Mormon Musings

My spirit is set free.  I thirst no more, I want sleep no more, I hunger no more, I tire no more - I run, I walk, I labor, I go, I come, I do this, I do that - whatever is required of me, nothing like pain or weariness.  I am full of life, I am full of vigor, and I enjoy the presence of my Heavenly Father.  When we pass through the veil, we will view death as one of life's greatest blessings - So nothing is dreaded.  If we could see things as they are (and we shall see and understand them), this dark shadow, a valley of death, is so trifling that we shall turn around and look upon it and think when we have crossed it, 'Why this is the greatest advantage of my whole existence, for I have passed from a state of disappointment to a state when I can enjoy life to the fullest. Brigham Young

If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. Have I imperfections? I am full of them. What is my duty? To pray to God to give me the gifts that will correct these imperfections. If I am an angry man, it is my duty to pray for charity, which suffereth long and is kind. Am I an envious man? It is my duty to seek for charity, which envieth not. So with all the gifts of the gospel. They are intended for this purpose. No man ought to say, “Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.” He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them. If a man lack wisdom, it is his duty to ask God for wisdom. The same with everything else. That is the design of God concerning His Church. He wants His Saints to be perfected in the truth. For this purpose He gives these gifts and bestows them upon those who seek after them, in order that they may be a perfect people upo...

To hell there is an exit as well as an entrance. Hell is no place to which a vindictive judge sends prisoners to suffer and be punished principally for his glory; but it is a place prepared for the teaching, the disciplining of those who failed to learn here upon the earth what they should have learned. … No man will be kept in hell longer than is necessary to bring him to a fitness for something better. When he reaches that stage the prison doors will open and there will be rejoicing among the hosts who welcome him into a better state. Elder James E. Talmage, Conference Report, April 1930, 97

I can tell the people that once in my life I felt a want of confidence in brother Joseph Smith, soon after I became acquainted with him. It was not concerning religious matters—it was not about his revelations—but it was in relation to his financiering—to his managing the temporal affairs which he undertook. A feeling came ever me that Joseph was not right in his financial management, though I presume the feeling did not last sixty seconds, and perhaps not thirty. But that feeling came on me once and once only, from the time I first knew him to the day of his death. It gave me sorrow of heart, and I clearly saw and understood, by the spirit of revelation manifested to me, that if I was to harbor a thought in my heart that Joseph could be wrong in anything, I would begin to lose confidence in him, and that feeling would grow from step to step, and from one degree to another, until at last I would have the same lack of confidence in his being the mouthpiece for the Almighty, and I would ...

 When you look in the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is?  It could be "remember."  Because all of you have made covenants--you know what to do and you know how to do it--our greatest need is to remember.   Spencer W. Kimball

 

Your lives, your friendships, your marriages, your families, your neighbors and coworkers currently constitute the sample of humanity which God has given you. We are each other’s clinical material, and we make a mistake when we disregard that sober fact. No wonder, therefore, we feel stress at times. The wise and insightful President Brigham Young said this: “There are no two faces alike, no two persons tempered alike; … we are tried with each other, and large drafts are made upon our patience, forbearance, charity, and good will, in short, upon all the higher and Godlike qualities of our nature” (in  Deseret News,  6 July 1862, 9). Now, you are going to have days when people make a large draft on your patience, when they lay claim to your long-suffering that you may feel they don’t quite deserve. This is part of the chemistry that goes on in discipleship if we are serious about it, as we constitute each other’s clinical material. Neal A. Maxwell https://www.churchofjesuschris...

The Atonement leaves no tracks, no traces. What it fixes is fixed. … The Atonement leaves no traces, no tracks. It just heals, and what it heals stays healed. Boyd K. Packer, general conference training meeting, Apr. 7, 2015

We can distinguish more clearly between divine discontent and the devil’s dissonance, between dissatisfaction with self and disdain for self. We need the first and must shun the second, remembering that when conscience calls to us from the next ridge, it is not solely to scold but also to beckon. Neal A. Maxwell, October 1976 General Conference

The idea that scripture reading can lead to inspiration and revelation opens the door to the truth that a scripture is not limited to what it meant when it was written but may also include what that scripture means to a reader today. Even more, scripture reading may also lead to current revelation on whatever else the Lord wishes to communicate to the reader at that time. We do not overstate the point when we say that the scriptures can be a Urim and Thummim to assist each of us to receive personal revelation.   Dallin H. Oaks

  “I believe we move and have our being in the presence of heavenly messengers and of heavenly beings. We are not separate from them. … We are closely related to our kindred, to our ancestors … who have preceded us into the spirit world. We can not forget them; we do not cease to love them; we always hold them in our hearts, in memory, and thus we are associated and united to them by ties that we can not break. … If this is the case with us in our finite condition, surrounded by our mortal weaknesses, … how much more certain it is … to believe that those who have been faithful, who have gone beyond … can see us better than we can see them; that they know us better than we know them. … We live in their presence, they see us, they are solicitous for our welfare, they love us now more than ever. For now they see the dangers that beset us; … their love for us and their desire for our well being must be greater than that which we feel for ourselves.” Joseph F. Smith, in Conference ...

The companionship of the Holy Ghost makes what is good more attractive and temptation less compelling. That alone should be enough to make us determined to qualify for the Spirit to be with us always. Just as the Holy Ghost strengthens us against evil, He also gives us the power to discern truth from falsehood. The truth that matters most is verified only by revelation from God. Our human reason and the use of our physical senses will not be enough. We live in a time when even the wisest will be hard-pressed to distinguish truth from clever deception. Henry B. Eyring, October 2015 General Conference

Meekness permits us to be prompted as to whether to speak out or, as Jesus once did, be silent.  But even when the meek speak up, they do so without speaking down. Neal A. Maxwell

One of the great challenges each of us faces every day is to not allow the concerns of this world to so dominate our time and energy that we neglect the eternal things that matter most. 1  We can be too easily diverted from remembering and focusing on essential spiritual priorities because of our many responsibilities and busy schedules. Sometimes we try to run so fast that we may forget where we are going and why we are running... We easily can be overcome by the routine and mundane matters of mortality. Sleeping, eating, dressing, working, playing, exercising, and many other customary activities are necessary and important. But ultimately, what we become is the result of our knowledge of and willingness to learn from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; it is not merely the sum total of our daily pursuits over the course of a lifetime. David A. Bednar, October 2017 General Conference

You don't pray to tell God what you want or what you need.  You pray to find out what God wants for you.  Big difference. That will change the way you pray forever.  David A Bednar

There is an important principle that governs the doctrine of the Church. The doctrine is taught by all 15 members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. It is not hidden in an obscure paragraph of one talk. True principles are taught frequently and by many. Our doctrine is not difficult to find.  Neal L. Anderson October 2012 General Conference https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2012/10/trial-of-your-faith?lang=eng&id=p30#p30

The Holy Ghost, the third member of the Godhead, is not an independent revelator.  He does not put forth His own views or His own point of view.  Rather, He is the messenger of the first two members of the Godhead and is commissioned to deliver the mind, will, purposes, and words of God the Father and Christ the Son to God's children.  And so, when Nephi informs us that those who receive the gift of The Holy Ghost--those who are baptized by fire--are enabled to speak with the tongue of angels, to speak the words of Christ, he is in essence unfolding to use the marvelous oneness of The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost, and the angels of God.  They speak with one and the same mind.  That is, what an angel declares is what Jesus or The Father would have declared, and the message is delivered by the power of the Spirit.  (see also John 16:13) Robert Millet, The Holy Spirit, page 194

We are taught that for those who do not repent, it is as though no redemption had been made. Consider the converse. For those who do repent—truly repent—it is as though no sin had been committed. “I, the Lord, remember them no more,” not because He has some godly power to forget but because there is simply nothing to remember. In His world, the eternal world, it is gone, its effects are canceled, it is undone. President Boyd K. Packer taught: “The Atonement [of Jesus Christ] leaves no tracks, no traces. What it fixes is fixed . . . , and what it heals stays healed.”  Kyle S. McKay https://speeches.byu.edu/ talks/kyle-s-mckay/there-must- needs-be-a-christ/

Just as chalk can be removed from a blackboard, with sincere repentance the effects of our transgression can be erased through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  That promise applies in every case. Boyd K. Paker, October 2013 General Conference

If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you do not like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.   Saint Augustine