A Sacred Trust

"Motherhood is not what was left over after our Father blessed His sons with priesthood ordination. It was the most ennobling endowment He could give His daughters, a sacred trust that gave women an unparalleled role in helping His children keep their second estate. As President J. Reuben Clark Jr. declared, motherhood is "as divinely called, as eternally important in its place as the Priesthood itself."

Sheri L. Dew

  

"God could not be everywhere, so he made mothers."

"As mothers in Israel, we are the Lord's secret weapon.

Our influence comes from a divine endowment that has been in place from the beginning.

 In the premortal world, when our Father described our role,

I wonder if we didn't stand in wide-eyed wonder that He would bless us with a sacred trust

so central to His plan and that He would endow us with gifts

 so vital to the loving and leading of His children.

I wonder if we shouted for joy at least in part because of the ennobling stature

He gave us in His kingdom. The world won't tell you that, but the Spirit will."

Sheri L. Dew

"We just can't let the Lord down. And if the day comes when we are the only women on earth who fin

d nobility and divinity in motherhood, so be it. For mother is the word that will define a righteous woman

 made perfect in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom, a woman who has qualified for eternal

 increase in posterity, wisdom, joy, and influence."

Sheri L. Dew

"And so, my dear young women, with all my heart I urge you not to look to contemporary culture for your role models and mentors. Please look to your faithful mothers for a pattern to follow." M. Russell Ballard Few of us will reach our potential without the nurturing of both the mother who bore us and the mothers who bear with us. No woman who understands the gospel would ever think that any other work is more important or would ever say, "I am just a mother," for mothers heal the souls of men. Sheri L. Dew

The Friend Who Just Stands By

When trouble comes your soul to try

You love the friend who just "stands by."

Perhaps there's nothing he can do.

The thing is strictly up to you;

For there are troubles all your own,

And paths the soul must tread alone

Times when love cannot smooth the road Nor friendship lift the heavy load, But just to know you have a friend Who will "stand by" until the end, Whose sympathy through all endures Whose warm handclasp is always yours It helps, somehow, to pull you through Although there's nothing he can do. And so with fervent heart you cry God bless the friend   who just stands by! -Author Unknown

Now is the time to exercise our faith

Do It Now

Elder Donald L. Hallstrom
Of the Seventy

Now is the time to reconcile with God through the merciful process of change afforded us by the Redeemer.

When our oldest child (who is now a father of three and sits in this priesthood congregation this evening) was 11 years of age, he was given an assignment, along with the other sixth graders of his school, to submit his favorite family recipe. As its contribution to a large spring fair, the sixth grade was producing a cookbook that would be distributed throughout the community. When the teacher announced the project and a deadline of a week from Friday, our son Brett immediately concluded there was plenty of time later to get the job done and dismissed it from his mind. Early the next week, when the teacher reminded the students of the Friday deadline, Brett decided he could easily complete the required task on Thursday night and until then he could occupy himself with other more enjoyable matters.

On the appointed Friday morning, the teacher directed the students to pass their recipes to the front of the class. Brett’s procrastination had caused him to forget the assignment and be completely unprepared. Flustered, he turned to a fellow student seated nearby and confessed his problem. Trying to be helpful, the classmate said, “I brought an extra recipe. If you want, use one of mine.” Brett quickly grabbed the recipe, wrote his name on it, and turned it in, feeling he had escaped any consequences related to his lack of preparation.

One evening several weeks later, I arrived home from work to freshen up before going to my evening Church meetings. A few days prior, I had been called as a stake president after serving several years as a bishop. We were somewhat known in our community as members of the Church who tried to live the tenets of our religion. “There’s something you need to see,” my wife, Diane, said as I walked through the door. She handed me a bound book with a page marked. Glancing at the cover, titled Noelani School’s Favorites—1985, I turned to the identified page and read, “Hallstrom Family, Favorite Recipe—Bacardi Rum Cake.”

Many of us place ourselves in circumstances far more consequential than embarrassment because of our procrastination to become fully converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know what is right, but we delay full spiritual involvement because of laziness, fear, rationalization, or lack of faith. We convince ourselves that “someday I’m going to do it.” However, for many “someday” never comes, and even for others who eventually do make a change, there is an irretrievable loss of progress and surely regression.

As a partial self-appraisal of our spiritual-procrastination standing, what is our attitude when we attend the meetings of the Church? Is it to learn “by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118), which seamlessly translates what we learn into what we do? Or do we have an “I’ve heard it all before” mentality that immediately blocks the Spirit’s access to our minds and our hearts and enables procrastination to become a major part of our character?

Of a prominent early investigator of the restored Church, who covenanted that he would obey any command that the Lord would give him, it was said, “And he received the word with gladness, but straightway Satan tempted him; … and the cares of the world caused him to reject the word” (D&C 40:2). Contrast that with the Lord’s clear statement: “He that receiveth my law and doeth it, the same is my disciple” (D&C 41:5).

Alma, with deep emotion, declared, “And now, my brethren, I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance” (Alma 13:27).

Amulek, Alma’s friend and teaching companion, amplified the message by proclaiming:

“For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

“And now, … as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end” (Alma 34:32–33).

When I was the age of a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood, it seemed every Saturday morning for months I was awakened to the sound of my father doing yard work outside my bedroom window. (It took me a long time to figure out why he always started his work under my window.) After a period of trying to ignore the noise, I would get up and join my father in my weekly responsibility to help him maintain the yard surrounding our home.

Perhaps after a few mornings of my not arising very quickly or due to other similar events when his repeated encouragement was needed before I acted, one day my father sat with me and showed me a large photograph of a sloth, an animal known for its laziness. Then he opened the Doctrine and Covenants and had me read, “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward” (D&C 58:26; emphasis added). Since that day, that image and its lesson have been valuable assets in my life.

One of President Spencer W. Kimball’s effective encouragements was the succinct “Do It.” He later expanded this to “Do It Now” to pointedly teach the need for timeliness.

President Kimball also taught the profound principle that procrastination leads to the loss of exaltation. He said: “One of the most serious human defects in all ages is procrastination, an unwillingness to accept personal responsibilities now. … Many have allowed themselves to be diverted and have become … addicts to mental and spiritual indolence and to the pursuit of worldly pleasure” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 4–5).

Many of us want the simple way—the process that will not require serious work and sacrifice. Well, I once thought I found it. Driving in the back of a verdant valley above the city of Honolulu, I looked up, and there it was—Easy Street! As I was dreaming of the life-changing benefits of my discovery, I took out my camera to record the blissful moment. As I looked through the viewfinder, however, my focus literally and figuratively became clear. A large yellow sign returned me to reality—Easy Street was a dead end!

Procrastination may seem the easy way, as it momentarily removes the effort required to accomplish something of value. Ironically, in time, procrastination produces a heavy burden laced with guilt and a hollow lack of satisfaction. Temporal and, even more importantly, spiritual goals will not be achieved by procrastination.

Now is the time to exercise our faith. Now is the time to commit to righteousness. Now is the time to do whatever is required to resolve our undesired circumstances. Now is the time to reconcile with God through the merciful process of change afforded us by the Redeemer of mankind

There is a danger in the word someday

   

"I see a wonderful future in a very uncertain world. If we will cling to our values, if we will build on our inheritance, if we will walk in obedience before the Lord, if we will simply live the gospel we will be blessed in a magnificent and wonderful way. We will be looked upon as a peculiar people who have found the key to a peculiar happiness."

 
Gordon B. Hinckley

"For us to be strengthened by God, by His Spirit, President Harold B. Lee  counseled that membership in the Church "must mean more than just being a 'card carrying' member of the Church with a tithing receipt, a membership card, a temple recommend, etc. It means to overcome the tendencies to criticize and to strive continually to improve inward weaknesses and not merely the outward appearances."" James E. Faust "If every man in this church who has been ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood were to qualify himself to hold a temple recommend, and then were to go to the house of the Lord and renew his covenants in solemnity before God and witnesses, we would be a better people. There would be little or no infidelity among us. Divorce would almost entirely disappear. So much of heartache and heartbreak would be avoided. There would be a greater measure of peace and love and happiness in our homes. There would be fewer weeping wives and weeping children. There would be a greater measure of appreciation and of mutual respect among us. And I am confident the Lord would smile with greater favor upon us." Gordon B. Hinckley "We should go to the temple, among other reasons, to safeguard our personal holiness and that of our families. " James E. Faust "Our grandparents watch—and wait—for us to identify them, be linked to them, and provide temple ordinances for them. " Russell M. Nelson "In our day, the steadying arm of the Lord reaches us through the ordinances of His holy temples." Robert D. Hales "The door to the spirit world swings both ways, yet to many of us, it only swings once. When we step through there's no turning back. From time to time we are allowed the opportunity to glance into the world beyond, which is a very special opportunity. In the temple, the door to the spirit world is open for those who's work is being performed, those who have passed on. Many of our kindred dead are able to enter through the spirit world door, into sacred rooms so they can be in attendance as their work is being completed. " unknown

"A temple is literally a house of the Lord, a holy sanctuary in which sacred ceremonies and ordinances of the gospel are performed by and for the living and also in behalf of the dead. A place where the Lord may come, it is the most holy of any place of worship on the earth. Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness."

"May you let the meaning and beauty and peace of the temple come into your everyday life..."

President Howard W. Hunter

"Each holy temple stands as a symbol of our membership in the Church, as a sign of our faith in life after death,

and as a sacred step toward eternal glory for us and our families."

Elder Russell M. Nelson

"There is a danger in the word someday when what it means is "not this day." "Someday I will repent." "Someday I will forgive him." "Someday I will speak to my friend about the Church." "Someday I will start to pay tithing." "Someday I will return to the temple." "Someday."

Henry B. Eyring

"From time to time, ask yourself these questions: "Am I ready to meet my Maker?" "Am I worthy of all the blessings He has in store for His faithful children?" "Have I received my endowment and sealing ordinances of the temple?" "Have I remained faithful to my covenants?"

"Have I qualified for the greatest of all God's blessings-the blessing of eternal life."

 
Russell M. Nelson

"The temple is a sacred edifice, a holy place,

where essential saving ceremonies and ordinances are performed to prepare us for exaltation.

 It is important that we gain a sure knowledge that our

preparation to enter the holy house and that our participation in these ceremonies and covenants are some of the

 most significant events we will experience in our mortal lives."

Robert D. Hales

"We voluntarily came from the presence of God the Father to this mortal probation with agency, knowing we would have "opposition in all things. Our objective is to take upon us the whole armor of God and withstand "the fiery darts of the wicked" with the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, to endure to the end, and to be worthy to stand and live in the presence of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ,

for all eternity-to achieve what is called eternal life."

Elder Robert D. Hales

Triumph is just a little Umph added to Try

  President Gordon B. Hinckley was fond of saying, "Be believing. Be happy. Don't get discouraged. Things will work out." How could he, and all the other prophets and leaders of the Church, be so positive? Because they have the big picture. They know what is coming. Despite all the struggles, hardships, difficulties, ordeals, and even painful afflictions of this life, they know that the glorious cause of the kingdom of God will triumph.

Triumph is just a little umph added to try.

"Be Happy," "Be Prayerful," "Be Loving," and "Be Forgiving,"

"Living the gospel does not mean the storms of life will pass us by, but we will be better prepared to face them with serenity and peace. 'Search diligently, pray always, and be believing,' the Lord admonished, 'and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly.'"

Joseph B. Wirthlin

"Truly understood and properly practiced, faith is one of the grand and glorious powers of eternity. It is a force powerful beyond our comprehension."

Joseph B. Wirthlin

"May I share with you a formula that in my judgment

will help you and help me to journey well through mortality...

First, fill your mind with truth;

second, fill your life with service;

and third, fill your heart with love."

Thomas S. Monson

"Good cheer is a state of mind or mood that promotes happiness or joy... With God's help, good cheer permits us to rise above the depressing present or difficult circumstances. It is a process of positive reassurance and reinforcement. It is sunshine when clouds block the light."

Marvin J. Ashton

"In all humility and sincerity we must admit a power higher than ourselves from whom is derived a positive moral code that will give our lives significance and purpose. We also must remember once and for all that honesty, respect, and honor as such are not for sale on the market block. They are ingredients that you and I and all people should put into our daily lives."

Delbert L Stapley

". . . brothers and sisters, what keeps us from knowing and loving Him more? Our reluctance to give away all our sins - thinking, instead, a down payment will do. Likewise, our reluctance to let our wills be swallowed up in His will thinking, instead, that merely acknowledging His will is sufficient!"

Neal A. Maxwell

"we remember the Lord Jesus Christ in reverence and with love. He has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has brought meaning to our mortal existence."

Gordon B. Hinckley

"What you sincerely in your heart think of Christ will determine what you are and will largely determine what your acts will be."

David O. McKay

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