Semi-random chunks of stuff (sounds appetizing, doesn't it?) (the numbers refer to the lecture number):
1*We follow someone because we want to go where they are going...we follow Christ.
2*Clutter is emotional noise and it screams at you and you can't hear the Spirit.
2*If you are afraid to get rid of something just ask yourself, "What's the worse thing that could happen if I get rid of this?"
3*For internet safety: teach children how to log off immediately if anything questionable appears. Don't stay up past your spouse (and vice versa). You may need to make rules about friends' phones in the bedrooms.
4*Many are making it financially hard to serve missions by doing things like buying large homes with big mortgages at retirement so their families can have a "gathering place."
4*Wilford Woodruff said that he lives every day as if tomorrow is the end and he's still planting cherry trees.
4*Richard L. Evans said that one of the greatest calamities in the world would be the calamity of sitting around waiting for calalmities.
7*Father in Heaven doesn't bless us for the arrival. He blesses us for the trip.
8* Our level of progress and perfection equals the degree to which we can be tested.
8*Our tests are often things which make no sense and may seem contradictory (otherwise it's not much of a test--ie a non-smoker with lung cancer).
8*Without tests our faith would turn to apathy. The tendency is to become complacent and lose our faith if we aren't tested.
8*George Q. Cannon said, "If there is a point in our character that is weak and tender, you may depend upon it that the Lord will reach after that, and we will be tried at that spot, for the Lord will test us to the utmost before we can get through and receive that glory and exaltation which He has in store for us as a people."
8*John Taylor quoting Joseph Smith said, "You will have all kinds of trials to pass through. And it is quite as necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and (said he) God will feel after you, and He will take hold of you and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God."
9*Elder Snow in the Devotional said: The Lord expects us to learn and progress here even from the mundane things. Show up-work hard-pay attention....We are not simply to be acted upon (we must act)....Teach one another--expanding our own knowledge isn't enough....We won't always be with our kids, but Heavenly Father will ....Be a participant in church lessons--read lessons beforehand so the Holy Ghost can act upon those in attendance. You get more of the Spirit when class comes prepared to act and not just be acted upon.
10*The level of misery in any relationship is equal to the amount of distance between expectations and reality.
11*The major vehicle of influence you have with your children is your relationship with them. It's not your talent or your skill, though it is better to be talented and skilled than not....Our knowledge and our skills also enhance our influence when first, our hearts are right.
11*Since we are not perfect, we rely upon repentance to qualify us for our work. This means that to worry about being imperfect, or being guilty, or being incompetent is (with few exceptions) a waste of time!
11*It is more productive to ask, "What now?" rather than, "What if only...?" or "Why me?"
11*You can only teach what people are willing to receive....We can never decide what others will do; we can only decide what we will do.
11*Having a broken heart is like breaking a horse--it follows anything the Master asks.
12*The Savior's in the journey, not just in the end.
12*Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Lord has probably spoken enough such comforting words to supply the whole universe, it would seem, and yet we see all around us unhappy Latter-day Saints, worried Latter-day Saints, and gloomy Latter-day Saints into whose troubled hearts not one of these innumerable consoling words seems to be allowed to enter. In fact, I think some of us must have that remnant of Puritan heritage still with us that says it is somehow wrong to be comforted or helped, that we are supposed to be miserable about something.
Consider, for example, the Savior’s benediction upon his disciples even as he moved toward the pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary. On that very night, the night of the greatest suffering that has ever taken place in the world or that ever will take place, the Savior said, 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid' (John 14:27)."
13*Julie B. Beck, "The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life."
13*What stops us from turning our will and life over to the care of Jesus Christ and God? Perhaps it is because we don't trust them. We are afraid that if we do what He asks, He might ask us to do something out of our comfort zone.
Well, that's enough for now. Only 28 more lectures to look through.
Thank you!
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