Life is like an old time railway journey

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.” (Jenkins Lloyd Jones, Deseret News, 12 June 1973)

Are you being neutralized in the battle?

“The devil knows that if the elders of Israel should ever wake up, they could step forth and help preserve freedom and extend the gospel. Therefore the devil has concentrated, and to a large extent successfully, in neutralizing much of the priesthood. He has reduced them to sleeping giants… The Prophet Joseph Smith declared it will be the elders of Israel who will step forward to help save the Constitution, not the Church. And have we elders been warned? Yes, we have. And have we elders been given the guide lines? Yes indeed, we have. And besides, if the Church should ever inaugurate a program, who do you think would be in the forefront to get it moving? It would not be those who were sitting on the sidelines prior to that time or those who were appeasing the enemy. It would be those choice spirits who, not waiting to be ‘commanded in all things,’ used their own free will, the counsel of the prophets and the Spirit of the Lord as guidelines and who entered the battle ‘in a good cause’ and brought to pass much righteousness in freedom's cause. Brethren, if we had done our homework and were faithful, we could step forward at this time and help save this country. The fact that most of us are unprepared to do it is an indictment we will have to bear. The longer we wait, the heavier the chains, the deeper the blood, the more the persecution and the less we can carry out our God-given mandate and world-wide mission. The war in heaven is raging on earth today. Are you being neutralized in the battle?” (Elder Ezra Taft Benson, Not Commanded in All Things, CR., April 1965,  p.123-125)

Hot or Cold?

“Latter-day Saints should be thoroughly loyal to the course of life laid out in the Gospel plan. A milk-and-water allegiance kills; while a passionate devotion gives life and soul to any cause and its adherents. The troubles of the world may largely be laid at the doors of those who are neither hot nor cold; who always follow the line of least resistance; whose timid hearts flutter at taking sides for truth. As in the great Council in the heavens, so in the Church of Christ on earth, there can be no neutrality. We are, or we are not, on the side of the Lord. An unrelenting faith, contemptuous of all compromise, will lead the Church and every member of it, to triumph and the achievement of our high destiny” (Elder John A. Widtsoe, CR., April 1941, p.117).

Courage

When Oscar L. Booz died in the fall of 1901, his parents blamed his death on the cruel hazing he had been subjected to as a West Point cadet. When the story received front-page coverage, President McKinley demanded that West Point conduct an inquiry into hazing at the Academy. Having bravely withstood his own hazing ordeal, cadet Douglas MacArthur now faced an even more difficult challenge: should he name names, and risk being called a snitch, or refuse to cooperate, and risk his military career?

"Pinky" gave her son encouragement in the form of a poem. What do you think she was encouraging him to do? What does the poem say about their relationship, or mother-son relationships in general at the turn of the century? Here is the poem in its entirety:

Do you know that your soul is of my soul such a part
That you seem to be fiber and core of my heart?
None other can pain me as you, son, can do;
None other can please me or praise me as you.
Remember the world will be quick with its blame
If shadow or shame ever darken your name.
Like mother like son is saying so true
The world will judge largely of mother by you.
Be this then your task, if task it shall be
To force this proud world to do homage to me.
Be sure it will say, when its verdict you've won
She reaps as she sowed: "This man is her son!"

(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/filmmore/reference/primary/pinky01.html)

Come What May

"That trial has not been a problem for either of us because, when we live righteously and have received the ordinances of the temple, everything else is in the hands of the Lord. We can do the best we can, but the final outcome is up to Him. We should never complain, when we are livingworthily, about what happens in our lives.

Fourteen years ago the Lord decided it was not necessary for my wife to live any longer on the earth, and He took her to the other side of the veil. I confess that there are times when it is difficult not to be able to turn and talk to her, but I do not complain. The Lord has allowed me, at important moments in my life, to feel her influence through the veil.

What I am trying to teach is that when we keep the temple covenants we have made and when we live righteously in order to maintain the blessings promised by those ordinances, then come what may, we have no reason to worry or to feel despondent." (Elder Richard G. Scott, Temple Worship: The Source of Strength and Power in Time of Need, Ensign, May 2009). 

Feeling Offended

"And when Cain and Abel offered up their sacrifice, Cain offered his at the instigation of the devil; and his sacrifice, of course, was not accepted. God knew his heart and the feelings by which he was actuated, and therefore rejected his offering. Then came Lucifer, the devil, and says to Cain, 'I told you the Lord would treat you wrong; He has treated me wrong;' and he instigated him to kill his brother, which he did." (John Taylor,  Journal of Discourses, 26 vols., 26:, p.88 - 89)

Giving Your Best

"The The Bible does not give us the particular reasons for the acceptance of Abel's and the rejection of Cain's offering; but the Talmud, an ancient Jewish record, informs us that "while Abel selected the finest and best-conditioned animals of his flock, Cain offered fruit of an inferior quality, the poorest which the earth afforded. Therefore, Cain's offering was unheeded, while the fire of acceptance fell from heaven, consuming the gracious gift which his brother had presented to his Maker." (Franklin D. Richards, 26 vols., 23:, p.315)