Mormon Musings

There is another responsibility correlated and even coexistent with free agency, which is too infrequently emphasized, and that is the effect not only of a person's actions but also of his thoughts upon others. Man radiates what he is, and that radiation affects to a greater or less degree every person who comes within that radiation. Of the power of this personal inkiness William George Jordan impressively writes: Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil—the silent, unconscious, unseen enhance of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be. Every man, by his mere living, is radiating sympathy, or sorrow, or morbidness, or cynicism, or happiness, or hope, or any of a hundred other qualities. Life is a state of constant radiation and absorption: to exist is to radiate; to exist is to be the recipient of radiation. Man cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his chara

I will not doubt, I will not fear; God’s love and strength are always near. His promised gift helps me to find An inner strength and peace of mind. I give the Father willingly My trust, my prayers, humility. His Spirit guides; his love assures That fear departs when faith endures. 2 Timothy 1:7 D&C 6:36 https://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=1&searchseqstart=128&searchsubseqstart=%20&searchseqend=128&searchsubseqend=ZZZ&lang=eng

I mention the gift of discernment (   D&C 46:27 ), embodying the power to discriminate, which has been spoken of in our hearing before particularly as between right and wrong. I believe that this gift when highly developed arises largely out of an acute sensitivity to impressions—spiritual impressions, if you will—to read under the surface as it were, to detect hidden evil, and more importantly to find the good that may be concealed. The highest type of discernment is that which perceives in others and uncovers for them their better natures, the good inherent within them... The gift and power of discernment in this world of contention between the forces of good and the power of evil is essential equipment for every son and daughter of God. There could be no such mass dissensions as endanger the security of the world, if its populations possessed this great gift in larger degree. People are generally so gullible one is sometimes led to wonder whether the great Lincoln was righ

The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world.  There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor.  But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents.  Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give.  Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around.  It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities to make our love felt. Leo Buscaglia -in  Born to Love

We do not have to prove the Book of Mormon is true.  The book is its own proof.  All we need to do is read it and declare it.  The Book of Mormon is not on trial–the people of the world, including members of the Church, are on trial as to what they will do with this second witness for Christ. President Ezra Taft Benson - A Witness and a Warning,  13

We must have our day of trial—an opportunity to become acquainted with the bitter and the sweet. We are so organized as to be able to choose or to refuse. We can take the downward road that leads to destruction, or the road that leads to life. We can constantly act upon the principles that tend to death, or refuse them and act upon the principles that pertain to life and salvation. This is a day of trial; our faith and patience can now be tried: now is the time for your fortitude and integrity to be tried. Let the trials come; for if we should be so unspeakably happy as to obtain a crown of eternal life, we shall be like gold tried seven times in the fire. Let the fiery furnace burn, and the afflictions come, and the temptations be presented;—if we wish to be crowned with crowns of glory and exalted to dwell with our elder brother Jesus Christ, we must choose the good and refuse the evil. According to our faith, we must strive to live our religion when in the kanyons getting wood a

Study the Scriptures. They offer one of the best sources we have to keep in touch with the Spirit of the Lord. One of the ways I have gained my sure knowledge that Jesus is the Christ is through my study of the Scriptures.  (Elder Ballard, Ensign, May 1987, 15)

All who would understand the things of God must understand them by the Spirit of God. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses  8:115

You may know whether you are led right or wrong, as well as you know the way home ; for every principle God has revealed carries its own convictions of its truth to the human mind, and there is no calling of God to man on earth but what brings with it the evidence of its authenticity. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 9:149

Many are disposed through their own wickedness "to do as I damned please"--and they are damned. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 11:254

Those who think that they can succeed without praying, try it, and I will promise them eternal destruction, if they persist in that course. Some think that they can prosper by lying a little, breaking the Sabbath, and doing almost everything that they ought not to do. In the end they will learn that they have trod the path that leads to the first and second death, which will have power over them; and the time will come when they will be as though they had not been. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:205

“One man has said that 'hell is being frozen in self-pity.'  Indeed, at times when we think our lot is hard or when we feel ourselves misunderstood, it will be so easy for us to indulge ourselves in feeling some self-pity.  A contrasting episode comes to us out of ancient Greece: several hundred Spartans were holding the pass at Thermopylae, that narrow pass, and the Persians came in overwhelming numbers and urged the Spartans to surrender.  Hoping to intimidate them further, the Persians sent emissaries to the Spartans, saying they had so many archers in their army they could darken the sky with their arrows. The Spartans said, 'So much the better. We shall fight in the shade.'   Now, brothers and sisters, the disciple has to be ready to fight in the shade of circumstance.  One of the ways we can have perspective that will permit us to fight in the shade of circumstances is to read the scriptures and have involvement—intellectually and spiritually—with the case studi

I should like, if I may, to share with you on this point the fine writing of your own A. Lester Allen, a dean and scientist on this campus. This is what I have come to call the "Allen Analogy" about time. Let me read you these lines, if I may. Their application will be obvious. Dean Allen writes: Suppose, for instance, that we imagine a "being" moving onto our earth whose entire life-span is only 1/100 of a second. Ten thousand "years" for him, generation after generation, would be only one second of our time. Suppose this imaginary being comes up to a quiet pond in the forest where you are seated. You have just tossed in a rock and are watching the ripples. A leaf is fluttering from the sky and a bird is swooping over the water. He would find everything absolutely motionless. Looking at you, he would say: "In all recorded history nothing has changed. My father and his father before him have seen that everything is absolutely still. This creatur

“God knows even now what the future holds for each of us. In one of His revelations these startling words appear, as with so many revelations that are too big, I suppose, for us to manage fully: 'In the presence of God, . . . all things . . . are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord' (D&C 130:7).  The future 'you' is before him now.  He knows what it is He wishes to bring to pass in your life.  He knows the kind of remodeling in your life and in mine that He wishes to achieve.  Now, this will require us to believe in that divine design and at times to accept the truth which came to Joseph Smith wherein he was reminded that his suffering would be 'but a small moment' (D&C 121:7).  I’d like to talk to you about some of those small moments that will come your way in life and that come to each of us... we so blithely say in the Church that life is a school, a testing ground.  It is true, even though it is trite.  What we d

"There is a special power in the scriptures. Scripture study, combined with daily, purposeful prayer, can provide much of the resolution that is necessary today to offset the influences so prevalent in the world that lead us into forbidden ways"  (Elder Dean R. Larsen, Ensign, Nov. 1989, 63).

How do you educate your conscience? I suggest five principles.  First , if you really want an educated conscience,  feast regularly upon the words and the love of Jesus Christ . What does that mean? Seriously make a daily program to study the scriptures. Ponder the scriptures and meditate upon them. Be still. Perhaps you will read only one verse a day, but you're going to read the word of the Lord. Memorize some of the scriptures. It's like programming a computer. Get them into your heart. If you feast upon the words of Christ, then the Holy Ghost will bring to your remembrance the things you need to do, based upon the guidance that you have received on a moment-by moment basis. The Church will teach us principles, and the Holy Ghost will teach us specific practices and specific applications. Second, when you pray, listen . Look on your prayers, not as a time to counsel the Lord, but as a time to take counsel from him. I really believe too many times we go down a chec

Those intent on persecuting the Church of God today would do well to remember wise counsel given anciently:   34  Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named  a Gamaliel , a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;   35  And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men...   38  And now I say unto you,  Refrain  from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of   men , it will come to nought:   39  But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it;  lest  haply ye be found even to  fight  against God. Acts 5:34-39 (emphasis added)

At the ninth hour, or about three in the afternoon, a loud voice, surpassing the most anguished cry of physical suffering issued from the cross, rending the dreadful darkness.  It was the voice of Christ: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  What mind of man can fathom the significance of that awful cry?  It seems that in addition to the fearful suffering incident to crucifixion, the agony of Gethsemane had recurred, intensified beyond human power to endure.  In that bitterest hour the dying Christ was left alone, alone in most terrible reality.  That the supreme sacrifice of the Son might be consummated in all its fullness, the Father seems to have withdrawn the support of His immediate Presence, leaving the Savior of men the glory of complete victory over the forces of sin and death .  Elder James E. Talmage, Jesus The Christ p. 661 (emphasis added) See also D&C 133:50