This year may be a big year for many – big plans, big changes and big milestones. Just like any other year, it will not be as smooth as we want it to be. So here are some quotes that can give inspiration to many.
Henry B. Eyring, Mountains to Climb
“Our choosing the right consistently whenever the choice is placed before us creates the solid ground under our faith.”
We may sometimes feel that the big choices we make are the only important ones, such as getting married in the temple, making covenants with the Lord, and going on a mission. But choices that might seem small, such as daily scripture study and prayer, honesty with our day’s work and our fellowmen, and being grateful, among many others, are equally important. The path to having solid unshakable faith has a pattern, and that is getting closer and closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through the choices that we make every day. The pattern is not crooked, it does not wave to the right and to the left, but rather it is straight and narrow. Choosing the right consistently requires us to solidify our conviction that the path to righteousness is the only path we must take. Much like when we are supporting a football or a basketball team. We will not feel our connection to the team if we keep switching the team we are rooting for and give our loyalty to whoever wins. The big difference is that we already know that choosing the right always puts us on the winning side.
Jeffrey R. Holland, An High Priest of Good Things to Come
“Don’t give up… Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead… You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”
This quote reminds us that there is hope and hope will never be lost because the hope that we all hold on to is the Savior Jesus Christ himself—a King who never forsakes his people and a Shepherd who never leads his sheep astray. No one is exempt from trials but it is comforting to know that no one is exempt from the tender mercies of the Lord as well. There is no place in this world we could go where the love and compassion of the Lord cannot follow.
David A. Bednar, Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease
“Sometimes we mistakenly may believe that happiness is the absence of a load. But bearing a load is a necessary and essential part of the plan of happiness.”
Elder Bednar’s remark is a reminder that the Plan of Happiness is not about having comfortable lives with no suffering and afflictions. He taught that the load we carry creates the “spiritual traction” necessary to keep us from getting stuck in circumstances that stagnate our progress. He also admonished us to shift our prayers from asking our loads to be removed to asking for the necessary strength and capacity to carry the load we bear.
Gordon B. Hinckley, To the Women of the Church
“We all worry about our performance. We all wish we could do better. But unfortunately we do not realize, we do not often see the results that come of what we do.”
President Hinckley’s statement teaches us that we need not torture ourselves with the questions, “Am I good enough?” and “Have I done enough?” When we have given our best and exhausted all our faculties to fulfill what we have to do, trusting that the Lord’s grace is sufficient to succor us in our shortcomings, then we can say that we are good enough or we have done enough.
May we continue to strengthen our faith, move forward with hope, remain grateful in our circumstances and acknowledge the good that we do in this world this 2017.
