“Realizing that change is a process, most of us would never get angry at a seed for not being a flower or expect a sculptor to transform a block of marble into a masterpiece overnight.”
Perfection
LDS Quotes on Perfection
“Our Heavenly Father is perfect and we can also become perfect. One of the most Christ-like qualities we ought to develop is reverence, an attitude that shows how we feel about Heavenly Father and the things He has asked us to do. The person who is reverent has a quiet dignity. It requires a pure heart to be reverent. Reverence is more than just being quiet. It is a spiritual communication between us and our Father in heaven. When we are reverent, we don’t do anything that reflects negatively upon the Lord or His Church. This does not mean just during meetings, but it includes our conduct wherever we may be or in whatever we do.”
| "Friend to Friend", September 1976 Friend pg 8
“If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses, for if we are not drawing towards God in principle, we are going from him and drawing towards the devil. Yes, I am standing in the midst of all kinds of people. Search your hearts, and see if you are like God. I have searched mine, and feel to repent of all my sins.”
| Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 216-17
“We must not lose hope. Hope is an anchor to the souls of men. Satan would have us cast away that anchor. In this way he can bring discouragement and surrender. But we must not lose hope. The Lord is pleased with every effort, even the tiny, daily ones in which we strive to be more like Him. Though we may see that we have far to go on the road to perfection, we must not give up hope.”
| A Mighty Change of Heart, Ensign, Oct. 1989, 2
“The true end of life is not mere existence, not pleasure, not fame, not wealth. The true purpose of life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God’s inspiration. Real life is response to the best within us. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, poetry, music, flowers and stars, God and eternal hopes, is to deprive one’s self of the real joy of living.”
| General Conference, October 1963
“We need to come to terms with our desire to reach perfection and with our frustration when our accomplishments or our behaviors are less than perfect. I feel that one of the great myths we would do well to dispel is that we’ve come to earth to perfect ourselves, and nothing short of that will do. If I understand the teachings of the prophets of this dispensation correctly, we will not become perfect in this life, though we can make significant strides toward that goal. . . .I am also convinced of the fact that the speed with which we head along the straight and narrow path isn’t as important as the direction in which we are traveling. That direction, if it is leading toward eternal goals, is the all-important factor.”
| Ensign, May 1989, pp. 20-21
“Embrace the Savior’s warm invitation to come unto Him, one by one, and be perfected in Him.”
Our only hope for true perfection is in receiving it as a gift from heaven–we can’t “earn” it. Thus, the grace of Christ offers us not only salvation from sorrow and sin and death but also salvation from our own persistent self-criticism.
| Be Ye Therefore Perfect--Eventually
“If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. . . . 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. . . . 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 upon the face of the earth, notwithstanding their many weaknesses, because God has promised to give the gifts that are necessary for their perfection.”
| Millennial Star, April 23, 1894, 260–61
“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.”
| Millennial Star, 23 Apr. 1894, 260