Your Favorite Fairy Tale: Adversity

For a moment, think back about your favorite fairy tale. In that story the main character may be a princess or a peasant; she might be a mermaid or a milkmaid, a ruler or a servant. You will find one thing all have in common: they must overcome adversity.

Cinderella has to endure her wicked stepmother and evil stepsisters. She is compelled to suffer long hours of servitude and ridicule.

In “Beauty and the Beast,” Belle becomes a captive to a frightful-looking beast in order to save her father. She sacrifices her home and family, all she holds dear, to spend several months in the beast’s castle.

In the tale “Rumpelstiltskin,” a poor miller promises the king that his daughter can spin straw into gold. The king immediately sends for her and locks her in a room with a mound of straw and a spinning wheel. Later in the story she faces the danger of losing her firstborn child unless she can guess the name of the magical creature who helped her in this impossible task.

In each of these stories, Cinderella, Belle, and the miller’s daughter have to experience sadness and trial before they can reach their “happily ever after.” Think about it. Has there ever been a person who did not have to go through his or her own dark valley of temptation, trial, and sorrow?

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Your Happily Ever After,” Ensign orLiahona, May 2010, 124–27

Receiving Answers

“In our prayers we seek to know what God would have us do, what we should do to find peace and happiness in this life and the next, and what lies ahead of us. The Doctrine and Covenants is filled with answers to such questions asked by ordinary people and by prophets in humble prayer. It can be a precious guide to teach us how to receive answers to questions about our temporal well being and eternal salvation.”

President Henry B. Eyring, “The Voice of the Lord,” Ensign, Jan 2013, 4. 

We are Everything To God

“Compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God.”

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “You Matter to Him,” Ensign, Nov. 2011, 20. 

Eternally Important Service

“Perhaps the most familiar and most important examples of unselfish service and sacrifice are performed in our families. Mothers devote themselves to the bearing and nurturing of their children. Husbands give themselves to supporting their wives and children. The sacrifices involved in the eternally important service to our families are too numerous to mention and too familiar to need mention.”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “Sacrifice,” Ensign, May 2012, 22. 

The Golden Years

“We are old now, and in due time, we will be summoned beyond the veil. We do not resist that. We try to teach the practical things we have learned over the years to those who are younger—to our family and to others.

“We cannot do what we once did, but we have become more than ever we were before. . . .

“In your golden years there is so much to do and so much to be. Do not withdraw into a retirement from life, into amusement. That, for some, would be useless, even selfish. You may have served a mission and been released and consider yourself as having completed your service in the Church, but you are never released from being active in the gospel. . . .

“You may at last, when old and feeble, learn that the greatest mission of all is to strengthen your own family and the families of others, to seal the generations. . . .

“Keep the fire of your testimony of the restored gospel and your witness of our Redeemer burning so brightly that our children can warm their hands by the fire of your faith.”

President Boyd K. Packer, “The Golden Years,” Ensign, May, 2003, 84. 

The Divine Gift

“Repentance is a divine gift, and there should be a smile on our faces when we speak of it. It points us to freedom, confidence, and peace. Rather than interrupting the celebration, the gift of repentance is the cause for true celebration.”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “The Divine Gift of Repentance,” Ensign, Nov. 2011, 38. 

Urgent Need for Capable Leaders

“As time and conditions change and become more complex, there seem to be fewer and fewer individuals capable of shouldering the responsibilities of leading positive change. I issue a challenge to you who are leaders and future leaders to recognize that the world is changing rapidly. There is an urgent need for leaders capable and bold enough to take on the immense challenges that face us today.”

Elder L. Tom Perry, “The Tradition of Light and Testimony,” Ensign, Dec 2012, 33.