surrounded by pain

At times....we feel surrounded by the pain of a broken hearts, the disappointment of shattered dreams, and the despair of vanished hopes. We feel abandoned heartbroken, along.  If you find yourself in such a situation, I plead with you to turn to our Heavenly Father in faith. He will lift you and guide you. He will not always take your afflictions from you , but he will comfort and lead you with Love through whatever storm you face. 

Thomas S. Monson 

Peculiar: not like the world.

"As Latter-day Saints, we need not look like the world. We need not entertain like the world. Our personal habits should be different. Our recreation should be different. Our concern for family will be different. As we establish this distinctiveness firmly in our life’s pattern, the blessings of heaven await to assist us.”
~ Robert D. Hales [Ensign, Feb. 2002]

 Harold B. Lee (THBL166-167):
"Our failure to be a 'peculiar' people in maintaining our standards, despite the jeers and the criticisms of the crowd, will be our failure to be chosen for that calling to which we are called. . . .

"So then as Church members let us beware lest we set our hearts upon the things of this world and lest we aspire so much to the honors of men that we compromise our standards. If we do so, we will be cut off in the Day of Judgment and will lose our blessings. Our reward for daring to live the gospel despite the oppositions from the outside world will be to have blessings added upon our heads forever and forever." 

God the Father appeared.

Our entire case as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rests on the validity of this glorious First Vision. It was the parting of the curtain to open this, the dispensation of the fulness of times. Nothing on which we base our doctrine, nothing we teach, nothing we live by is of greater importance than this initial declaration. I submit that if Joseph Smith talked with God the Father and His Beloved Son, then all else of which he spoke is true. This is the hinge on which turns the gate that leads to the path of salvation and eternal life.  - Gordon B. Hinckley

Heaven works backwards!

from C.S. Lewis: “That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory…What seemed, when they entered it, to be the vale of misery turns out, when they look back, to have been a well; and where present experience saw only salt deserts, memory truthfully records that the pools were full of water.”


Joseph B. Wirthlin: "I testify that in the eternities, as we look back upon our little span of existence here on this earth, we will lift our voices and rejoice that, in spite of the difficulties we encountered, we had the wisdom, the faith, and the courage to endure and press on."

Almost Hidden Scriptures

Elder Neal A Maxwell said, “Brothers and sisters, on very thin pages, thick with meaning, are some almost hidden scriptures. Hence we are urged to search, feast, and ponder (see John 5:39; Alma 14:1; Alma 33:2; Moro. 10:3; 2 Ne. 9:51)

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Mothers and God.

Men, take care not to make women weep, for God counts their tears.

May each of us remember this truth; 'one cannot forget mother and remember God. One cannot remember mother and forget God.' Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one.  Thomas S. Monson 

The important work of Relief Society!

 Belinda Marden Pratt (1820-1894) was the Millard Stake (UT) Relief Society President for a time. In a journal entry she records a dream she had of her late husband, Parley P. Pratt, who came to her and told her not to give up on her work inRelief Society but to "cease doing other work of less importance." The same entry shows Belinda's enthusiasm for the work in which she was engaged:

"In reading 'our [Women's] Exponent' of the 1st of this month I could only give expression to my feelings in tears. What an age we are living in! How great the responsibilities of the sisters of the church. What a work they are accomplishing! And how many there are that do not realize the amount of work before them as helpers in this great dispensation. Others are working with all their might. . . .Engaged in the work of Relief Society!" (B.M. Pratt, Journal, September 5, 1880)

Did you know you can read the Women's Exponent, a newspaper published by the Relief Society from 1872-1914? It is fascinating reading on not only spiritual topics but practical housekeeping tips for that time period. 

http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/search/collection/WomansExp