"Fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance...against such there is no law...let us walk in the spirit"
"This is our one and only chance at mortal life - here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey - now."
President Thomas S. Monson
"I do not know what the theme of my homily today ought to be. Do I want to talk about the miracle of our Lord's divine transformation? Not really, no. I don't want to talk about His divinity. I'd rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life here on earth. His kindness, His tolerance...Listen, here's what I think. I think we can't go 'round measuring our goodness by what we don't do, what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include."
Chocolat Movie
"Said one well-known author: "Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend....when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present - love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness] - the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth."
Sarah Ban Breathnach as quoted by President Thomas S. Monson
"When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities...May God bless us to put [him] first and , as a result, reap peace in this life and eternal life with a fullness of joy in the life to come."
President Ezra Taft Benson
"I'm a perfectly good carrot that everyone is trying to turn into a rose. As a carrot, I have good color and a nice leafy top. When I'm carved into a rose, I turn brown and wither."
Mary Bray Pipher (this quote got me through Junior High)
"When the earth is turned in spring. The worms are fat as anything.
And birds come flying all around. To eat the worms right off the ground.
They like the worms just as much as I. Like bread and milk and apple pie.
And once, when I was very young, I put a worm right on my tongue.
I didn't like the taste a bit, And so I didn't swallow it.
But oh, it makes my Mother squirm. Because she thinks I ate that worm!"
Ralph Bergengren (the first poem I memorized)
Things always work out in the end. If they haven't yet? It's not the end.
Good Things to Come
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house.
At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting
the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew
that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently
He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and
does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The
explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one
you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor
there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being
made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He
intends to come and live in it Himself.”
C.S. Lewis
“The evergreen! How beautiful, how welcome, how wonderful the evergreen! When one thinks of it, how astonishing a variety of nature! In some countries we know the tree that sheds its leaf is the variety, but that does not make it less amazing that the same soil and the same sun should nurture plants differing in the first rule and law of their existence. You will think me rhapsodising; but when I am out of doors, especially when I am sitting out of doors, I am very apt to get into this sort of wondering strain. One cannot fix one’s eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy.”
Jane Austen - Mansfield Park
