"Strengthen the Feeble Knees"
Elder Marvin J. Ashton
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
An East St. Louis High School coach taught his team about pride and hard work, leading them to win many championships.
A coach of the East St. Louis, Illinois, High School took a group of young men and turned them into champions. ASt. Louis Post-Dispatchsports editor wrote: "This is a story Hollywood wouldn"™t believe: kids growing up in America"™s biggest urban disaster, slugging it out, year after year. No money, no fancy facilities, just a coach who still believes pride and hard work can mean something." The coach told his players, "Life isn"™t always fair, but we can still expect excellence from ours ... (continued)
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"Strengthen the Feeble Knees"
Elder Marvin J. Ashton
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
An eighteen-year-old observed that many missionaries do not know how to work, which is essential for success.
On our last trip to Great Britain, I had a chance to visit with an eighteen-year-old young man who has had close association with many missionaries in the field. As I was going to speak to a large number of missionaries in the next few days, I asked this friend what he thought was the most important trait missionaries needed in order to be successful. His answer was simple. "They must know how to work. Many come on a mission never knowing how to work." It has been my experience over the years ... (continued)
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"Strengthen the Feeble Knees"
Elder Marvin J. Ashton
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
An old fable tells of a scholar who retracts his gifts of a rose, a branch, and a lily from three men who only saw the flaws in them, illustrating the importance of not focusing on imperfections.
An old fable, and one of my favorites over the years, tells this story: A Japanese scholar each evening talked with workmen from a factory. One night he told the men that he would bring them something of beauty on the morrow. One man asked the scholar to bring him a rose; another asked for a branch; and the third requested a lily. The next evening he handed out the rose, the branch, and the lily. "There is a thorn on my rose," said the first man. The second complained, "There is a dead leaf on ... (continued)
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"Strengthen Thy Brethren"
President Paul H. Dunn
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker shares a humorous anecdote about a Baptist church in the South that put up a sign warning that parking violators would be baptized.
The other night I was somewhat amused as I looked through an evening copy of theDeseret News.I noticed a picture depicting a problem that one of the Baptist churches in the South was having. It seems that their parking lot was being used by an adjoining establishment for commercial use, and the enterprising minister put this sign up at the entrance to the parking lot: "Warning"”Violators will be baptized."
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"Strengthen Thy Brethren"
President Paul H. Dunn
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker recounts the baptism of his mentor, Dr. Guy M. Davis, twenty-three years after the speaker was his student.
Just twenty-three years ago this fall, I entered Chapman College in Southern California as a student. I came under the wonderful influence of Dr. Guy M. Davis, philosopher, educator, and teacher. Twenty-three years later, just three weeks ago last Friday evening, I saw this magnificent man, with so brilliant a mind, become as a little child, as he entered the waters of baptism and became a member of the Church.
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"Strengthen Thy Brethren"
President Paul H. Dunn
- Of the First Council of the Seventy
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker tells a personal story about his youngest daughter's anxiety about attending a new school and how she overcame it with the help of a friendly classmate.
Permit a personal experience for just a moment. Strengthening one"™s brother, I think, comes closer to home when we think of fellowshiping and friendshiping our family. Some time ago when my youngest daughter was faced with the reality of attending a different school, she looked forward to the new experience with great anticipation and excitement but with the usual anxieties and concerns. Her mom and dad tried to make her experience meaningful, and one that would be positive, and we spent seve ... (continued)
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"Suffer the Little Children"
Elder Boyd K. Packer
- Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
A little girl in the hospital after surgery is neglected by her parents, who leave her alone to attend a social engagement, despite her pleas for their presence.
An associate of mine had a little girl undergo surgery. They arranged for one of the parents to stay with the little youngster during the period of recuperation—for a hospital can be a strange and a frightening place for a little youngster who is injured or ill.
Coincidentally she shared a room at the hospital with another little girl just the same age who had also undergone surgery. During the long, painful hours following the operation, this little girl struggled almost convulsively aga ... (continued)
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"Suffer the Little Children"
Elder Boyd K. Packer
- Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
A child from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints humorously ends a debate with a neighbor child about the true church by stating they have a prophet, leading the other child to quip theirs must be a 'non-profit organization.'
It is not always a solemn and sobering obligation, this teaching of the gospel to the little children; they have a way of making it pleasant. One mother in South Carolina told me of her youngster who was contesting with a neighbor child over the question, Which is the only true church? Her child finally said, 'Well, we have a prophet at the head of our Church.' The other child conceded finally with the thought, 'I guess ours is a non-profit organization.'
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"Suffer the Little Children"
Elder Boyd K. Packer
- Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
The speaker's mother, responding to a request from the school principal, helps children from a neglected home by bathing them, applying medication, and cleaning their clothes, despite the risk of infection to her own family.
There are lovely mothers, also, who have fostered children born by other women. To such the privilege of motherhood is twicefold more precious. And there are many mothers whose love extends beyond their own family. In elementary school I learned a great lesson in this regard. There were in that school several youngsters from a family which was not blessed with an attentive mother at home.
During the school year they were afflicted with impetigo, a common disease of the skin which is now very eas ... (continued)
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"Suffer the Little Children..."
Elder Mark E. Petersen
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
A mother's disregard for the Word of Wisdom leads her son to commit a crime under the influence of alcohol.
I remember so well a good sister coming to my office one day. She sat at my desk in tears and kept saying over and over to herself, "Why should this happen to me? Why should this happen to me?" When she was able to compose herself, she told me about her boy who was in jail, having committed a serious crime. And she said again, "Why should this ever happen to me?" The boy had committed his crime under the influence of alcohol.
When I found out more about this family, I learned that this was the c ... (continued)
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"Suffer the Little Children..."
Elder Mark E. Petersen
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Parents' constant criticism of their bishop teaches their son to disrespect Church authority.
There is another couple. They also talk over the breakfast table, and over the dinner table, and by their conversation they also teach their children certain things. Mother and father see eye to eye in this family. They agree perfectly, and they talk over the things on which they agree as they sit there at dinner or breakfast. And do you know what the principal topic of conversation is? The bishop. How they despise the bishop! How they could tear him limb from limb! Everything the bishop does is ... (continued)
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"Suffer the Little Children..."
Elder Mark E. Petersen
- Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
A father's disregard for the Sabbath and Church attendance leads his son to follow in his footsteps.
I have a friend who has a son, and every Sunday this friend goes out fishing or hunting. He is a member of the Church. He thinks he is a pretty good member of the Church, except that he does not observe the Sabbath. He does not pay his tithing. He does not observe the Word of Wisdom. But if you ask him, he is a good member of the Church.
He always used to send his little boy to Sunday School and to priesthood meeting. But when the little boy got old enough to realize what the father was doing an ... (continued)
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"Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father"
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
A sister in the Church provides commendable civic service but is a stranger to Jesus' temples and scriptures, lacking deeper discipleship.
A sister gives commendable, visible civic service. Yet even with her good image in the community, she remains a comparative stranger to Jesus’ holy temples and His holy scriptures, two vital dimensions of discipleship. But she could have Christ’s image in her countenance (see Alma 5:14).
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"Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father"
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
An honorable father is involved in his family's care but lacks kindness and gentleness with family members.
An honorable father, dutifully involved in the cares of his family, is less than kind and gentle with individual family members. Though a comparative stranger to Jesus’ gentleness and kindness, which we are instructed to emulate, a little more effort by this father would make such a large difference.
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"Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father"
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
A returned missionary, busy with his career, accommodates the world and neglects building up the kingdom of God.
Consider the returned missionary, skills polished while serving an honorable mission, striving earnestly for success in his career. Busy, he ends up in a posture of some accommodation with the world. Thus he forgoes building up the kingdom first and instead builds up himself [see JST, Matt. 6:38]. A small course correction now would make a large, even destinational, difference for him later on.
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"Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father"
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Abraham's faith and revelation sustained him during the trial of being asked to sacrifice Isaac.
In the trying and very defining Isaac episode, faithful Abraham ‘staggered not … through unbelief’ Rom. 4:20. Of that episode John Taylor observed that ‘nothing but the spirit of revelation could have given him this confidence, and … sustained him under these peculiar circumstances’ (in Journal of Discourses, 14:361).
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"Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father"
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Jesus Christ's complete consecration allowed Him to empathize perfectly, understanding our stresses and perplexities.
The complete consecration which effected the Atonement ensured Jesus’ perfect empathy; He felt our very pains and afflictions before we did and knows how to succor us (see Alma 7:11–12, 2 Ne. 9:21). Since the Most Innocent suffered the most, our own cries of ‘Why?’ cannot match His. But we can utter the same submissive word ‘nevertheless …’ Matt. 26:39.
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"Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father"
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Consecration is a process of giving up worldly things and challenges that lead to increased consecration.
Along this pathway leading to consecration, stern and unsought challenges sometimes hasten this jettisoning, which is needed to achieve increased consecration (see Hel. 12:3). If we have grown soft, hard times may be necessary. If we are too contented, a dose of divine discontent may come. A relevant insight may be contained in reproof. A new calling beckons us away from comfortable routines wherein the needed competencies have already been developed. One may be stripped of accustomed luxury so ... (continued)
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"Take Especial Care of Your Family"
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Will Durant emphasizes the human need to understand the significance of things and to see them in the light of eternity.
The eminent historian Will Durant wrote of the human need "to seize the value and perspective of passing things. "¦ We want to know that the little things are little, and the big things big, before it is too late; we want to see things now as they will seem forever"”"˜in the light of eternity."™"1[The Story of Philosophy(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1927), p. 1.]
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"Take Especial Care of Your Family"
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
- Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
📅 0
📖 general conference
Ortega y Gasset warned about the consequences of relativism and the lack of fixed, divine truths.
No wonder Ortega y Gasset wisely warned, "If truth does not exist, relativism cannot take itself seriously."2[The Modern Theme(New York: Harper & Row, 1961), as quoted in Duncan Williams,Trousered Apes(New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1971), p. 69.]
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