Mormon Musings

"As we strive to understand, internalize, and live correct gospel principles, we will become more spiritually self-reliant. The principle of spiritual self-reliance grows out of a fundamental doctrine of the Church that God has granted us—agency." —President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, " Christlike Attributes—the Wind beneath Our Wings "

The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him. Nahum 1:7 (Old Testament)

The spirit of revelation must be in each and every individual, to know the Plan of Salvation and keep in the path that leads them to the presence of God. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 9:279

The kingdoms that God has prepared are innumerable. Each and every intelligent being will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, according to his works, faith, desires, and honesty or dishonesty before God; every trait of his character will receive its just merit or demerit, and he will be judged according to the law of heaven as revealed; and God has prepared places suited to every class. The Savior said to his disciples—"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." How many kingdoms there are has not been told to us: they are innumerable. The disciples of Jesus were to dwell with him. Where will the rest go? Into kingdoms prepared for them, where they will live and endure. Jesus will bring forth, by his own redemption, every son and daughter of Adam, except the

Can you discern and understand the dealings of the Lord with this people from the beginning? If we can understand this, it is indeed a matter of great rejoicing to us. All intelligent beings who are crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives must pass through every ordeal appointed for intelligent beings to pass through, to gain their glory and exaltation. Every calamity that can come upon mortal beings will be suffered to come upon the few, to prepare them to enjoy the presence of the Lord. If we obtain the glory that Abraham obtained, we must do so by the same means that he did. If we are ever prepared to enjoy the society of Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or of their faithful children, and of the faithful Prophets and Apostles, we must pass through the same experience, and gain the knowledge, intelligence, and endowments that will prepare us to enter into the celestial kingdom of our Father and God. How many of the Latter-day Saints will endur

Our religion is peace, happiness, wealth, and a fullness of good things to walk in the light of truth. These blessings are with and for the Latter-day Saints, and we have nothing to do but to live for them. God has given us our tabernacles, and planted in them the germs of eternity; and it is for us, in this present existence, to let the spirit overcome every passion of the flesh, and never to suffer the spirit to submit to the temptations of the flesh. Labor to bring everything into subjection to Christ, for this is his earth. It came from God in the beginning, and that, too, not by any chances of creation; for all that you see and can comprehend and understand, that is good, is produced by the Almighty Creator of the worlds. Respect one another; do not speak lightly of each other. Some, if they get a little pique against an individual, are disposed to cast him down to hell, as not worthy of a place upon earth. O fools! not to understand that those you condemn are the workmanship

There are real dangers—subtle and obvious—when members fall into lockstep with the world’s ways. In so many respects, the world’s ways head in opposite directions from gospel destinations. Moreover, as a covenant people, our behavioral loyalties are to be with the Lord, not with the Caesars of this world. But the tugs of the world are real and persistent. Besides, following the fashions of the world is merely to pursue eventual obsolescence, “for the fashion of this world passeth away” ( 1 Cor. 7:31 ). Typically, President Brigham Young spoke sternly concerning popularity and what can be its ruining acclaim: “I do not want ‘Mormonism’ to become popular. … I would rather pass through all the misery and sorrow, the troubles and trials of the Saints, than to have the religion of Christ become popular with the world” (in Journal of Discourses,  10:297). President N. Eldon Tanner cautioned, “This craving for praise and popularity too often controls actions, and as [people] succumb th