Mormon Musings

“May I…suggest five reasons why all of us, rich or poor, longtime member or newest convert, should faithfully pay our tithes and offerings. First, do so for the sake of your children and grandchildren, the rising generation, who could now, if we are not careful, grow up in the Church with absolutely no understanding as to how their temples, chapels, seminaries, and socials are provided. Teach your children that many of the blessings of the Church are available to them because you and they give tithes and offerings to the Church. Teach them that those blessings could come virtually no other way.  Then take your children to tithing settlement with you, just as President Howard W. Hunter's grandson was taken with his father several years ago. In that experience the bishop indicated his pleasure in young Brother Hunter's wanting to pay a full tithing. In the process of receiving the coins, he asked the lad if he thought the gospel were true. As the boy handed over his full tithing

"There are two influences ever present in the world. One is constructive and elevating and comes from our Heavenly Father; the other is destructive and debasing and comes from Lucifer. We have our agency and make our own choice in life subject to these unseen powers. There is a division line well defined that separates the Lord's territory from Lucifer's. If we live on the Lord's side of the line Lucifer cannot come there to influence us, but if we cross the line into his territory we are in his power. By keeping the commandments of the Lord we are safe on His side of the line, but if we disobey His teachings we voluntarily cross into the zone of temptation and invite the destruction that is ever present there. Knowing this, how anxious we should always be to live on the Lord's side of the line ." (emphasis added) George Albert Smith,  Improvement Era,  May 1935, p. 278 "For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know goo

"It is one of the most common and generally accepted superstitions to attribute some particular leading quality to every man--to say of him that he is kind, wicked, foolish, energetic, or dull. This is wrong. We may say of a man that he is more frequently kind than cruel, wise than foolish, energetic than apathetic, or vice versa--but it could never be true to say of a man that he is kind or wise, and of another that he is wicked or foolish. Yet this is our method of classifying mankind and a very false method it is. Men are like rivers. The water is alike in all of them, but every river is narrow in some places and wide in others; here swift and there sluggish, here clear and there turbid; cold in winter and warm in summer. The same may be said of men. Every man bears within himself the germs of every human quality, displaying all in turn; and a man can often seem unlike himself--yet he still remains the same man ." Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection , p. 190

"We all need to build a personal ark, to fortify ourselves against the rising tide of evil, to protect ourselves and our families against the floodwaters of iniquity around us. And we shouldn’t wait until it starts raining, but prepare in advance. This has been the message of all the prophets.   When it starts raining, it’s too late to build the ark 1 … We need to listen to the Lord’s spokesman. We need to calmly continue to move ahead and prepare for what will surely come. We need not panic or fear, for if we are prepared, spiritually and temporally, we and our families will survive any flood. Our arks will float on a sea of faith if our works have been steadily and surely preparing for the future." W. Donn Ladd, General Conference, November 1994 1 In the words of President Monson, “when the time for performance has come, the time for preparation has ended.”

"Sometimes, during solitude, I hear truth spoken spoken with clarity and freshness; uncolored and untranslated it speaks from within myself in a language original but inarticulate, heard only with the soul, and I realize I brought it with me, was never taught it nor can I efficiently teach it to another." Hugh B. Brown   There are certain ideas of God, and futurity, and the nature and fitness of things implanted in the human bosom, even while in the world; for there are many things which lead to reflection. John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 5:244

"There is but one path of safety to the Latter-day Saints, and that is the path of duty. It is not testimony, it is not marvelous manifestations, it is not knowing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, . . . it is not actually knowing that the Savior is the Redeemer, and that Joseph Smith was His prophet, that will save you and me, but it is the keeping of the commandments of God, the living the life of a Latter-day Saint."   Heber J. Grant,  Improvement Era,  November 1936, p. 659

"It matters not whether you or I feel like praying, when the time comes to pray, pray.  If we do not feel like it, we should pray till we do." Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young , p. 44 "When you have labored faithfully for years, you will learn this simply fact--that if your hearts are aright, and you still continue to be obedient, continue to serve God, continue to pray, the Spirit of revelation will be in you like a well of water springing up to everlasting life. Let no person give up prayer because he has not the spirit of prayer, neither let any earthly circumstance hurry you while in the performance of this simple duty. By bowing down before the Lord to ask him to bless you, you will simply find this result--God will multiply blessings upon you temporally and spiritually." Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young , p. 46