To My Grandchildren.......

Years ago a friend of mine spoke of his grandmother. She had lived a full life, always faithful to the Lord and to His Church. Yet one of her grandsons chose a life of crime. He was finally sentenced to prison. My friend recalled that his grandmother, as she drove along a highway to visit her grandson in prison, had tears in her eyes as she prayed with anguish, “I’ve tried to live a good life. Why, why do I have this tragedy of a grandson who seems to have destroyed his life?”

The answer came to her mind in these words: “I gave him to you because I knew you could and would love him no matter what he did.”

To My Grandchildren, Pres., Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, Nov., 2013

How Do I Help.......

How do I help?

(One Day at a Time)

Of course I am obligated, by compassion and a common humanity, to help others.  But this does not mean I should do for them what they ought to do for themselves.  I have no right to deprive anyone else of the challenge to meet his own responsibility.  Although mutual dependence is one of the comforts and rewards of marriage, each partner must do his own job, carry his own share of the burden.  If he fails in his duties, my assuming them will only weaken his will to accept his share of the responsibility.

How can I best help the people in my life?  By not interfering when he gets into difficulties.  I must detach myself from his shortcomings, neither making up for them nor criticizing them.  Let me learn to play my own role, and leave his to him.  If he fails in it, the failure is not mine, no mater what others may think or say about it.

“For though we are made especially for the sake of one another,

still each of us has his own tasks.  Otherwise another’s faults

would harm me, which God has not willed, in order that my

happiness may not depend on another.

Things We Cannot Solve, We Just Have To Survive......

Some frustrations we must endure without really solving the problem. Some things that ought to be put in order are not put in order because we cannot control them. Things we cannot solve, we must survive.

If you resent someone for something he has done—or failed to do—forget it.

Too often the things we carry are petty, even stupid. If you are still upset after all these years because Aunt Clara didn’t come to your wedding reception, why don’t you grow up and forget it?

If you brood constantly over a loss or a past mistake, look ahead—settle it.

We call that forgiveness. Forgiveness is powerful spiritual medicine. To extend forgiveness, that soothing balm, to those who have offended you is to heal. And, more difficult yet, when the need is there, forgive yourself!

I repeat, “John, leave it alone. Mary, leave it alone.”

Purge and cleanse and soothe your soul and your heart and your mind and that of others.

A cloud will then be lifted, a beam cast from your eye. There will come that peace which surpasseth understanding.

The Lord said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

Balm of Gilead, Elder Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, Nov., 1987

Diference Between You and Your Problems....

“So as an old casualty myself, I plead with you to make a distinction between your problems and yourselves—there is a crucial difference. Problems can be painful and dark and disappointing—but we are not painful and dark and disappointing. We are children of God and must see ourselves as God sees us, recognizing the positive in ourselves, the part God loves so much, even as we work on what we may think are our freckles and warts and blemishes and big noses. You can change how you see yourself. You can! That is why a new year is so exhilarating. We have the opportunity to see things better than before. We can, as Shakespeare said, "Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain" (William Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 5, sc. 3, lines 40–41).

Be Renewed in the Spirit of Your Mind, Patricia T. Holland, BYU, Sept 06, 1988

Inner and Outer Turmoil....

We will always have some external battles to fight on an exterior front—those battles of life that the Lord in his wisdom allows us to face so we can grow and be purified and become skillful problem solvers….

However, the battle that many of you wage on an interior front concerns me more than these external ones I have just mentioned. Many of us create a civil war within ourselves by internalizing problems of fear, uncertainty, self-doubt, and worry—often over things we can do preciously little about….

The person who is engaged in such a constant internal fight has little energy and power left to win the outside battles. To be successful in the many skirmishes of life, you cannot afford to be your own worst enemy. And taking the battles inside—firing mortal shells into your very soul—is potentially one of the most damaging of all human activities….

Problems can be painful and dark and disappointing—but we are not painful and dark and disappointing. We are children of God and must see ourselves as God sees us, recognizing the positive in ourselves, the part God loves so much, even as we work on what we may think are our freckles and warts and blemishes and big noses. You can change how you see yourself. You can!

Be Renewed in the Spirit of Your Mind, Patricia T. Holland, BYU, Sept 06. 1988

The Keys Are In OUR Hands...........

“Sometimes we spend so much time trying to determine what we did wrong in the past to deserve the unpleasant happenings of the moment that we fail to resolve the challenges of the present. Og Mandino wrote in his book The Greatest Miracle in the World, “If we lock ourselves in a prison of failure and self-pity, we are the only jailers … we have the only key to our freedom.” (New York: Frederick Fell Publishers, 1975, p. 61.)

We can let ourselves out of such a prison by turning to the Lord for strength. With His help we can use our trials as stepping-stones. The keys are in our hands.”

General Conference, October 1984, “If Thou Endure It Well” ,Marvin J. Ashton