Sunday Inspiration

We could certainly use a little inspiration in Colorado today....this is from a hymn we sang in church this weekend.

Sunday Inspiration

Sunday Inspiration

WISE WORDS & PRETTY PICTURES

I've spent some time at our university's trial flower gardens the last few weeks and came away with quite a collection of pretty flower photos.  I thought they'd go well with some of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite people.

On this upward and sometimes hazardous journey, each of us meets our share of daily challenges. If we are not careful, as we peer through the narrow lens of self-interest, we may feel that life is bringing us more than our fair share of trials--that somehow others seem to be getting off more lightly.

But the tests of life are tailored for our own best interests, and all will face the burdens best suited to their own mortal experience. In the end we will realize that God is merciful as well as just and that all the rules are fair. We can be reassured that our challenges will be the ones we needed, and conquering them will bring blessings we could have received in no other way. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland



Our children take their flight into the future with our thrust and with our aim. And even as we anxiously watch that arrow in flight and know all the evils that can deflect its course after is has left our hand, nevertheless we take courage in remembering that the most important factor in determining that arrow's destination will be the stability, strength, and unwavering certainty of the holder of the bow. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland



What is the best that lies within us? Of how much are we capable? None of us yet knows. An old Arabic legend tells of a rider finding a spindly sparrow lying on its back in the middle of the road. He dismounted and asked the sparrow why his feet were in the air. Replied the sparrow, "I heard the heavens were going to fall today." "And I suppose you think your puny bird legs can hold up the whole universe?" laughed the horseman. "Perhaps not," said the sparrow with conviction, "but one does whatever one can. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland



God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future. He expects you to embrace and shape the future--to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities. He is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He can't if you don't believe. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

Coveting, pouting, or tearing others down does not elevate your standing, nor does demeaning someone else improve your self-image. So be kind, and be grateful that God is kind. It is a happy way to live.  ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

I suppose no one is as handsome or as beautiful as he or she wishes, or as brilliant in school or as witty in speech or as wealthy as we would like, but in a world of varied talents and fortunes that we can't always command, I think that makes even more attractive the qualities we can command--such qualities as thoughtfulness, patience, a kind word, and true delight in the accomplishment of another. These cost us nothing, and they can mean everything to the one who receives them.  ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

The work of devils and of darkness is never more certain of defeat than when men and women, not finding it easy or pleasant, but still determined to do the Father's will, look out upon their lives, from which it may sometimes seem every trace of divine help has vanished, and asking why they have been so forsaken, still bow their heads and obey. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland



However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

CONFERENCE FAVORITES

I just wanted to share a few of my favorite quotes from General Conference this past weekend.  I can't think of a better way to explain why I love it so much.

However late you think you are; However many chances you think you've missed; However many mistakes you feel you've made or talents you think you don't have or distance from home and family and God you feel you have travelled, I testify that you have not travelled beyond the reach of divine love. - Jeffrey R. Holland

Don't judge me because I sin differently than you. - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Our Heavenly Father did not launch us on our eternal voyage without providing the means whereby we could receive from Him guidance to ensure our safe return. -Thomas S. Monson

There are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets an unexpected blessing or receives some special recognition.  May I plead with us not to be hurt—and certainly not to feel envious—when good fortune comes to another. We are not diminished when someone else is added upon. - Jeffrey R. Holland

It is never too late to strengthen the foundation of faith. There is always time. With faith in the Savior you can repent and plead for forgiveness. There is someone you can forgive. There is someone you can thank. There is someone you can serve and lift. You can do it wherever you are and however alone and deserted you may feel. - Henry B. Eyring

This one is available as a free printable here.

We simply have to stop judging others and replace judgmental thoughts and feelings with a heart full of love for God and His children. This topic of judging others could actually be taught in a two-word sermon. When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm—please apply the following: Stop it! - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

There were so many other wonderful talks by wonderful men and women.  And I just can't resist mentioning the celebrity sighting that had everyone so excited.

(Photo Source)

Yes, that's American Idol David Archuleta, or as he's now known, Elder Archuleta, singing in the missionary choir. Do you think the choir director was excited when he volunteered? He's currently at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah preparing for a two-year mission. I'm not sure where he's going, but judging by his name tag, somewhere Spanish speaking. And hopefully someplace where the people will have no idea who he is.

Don't get too excited. I wasn't there in person. I was watching on television. Maybe next time. I'm already looking forward to it!

A LITTLE INSPIRATION

This is so very true. Whenever I compare myself, my photography, my parenting, my cooking, my home decor, my hair, my wardrobe.....I could go on and on.....but whenever I compare, there goes my joy.

Stay tuned, because tomorrow the middle school is hosting a Night at the Museum.  The wax museum, to be exact.  Except the exhibits won't be made of wax.  They will be real live 6th graders, all dressed up as important people.  T is going as Terry Fox.  If you don't know who that is, I assure you, you'll be inspired!

TRY A LITTLE HARDER

A little motivation for a new year.....

Each of us can do a little better than we have been doing. We can be a little more kind. We can be a little more merciful. We can be a little more forgiving. We can put behind us our weaknesses of the past, and go forth with new energy and increased resolution to improve the world about us, in our homes, in our places of employment, in our social activities.
~ Gordon B. Hinckley

A LITTLE INSPIRATION

This is such a wonderful story about how the world is full of caring people. 

"Someone you know is carrying a spiritual or physical or emotional burden of some sort, or some other affliction drawn from life's catalog of a thousand kinds of sorrow. In the spirit of Christ's first invitation to His twelve Apostles, jump into this work. Help people. Heal old wounds and try to make things better."

- Jeffrey R. Holland

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

WISE WORDS

My favorite quote ever....by one of my favorite people ever.

*paraphrased from C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

WISE WORDS

FAVORITE QUOTES

The Christian life has not been tried and found wanting: It has been found difficult and left untried. ~ G.K. Chesterton

I don’t want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking the kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor’s children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone’s garden. I want to be there with children’s sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived. ~ Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Our job, it seems to me, is to spackle the cracks and shore up the foundation of our kids, not to rebuild them with Greek columns and turrets. Our job is to light up when they walk into the room. ~ Joan Ryan

You never know how much you believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.  It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to tie a box.  But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice.  Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it? ~ C.S. Lewis

The work of devils and of darkness is never more certain of defeat than when men and women, not finding it easy or pleasant, but still determined to do the Father's will, look out upon their lives, from which it may sometimes seem every trace of divine help has vanished, and asking why they have been so forsaken, still bow their heads and obey. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland (paraphrased from C.S. Lewis)

Every time I've done something that doesn't feel right, it's ended up not being right. ~ Mario Cuomo

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good.  Luckily this is not difficult. ~ Charlotte Whitton

My father did not tell me how to live.  He lived, and let me watch him do it. ~ Clarence Budinton Kelland

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.  One should, for example, be able to see things that are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

A man ninety years old was asked to what he attributed his longevity.  I reckon, he said, with a twinkle in his eye, it's because most nights I went to bed and slept when I should have sat up and worried. ~ Dorothea Kent

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Developing greater contentment within certain of our existing constraints and opportunities is one of our challenges.  Otherwise we may feel underused, underwhelmed and under appreciated--while ironically within our givens are unused opportunities for service all about us. ~ Neil A. Maxwell

Never let your head hang down.  Never give up and sit down and grieve.  Find another way.  And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Leroy "Satchel" Paige

Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. ~ Thomas Carlyle

Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit, the way will open for you to do more. ~ Robert Collier

Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind.  If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. ~ Arthur Somers Roche

I am glad I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes. ~ Gene Fowler

The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. ~ Harry S. Truman

The decision to have a child--it's momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside of your body. ~ Elizabeth Stone

Adolescence is a period of rapid changes.  Between the ages of 12 and 17, for example, a parent ages as much as 20 years. ~ Anonymous

A conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done. ~ Fred Allen

In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Once while St. Francis of Assisi was hoeing his garden he was asked, "What would you do if you were suddenly to learn that you were to die at sunset today?"  He replied, "I would finish hoeing my garden."
~ Unknown

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

What we do on some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are. ~ Henry Parry Liddon

It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him. ~ Abraham Lincoln

The best way to keep your children at home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant--and let the air out of their tires. ~ Dorothy Parker

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~ Aristotle

I believe I am always divinely guided.  I believe I will always take the right road.  I believe that God will always make a way, even when there appears to be no way. ~ William Robert Anderson

Our faith comes in moments . . . yet there is a depth in those brief moments which constrains us to ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each person's life sorrw and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There are two kinds of men who never amount to much--those who cannot do what they are told and those who can do nothing else. ~ Cyrus H.K. Curtis

We should be lenient in our judgement, because often the mistakes of others would have been ours had we had the opportunity to make them. ~ Dr. Alsaker

We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do. ~ Ethel Barrett

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter. ~ Winston Churchill

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. ~ Albert Einstein