Perhaps the single greatest thing I learned from reading the Book of Mormon is that the voice of the Spirit comes as a feeling rather than a sound. You will learn, as I have learned, to “listen” for that voice that is felt rather than heard.
Inherent in the ordination to be bishop is both the right and the obligation to be directed by inspiration.
The flak is always the heaviest closest to the target.
We are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can see.
We could be like a father determined to provide everything for his family. He devotes every energy to that end and succeeds; only then does he discover that what they needed most, to be together as a family, has been neglected. And he reaps sorrow in place of contentment.
Arms now empty will be filled and hearts now hurting from broken dreams and yearning will be healed.
Addiction has the capacity to disconnect the human will and nullify moral agency. It can rob one of the power to decide.
No teaching is equal, more spiritually rewarding, or more exalting than that of a mother teaching her children.
The answer is the same for everyone: we must, and we can, resist temptations of any kind.
Hit the ‘delete’ button when you have unrighteous thoughts.
Do you realize how marvelous it is that you can call upon the Atonement? The Lord effected the Atonement for our sakes. And there isn’t anything that you can’t repent from and that you can’t be rescued from if you will repent and be determined to make the decision.
The spiritually starving hesitate to partake of the Spirit like a child’s reaction to new and strange food. They must be offered a tiny bite on a spoon.
What a wonderful time to be young. You will see events in your lifetime that will test your courage and extend your faith. If you will face the sunlight of truth, the shadows of discouragement and sin and error will fall behind you. You must never give up!
I bear witness of the power of the priesthood given to the Church to protect us and guide us. And because we have that, we have no fear of the future. Fear is the opposite of faith. We move forward, certain that the Lord will watch over us, particularly in the family.
Devotion to the family and devotion to the Church are not different and separate things.
God bless you young women and young men who struggle through the worrisome teenage years. Some of you may not yet have found yourselves, but you are not lost, for Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer.
The purest, most beautiful and appealing experiences of life: romance, love, marriage, and parenthood.
Your responsibility as a father and a husband transcends any other interest in life.
Thoughts, like water, will stay on course if we make a place for them to go. As you learn to control your thoughts, you can gain courage, conquer fear and have a happy life.
Some are filled with a compelling urge, a temptation that recycles in the mind, perhaps to become a habit, then an addiction. We are prone to some transgression and sin and also a rationalization that we have no guilt because we were born that way. We become trapped, and hence comes the pain and torment that only the Savior can heal. You have the power to stop and to be redeemed.
Go forward without fear. Do not fear the future. Do not fear whatever is ahead of you. Take hold of that supernal gift of the Holy Ghost. Learn to be taught by it. Learn to call upon it. Learn to live by it. And the Spirit of the Lord will attend you, and you will be blessed as it was intended that we should all be blessed by this gift.