in the numbing creek,
scrub our sunburned arms and necks with pieces of soap
saved from the old country for this very day.

The men take time to shave
and beat their hats till dust motes dance
in the early sun pulling itself up over Little Mountain,
the one we climbed yesterday.

The girls braid their hair, slick with sugar water,
then tie clean aprons around their waists,
washed last evening and left to dry in moonlight.
Many walked the trail barefoot, the Olsen girls,

young Jimmy Jensen, yet today
they put on their holey shoes
for maybe we'll shake Brother Brigham's hand,
drink well water
and slake our thirst at last

with fruit and a glimpse of that salt sea
that's ebbed and flowed,
one more step, just one more step,
ahead of us, day after day,
like some desert mirage.

Shadows along Emigration Creek,
lined with rough and rangy cottonwoods,
point out the last stretch of road to Zion.
Every morning the shadows have shown us the way.

Today, at journey's end,
we'll hear the Nauvoo band play
and we'll walk, one last time
with our hand-worn friend,
the streets we've sung about so many nights
camped on strangely named river banks—
the Platte, Loup Fork, Wood River,
where Sister Sorensen hid herself among the willows
and gave birth to a baby girl.

Thirteen times we crossed the Platte.
Indians carried us on their backs,
while the men ferried our goods across
and floated the emptied carts.

How we pled for the waters to part.

Now we kneel here in the sand, grateful
for every unanswered plea
that proved us.

Faith is the mountain that does not flee,
the water that does not part,
the rock that won't turn into bread—
instead, marks our dead.
They walk the desert with us today.
Our faith and theirs, wrung drop by drop, blossoms—
red as the promised rose.

For the last time we lift the prop stick
from beneath the cart's handle.
For the last time we grease the wheels with tallow
and take our accustomed spots, right and left,
front and back,
to push and pull for the very last time,
all that we own,
all that we are,
all that we've become
on our wooden cross of a handcart.

We're tempted to let it have its way at the end,
to hurtle down the hill, an unbridled horse
heading for home.

Yet happy to hold it back one last time
on its steep descent to the valley,
we sing,

our hearts in our mouths,

 

our hopes before us.

Oh, how we sing
every last one of the songs,
the mighty Redeemer's songs

that led us to Zion.