"The thought of what the Lord's words might mean, even in its faintest outline, was terrifying to those devoted men (the original Twelve); and their failure to comprehend was in part due to the fact that the human mind is loath to search deeply into anything it desires not to believe."
James E. Talmage, "Jesus the Christ", p. 355.
"We live in a time when many worry about their livelihood. They are concerned about the future and doubt their ability to resolve the challenges that confront them. Many have experienced personal misfortune and sadness. They hunger for meaning and purpose in life.
"Because there is such great interest in these issues, the world is not bashful in offering numerous new answers to every problem we face. People run from one new idea to the next, hoping to find something that will answer the burning questions of their souls. They attend seminars and buy books, CDs, and other products. They get caught up in the excitement of looking for something new. But inevitably, the flame of each new theory fades, only to be replaced by another “new and improved” solution that promises to do what the others before could not.
"It’s not that these worldly options don’t contain elements of truth—many of them do. Nevertheless, they all fall short of the lasting change we seek in our lives. After the excitement wears off, the hollowness remains as we look for the next new idea to unlock the secrets of happiness.
"In contrast, the gospel of Jesus Christ has the answers to all of our problems. The gospel is not a secret. It is not complicated or hidden. It can unlock the door to true happiness. It is not someone’s theory or proposition. It does not come from man at all. It springs from the pure and everlasting waters of the Creator of the universe, who knows truths we cannot even begin to comprehend. And with that knowledge, He has given us the gospel—a divine gift, the ultimate formula for happiness and success."
Dieter F. Uchdorf, "The Way of the Disciple," General Conference, April 2009.
"My purpose today is to assure you that our Heavenly Father and the Savior live and that They love all humanity. The very opportunity for us to face adversity and affliction is part of the evidence of Their infinite love. God gave us the gift of living in mortality so that we could be prepared to receive the greatest of all the gifts of God, which is eternal life. Then our spirits will be changed. We will become able to want what God wants, to think as He thinks, and thus be prepared for the trust of an endless posterity to teach and to lead through tests to be raised up to qualify to live forever in eternal life.
"It is clear that for us to have that gift and to be given that trust, we must be transformed through making righteous choices where that is hard to do. We are prepared for so great a trust by passing through trying and testing experiences in mortality. That education can come only as we are subject to trials while serving God and others for Him.
"In this education we experience misery and happiness, sickness and health, the sadness from sin and the joy of forgiveness. That forgiveness can come only through the infinite Atonement of the Savior, which He worked out through pain we could not bear and which we can only faintly comprehend.
"It will comfort us when we must wait in distress for the Savior’s promised relief that He knows, from experience, how to heal and help us. The Book of Mormon gives us the certain assurance of His power to comfort. And faith in that power will give us patience as we pray and work and wait for help. He could have known how to succor us simply by revelation, but He chose to learn by His own personal experience."
President Henry B. Eyring, "Adversity," General Conference, April 2009
"Man becomes ultimately what he thinks and does. Habits become the vehicle molding his character. What kind of character and destiny are you after? Our acts are the outgrowth of our beliefs and our thoughts. Good habits are not acquired by just resolves, but are developed in the workshop of our daily lives. They are fashioned in often uneventful, commonplace routines of life, and acquired by practice."
L. Tom Perry, "On Staying Power," Brigham Young University Devotional, March 17, 1987.
"For the child of God who has enough faith in the plan of salvation to treat it as reality, hard work is the only reasonable option. Life at its longest is short. What we do here determines the rest of our condition for eternity. God our Father has offered us everything he has and asks only that we give him all we have to give. That is an exchange so imbalanced in our favor that no effort would be too much and no hours too long in service to him, to the Savior, and to our Father's children. Hard work is the natural result of simply knowing and believing what it means to be a child of God."
Henry B. Eyring, "A Child of God," Brigham Young University Devotional Address, October 21, 1997.
"For true believers, the tugs and pulls of the world—including its pleasures, power, praise, money, and preeminence—have always been there. Now, however, many once-helpful support systems are bent or broken. Furthermore, the harmful things of the world are marketed by pervasive technology and hyped by a media barrage, potentially reaching almost every home and hamlet. All this when many are already tuned out of spiritual things, saying, “I am rich, … increased with goods, and have need of nothing “ (Rev. 3:17).
"Contrastingly, the perks of discipleship are such that if we see a stretch limousine pulling up, we know it is not calling for us. God’s plan is not the plan of pleasure; it is the 'plan of happiness.'...
"God is infinitely more interested in our having a place in His kingdom than with our spot on a mortal organizational chart. We may brood over our personal span of control, but He is concerned with our capacity for self-control. Father wants us to come home, bringing our real résumés, ourselves!"
Neal A. Maxwell, "The Tugs and Pulls of the World," General Conference, October 2000.
"When we truly understand what it means to love as Jesus Christ loves us, the confusion clears and our priorities align. Our walk as disciples of Christ becomes more joyful. Our lives take on new meaning. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father becomes more profound. Obedience becomes a joy rather than a burden."
Dieter F. Uchdorf, "The Love of God," General Conference, October 2009.
"Faith intensifies and magnifies our gifts and abilities. There is no greater source of knowledge than the inspiration that comes from the Godhead, who have all understanding and knowledge of that which has been, is now, and will be in the future."
James E. Faust, "The Shield of Faith," General Conference, April 2000.
"Are there so many fascinating, exciting things to do or so many challenges pressing down upon you that it is hard to keep focused on that which is essential? When things of the world crowd in, all too often the wrong things take highest priority. Then it is easy to forget the fundamental purpose of life. Satan has a powerful tool to use against good people. It is distraction. He would have good people fill life with “good things” so there is no room for the essential ones. Have you unconsciously been caught in that trap?
"Why has your moral agency been given to you? Only to live a pleasurable life and to make choices to do the things you want to do? Or is there a more fundamental reason—to be able to make the choices that will lead you to fully implement your purpose for being here on earth and to establish priorities in your life that will assure the development and happiness the Lord wants you to receive."
Richard G. Scott, "First Things First," General Conference, April 2001.
The whole talk can be found here: http://lds.org/ensign/2001/05/first-things-first?lang=eng
"We have thousands of times more available information than Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln. Yet which of us would think ourselves a thousand times more educated or more serviceable to our fellowmen than they? The sublime quality of what these two men gave to us—including the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address—was not attributable to their great resources of information, for their libraries were comparatively small by our standards. Theirs was the wise and inspired use of a limited amount of information.
"Available information wisely used is far more valuable than multiplied information allowed to lie fallow...
" Overarching all of this is the importance of what the Spirit whispered to us last night or this morning about our own specific needs. Each of us should be careful that the current flood of information does not occupy our time so completely that we cannot focus on and hear and heed the still, small voice that is available to guide each of us with our own challenges today."
Dallin H. Oaks, "Focus and Priorities," General Conference, April 2001.
"Who is it that whispers so subtly in our ear that a gift given to another somehow diminishes the blessings we have received? Who makes us feel that if God is smiling on another, then He surely must somehow be frowning on us? You and I both know who does this—it is the father of all lies. It is Lucifer, our common enemy, whose cry down through the corridors of time is always and to everyone, 'Give me thine honor.'...
"How does this happen, especially when we wish so much that it would not? I think one of the reasons is that every day we see allurements of one kind or another that tell us what we have is not enough. Someone or something is forever telling us we need to be more handsome or more wealthy, more applauded or more admired than we see ourselves as being...
"Brothers and sisters, I testify that no one of us is less treasured or cherished of God than another. I testify that He loves each of us—insecurities, anxieties, self-image, and all. He doesn’t measure our talents or our looks; He doesn’t measure our professions or our possessions. He cheers on every runner, calling out that the race is against sin, not against each other."
Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Other Prodigal" General Conference, April 2002.
"The Holy Ghost is a comforter and a guide. But it is also a cleansing agent. That is why service in the kingdom is so crucial to enduring. When we are called to serve, we can pray for the Holy Ghost to be our companion with assurance it will come. When we ask in faith, a change can come in our natures both for the welfare of our souls and to strengthen us for the tests we all must face."
Henry B. Eyring, "True Friends", General Conference, April 2002
'Expect the Lord to perform according to his holy will and your faith. The Lord will perform. The Lord’s arm will be revealed. He will take care of his Saints. He has great desire to see you cause other people to learn how to exercise faith by your own example.
"He desires you to be one who causes things to happen. He desires you to draw upon the all-powerful arm of God and the power which resides in you to do things in God’s own way. He desires you not be deeply involved or absorbed by worldly, temporal, superficial, or secondary things. These things must be dealt with, but even they must be handled spiritually.
"To enrich and accelerate the growth of your faith, you may wish to measure it by the number of your predetermined righteous desires that are fulfilled. However, you must always remember that, when you pray and exercise faith in something that does not occur the way you hoped it would, your only object in view must then be to redouble your faith the next time.
"Prayers that appear on the surface not to be answered, my brothers and sisters, are often the very ones that are answered most meaningfully. One must double one’s faith in these apparent trials lest it be lost."
Gene R. Cook, "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," Fireside at Brigham Young University, November 8, 1981.
"The Lord will never tempt you, but he will try you. Tribulations and problems are what this earthly school is made of. Life is all upstream—all uphill. You may at times desire to remove yourself from the swift current to rest a while, but you must go on. If you are on a plateau, you need to be on your way. You are not praying fervently and receiving trials in the right spirit.
"Challenges and difficulties that many of us resist are the very elements which refine us and make godly men and women. The Lord will try you in every attribute possessed by man and at all stages of development in your life. He will try you again and again until you know that you are able and will serve him at all costs"
Gene R. Cook, "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," Fireside at Brigham Young University, November 8, 1981.
"Many people go through life allowing life to serve up the menu. They seem to be subject to every wind of doctrine and mood of the world. They seem to go forth lost in the world with only a vague idea of what they would have from life.
"Some decide what they want, commit themselves to obtain it, and, in righteousness, exercise their faith until they obtain. They keep spiritual priorities ever present in their minds and hearts until they have received that which they righteously desire...
"Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is fully sustaining. You can pay the price by disciplining yourself and then causing things to happen. Hold your word as sacred to God, to others, and to yourself. Be truly committed, and you will see the hand of the Lord revealed in your behalf."
Gene R. Cook, "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," Fireside at Brigham Young University, November 8, 1981.
See the entire discourse here
"Some people try to answer these difficult questions on their own and hope for the best but still end up making wrong choices. Well might the Lord say to them: "How long will you kick against the pricks? How long will you go along your own way?"
Faithful Latter-day Saints will want to know how to use their faith to cause all things to work for their good (see D&C 90:24), to act and not be acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:13, 14, 16–27), and to righteously prevail over self and others and situations (see 3 Nephi 7:17–18). They will want to know the specific will of the Lord concerning themselves and then, in faith, discipline themselves to submit to his will."
Gene R. Cook, "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," Fireside at Brigham Young University, November 8, 1981.
See the entire discourse here
"No Father would send His children off to a distant, dangerous land for a lifetime of testing where Lucifer was known to roam free without first providing them with a personal power of protection. He would also supply them with means to communicate with Him from Father to child and from child to Father. Every child of our Father sent to earth is provided with the Spirit of Christ, or the Light of Christ. We are, none of us, left here alone without hope of guidance and redemption."
Boyd K. Packer, "Prayer and Promptings" General Conference,
October 2009
