LDS Quotes on Discipleship
“Let me emphasize that the noblest aim in life is to strive to live to make lives better and happier. The most worthy calling in life is that in which man can serve best his fellowman.”
| Conference Report, April 1961, p. 131
Keeping promises is not a habit; it is a characteristic of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
| Standing by Our Promises and Covenants
“The costs of discipleship cannot be paid at wholesale rates nor in one lump sum.”
| Men and Women of Christ, p. 24
“I believe it was George Macdonald who reminded us that the only door out of the dungeon of self is the love of one’s neighbor. How proud we ought to be, in a quiet way, that we are members of the church of the most selfless being who ever lived. How proud we ought to be to belong to a church that makes specific demands of us and gives us specific things to do and marks the strait and narrow way, lest we fall off one side of the precipice or the other. I am so grateful that God loves us enough to teach us specifically. Had secularists written the Ten Commandments, they might have said, “Thou shalt not be a bad person.” Note what the Ten Commandments say: “Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, thou shalt not commit adultery,” and so on. The gospel of Jesus Christ is specific because God cares specifically for each of us and, caring for us, will mark the way carefully lest we fall out of happiness.
“A vague creed is fitted only for a vague God. We have a Father who loves us specifically and gives us things to do and, because he loves us, will cause us, at times, to have our souls stretched and to be fitted for a better world by coping with life in this world.
“May God bless us with that kind of commitment, with the capacity to be serious disciples and to accept both the agendum that he has prepared for each of us because he loves us and the curriculum, prepared for each of us, which he has customized to teach us the things we most need to know, because he loves us.”
| “But For a Small Moment,” BYU Fireside, September 1, 1974
“The future of this world has long been declared; the final outcome between good and evil is already known. There is absolutely no question as to who wins because the victory has already been posted on the scoreboard. The only really strange thing in all of this is that we are still down here on the field trying to decide which team’s jersey we want to wear!”
| "We Are All Enlisted," Conference October 2011
“The final judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts – what we have done. It is an acknowledgement of the final effect or our acts and thoughts – what we have become.”
“Do you want capability, safety, and security in dating and romance, in married life and eternity? Be a true disciple of Jesus. Be a genuine, committed, word-and-deed Latter-day Saint. Believe that your faith has everything to do with your romance, because it does. You separate dating from discipleship at your peril. Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, is the only lamp by which you can successfully see the path of love and happiness. How should I love thee? As He does, for that way ‘never faileth.’”
| “How Do I Love Thee?” New Era, Oct. 2003, 8.
“We are at a time in the history of the world and the growth of the Church when we must think more of holy things and act more like the Savior would expect his disciples to act. We should at every opportunity ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” and then act more courageously upon the answer. We must be about his work as he was about his Father’s. We should make every effort to become like Christ, the one perfect and sinless example this world has ever seen.”
| “Follow the Son of God,” Ensign, Nov. 1994, p. 87
“I thought to myself, is there any way that I could transform the calling of sacrament bread coordinator into a missionary calling? After a few minutes of thinking, I said to myself, ‘I hate to bake bread, right? Maybe I could make a list of women who are not active or not yet members of the church, who like to cook. I can tell them, I have this calling in the church, and I want to put my whole heart and soul into it. I don’t just want to bring bread. I want to make it myself. Could you teach me?”
| The Power of Everyday Missionaries
“That man is greatest and most blessed and joyful whose life most closely approaches the pattern of the Christ. This has nothing to do with earthly wealth, power, or prestige. The only true test of greatness, blessedness, joyfulness is how close a life can come to being like the Master, Jesus Christ. He is the right way, the full truth, and the abundant life.”
| Ensign, December 1988, p. 2