In my experience there are few people who are of true genius. There are many who are gifted, but most of the world’s work and great things come from ordinary people with a talent which they develop.
What are most people hungry for? I believe it is spiritual and moral leadership. Increases in technology, scientific inventions, and medical miracles have been marvelous and incredible. But we must use them properly to bring us joy, and that requires spiritual and moral leadership.
Leadership is about three-fourths show-the-way and about one-fourth follow-up.
President Hinckley’s strong, continuing challenge to us is retention, which requires full cooperation between the missionary, the leaders and members.
Those who enter into marriage, must be fully prepared to establish their marriage, as the first priority in their lives.
The dignity of self is greatly enhanced by looking upward in the search for holiness. Like the giant trees, we should reach up for the light. The most important source of light we can come to know is the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is the source of inner strength and peace.
The principle of work is part of self-discipline. Now, my dear young sisters, I have lived a good many years longer than you, but even back in Grandpa’s time there was something to make you want to lie down and go to sleep-they called it work.
Another false philosophy that appeals to the Mr. Hyde side of our natures is that peeking into pornography is harmless. This is a terrible deception. Pornography is as addictive as cocaine or any illegal drug.
Leaders receive and give assignments. This is an important part of the necessary principle of delegating. No one appreciates a willing volunteer more than I, but the total work cannot be done as the Lord wants it done merely by those doing the work who may be present at meetings.
I hope we can all overcome any differences of culture, race, and language.
Integrity is the value we set on ourselves.
Integrity is the light that shines from a disciplined conscience.
You cannot become great women if you are not also good women. Great women respond generously to their instincts to do good.
Some, like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, have a hard time loving anyone, even themselves, because of their selfishness. Love seeks to give rather than to get. Charity towards and compassion for others is a way to overcome too much self-love.
The Holy Ghost is the greatest guarantor of inward peace in our unstable world.
Into every life there come the painful, despairing days of adversity.
Our natural gifts and abilities are limited, but when augmented by inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost, our potential increases many fold.
There is only one Church, and the responsibility for missionary work is universal. ‘Every member a missionary.’
Holiness is the strength of the soul. It comes by faith and through obedience to God’s laws and ordinances. God then purifies the heart by faith, and the heart becomes purged from that which is profane and unworthy. When holiness is achieved by conforming to God’s will, one knows intuitively that which is wrong and that which is right before the Lord. Holiness speaks when there is silence, encouraging that which is good or reproving that which is wrong.
Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but giving up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair – these are the long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust. You are as young as your faith and as old as your doubts; as young as you self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
I have now lived long enough to know that, whatever our situation, our troubles melt and disappear like frost in the morning sun when we dwell upon our blessings rather than our disappointments. No matter how pessimistic one’s view may become of the times and the seasons, we can always fall back on special friendship, on faithful, personal love, and on simple, true dealings in our own personal lives.