“When life is hard, remember – we are not the first to ask, ‘Is there no other way?”
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“Instead of explaining our suffering, God shares it.”
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“Life is assumed to be about the fundamental, clear-cut choice between good and evil. Mormonism sees no such simple dichotomy in the primeval options. Yes, obedience and safety and security in God’s presence are presented as one of the choices, But Mormonism is more sympathetic to Eve’s perception of the alternative; the beauty of the fruit, its goodness as food, its desirability ‘to make one wise.’ Not coincidentally, ancient philosophers like Plato considered the triad of ideas – Beauty, Goodness, Truth – to be the highest manifestation of divine virtue. In the Mormon narrative, therefore, the circumstances that define the reality of the human predicament are not a blatant choice between Good and Evil but a wrenching decision to be made between competing sets of Good. The philosopher Hegel believed that this scenario, replicated in myriad artistic narratives, expressed the inescapably tragic nature of the universe. There are very few simple choices. No blueprint gives us easy answers. Life’s most wrenching choices are not between right and wrong but between competing demands on our time, our resources, our love and loyalty.”
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“Our task is to become our best selves. One of God’s greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final.”
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“Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.”
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Be believing, be happy, don’t get discouraged. Things will work out.
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“One speaker in Church directs, “You can’t do everything. Don’t run faster than you have strength”. The next says, “Push yourself. You can always do more.” One person advises, “Don’t worry about what you can’t do” at the same time someone else says, “You can do anything you put your mind to.” In one hymn we sing, “I need thee every hour,” and in another we sing, “We will work out our salvation”. In this world of mixed messages, I never can seem to escape the nagging though, “If only I were better organized or if only I tried harder.” Satan tempted Christ with the word, ‘if.’ He often comes to me with the words, ‘if only.’”
| The Continuous Atonement
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“Obedience gives us greater control over our lives, greater capacity to come and go, to work and create. Of course, age, accident, and illnesses inevitably take their toll, but even so, our obedience to this gospel law enhances our capacity to deal with these challenges.”
| Obedience Brings Blessings, April 2013 General Conference
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“A good friend, who knows whereof he speaks, has observed of trials, ‘if it is fair, it is not a true trial.’ That is, without the added presence of some inexplicableness and some irony and injustice, the experience may not stretch or lift us sufficiently. The crucifixion of Christ was clearly the greatest injustice in human history, but the Savior bore up under it with majesty and indescribable valor.”
| The Neal A. Maxwell Quote Book
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One’s life . . . cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free. . . . Therefore, how can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, ”Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!” . . .Real faith . . . is required to endure this necessary but painful developmental process.
| “Lest Ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds,” Ensign, May 1991, pp. 88, 90
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