Mormon Musings

Years ago I preferred cleaver people. There was a joy in beholding a mind bearing thoughts quickly translated into words, or ideas expressed in a new way. I find now that my taste has changed. Verbal fireworks often bore me. They seem motivated by self-assertion and self-display. I now prefer another type of person; one who is considerate, understanding of others, careful not to break down another person’s self-respect. .....My preferred person today is one who is always aware of the needs of others, of their pain and fear and unhappiness, and their search for self-respect...I once liked clever people. Now I like good people. Solomon Bennett Freehof  

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no! It is an ever fixed mark That looks on tempest and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me be proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. - Shakespeare , Sonnet cxvi

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God. Orson F. Whitney 

http://mormonthoughts.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/blessings-of-temple-worship/

http://mormonthoughts.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/all-things-denote-there-is-a-god/

I am not so anxious about the Spirit; let a man walk as pure and holy as the Gods and angels, and then see if there will not be the light of eternity in him.  Let a man or woman talk without spot or blemish and the Spirit and power of God Almighty will be with them all the time, and the angels of God will be round about them all the time, they will be preserved to do the will of God preparatory to an eternal exaltation.   Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses Volume 4, p. 63

When you hear a man pour out eternal things, how well you feel, to what a nearness you seem to be brought to God.  What a delight it was to hear brother Joseph talk upon the great principles of eternity; he would bring them down to the capacity of a child, and he would unite heaven with earth, this is the beauty of our religion. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses Volume 4, p. 54