Safety in Obedience

"At the time of his appointment as President of the Church, Harold B. Lee said: 'The safety of the Church lies in the members keeping the commandments. … As they keep the commandments, blessings will come.'1"

As quoted by Elder Bruce A. Carlson
"When the Lord Commands"

Give your burdens to the Lord

"Each of us comes to know his cross quite well. We know its configurations; we know its weight. We feel its rough edges. It would be so much easier for us to carry it if we could develop the faith which would permit us to cast our cares upon our Father in heaven, because he cares for us, as Peter reminds us. It would be so much easier to carry if we could do as Paul suggests and rid ourselves of the weights that we need not carry. We may think these are a part of carrying the cross when, in fact, they are a function of our own stupidity or our own sin. We can rid ourselves of these so that we may take up the cross and move swiftly and deliberately on to our journey."

Neal A. Maxwell
"Taking up the Cross"

Personal Influence

"Weak individuals make great dominoes!"

Neal A. Maxwell
"Taking up the Cross"

Be Honest with Yourself

"Those individuals who are free enough to acknowledge the first feelings of faith are true to themselves--and are surely those who the truth makes free."

Neal A. Maxwell
"Taking up the Cross"

Stress Remedy

"Correct conduct under stress is more likely when one has correct expectations about life.

To err by having naive expectations concerning the purposes of life is to err everlastingly. Life is neither a pleasure palace through whose narrow portals we pass briefly, laughingly, and heedlessly before extinction, nor is life a cruel predicament in an immense and sad wasteland. It is the middle (but briefest) estate of the three estates in man's carefully constructed continuum of experience."


Neal A. Maxwell
"Taking up the Cross"

Women in the Church

"I wish to observe that the role of women in the Church has never been more important than it is now, because never has the Church been so directly important and influentia to so many as it is now. While the Church will always be priesthood-led and preisthood-centered, we must not make the mistake of drawing wrong conclusions from that reality. I hope the young women of the Church will do all they can to develop their God-given talents and to stretch themselves intellectually and spiritually during their youth and young adult years, for the learning process is scaffolding for the soul."

Neal A. Maxwell
"Taking up the Cross"

Fork in the Road

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken 

by Robert Frost 

Poem found here.