Good and Bad

Look hard enough, and you can discover both good and bad in almost anyone and anything.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Looking for the Good," Ensign, Mar 2011, 4. 

Buying Things We Don't Really Need

 “Doesn't it make sense that the more we spend on ourselves, the more satisfied we’ll be?

“In actuality, the answer is no. Studies have consistently shown that when we purchase something we want but don’t really need, we generally experience a short-term feeling of satisfaction (a “chocolate high”), followed by a relatively swift return to our earlier satisfaction level. In other words, just about everything we buy that we do not really need is rapidly taken for granted. Living on such a consumer treadmill, with its short-term highs, runs counter to our well-being and can divert us from experiencing sustained happiness.”

Craig P. Wilson, “Lasting Happiness,” Ensign, April 2014, 18. 

Testing our Anchors

 “Life has a way of testing our anchors and tempting us to drift. Nevertheless, if our anchors are correctly placed in the rock of our Redeemer, they will hold—no matter the force of the wind, the strength of the tide, or the height of the waves.”

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “A Firmly Set Anchor,” Ensign, April 2014, 5.

Anchors

 “The purpose of an anchor is to keep a ship safe and secure at a desired location or to help control the ship during bad weather. However, to accomplish these vital purposes, just having an anchor is not enough. The anchor must be solid, dependable, and used properly at the right time and place.

“Individuals and families need anchors as well.

“Adversity can come as a great storm to blow us off course and threaten to cast us against the rocks. But sometimes we are also in danger when everything appears to be safe—the winds soft and the waters smooth. In fact, we can be in the greatest danger when we are drifting and movement is so slight that we scarcely notice it.”

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “A Firmly Set Anchor,” Ensign, April 2014, 4. 

Welcome All

“Reach out to anyone who appears at the doors of your Church buildings. Welcome them with gratitude and without prejudice. If people you do not know walk into one of your meetings, greet them warmly and invite them to sit with you. Please make the first move to help them feel welcome and loved, rather than waiting for them to come to you.

“After your initial welcome, consider ways you can continue to minister to them.”

Bishop Gerald Causse, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, “Ye Are No More Strangers,” Ensign, Nov. 2013, 51. 

No Earthly Explanation

“Sometimes we will face things for which there is no earthly explanation. In those moments we need to erect a sign that reads, ‘Quiet: God at Work.’ Meanwhile hold on, child of God. Keep believing. Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Let God do His work in you. The greatest tragedy is to miss what God wants to teach us through our troubles.”

Ray Pritchard, Why Did This Happen to Me? (2003), 57; emphasis in original.

The Purpose of Trials

“Our Heavenly Father, who gives us so much to delight in, also knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass. . . . Such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were—better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before.”

President Thomas S. Monson, “I Will Not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee,” Ensign, Nov. 2013, 87.