What Matters Most

What Matters Most

“Pause for a moment and check where your own heart and thoughts are. Are you focused on the things that matter most? How you spend your quiet time may provide a valuable clue. Where do your thoughts go when the pressure of deadlines is gone? Are your thoughts and heart focused on those short-lived fleeting things that matter only in the moment or on things that matter most? …

“Our Heavenly Father seeks those who refuse to allow the trivial to hinder them in their pursuit of the eternal. He seeks those who will not allow the attraction of ease or the traps of the adversary to distract them from the work He has given them to perform. He seeks those whose actions conform to their words.”

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, “We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down,” Ensign, May 2009, 60, 62.

Purposeful Challenges

Purposeful Challenges

“I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, ‘Was that all that was required?’ … What will it matter, dear sisters, what we suffered here if, in the end, those trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life?”

Linda S. Reeves, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, “Worthy of Our Promised Blessings,” Ensign, Nov. 2015, 11.

Teaching Moments

“I was reading the newspaper when one of my young grandsons snuggled up to me,” said Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “As I read, I was delighted to hear his sweet voice chattering on in the background. Imagine my surprise when, a few moments later, he pushed himself between me and the paper. Taking my face in his hands and pressing his nose up to mine, he asked, ‘Grandpa! Are you in there?’

“… Being there means understanding the hearts of our youth and connecting with them. And connecting with them means not just conversing with them but doing things with them too. …

“We must plan and take advantage of teaching moments. …

“… The more I live, the more I recognize that the teaching moments in my youth, especially those provided by my parents, have shaped my life and made me who I am.”

Robert D. Hales, “Our Duty to God: The Mission of Parents and Leaders to the Rising Generation,” Ensign, May 2010, 96, 95.

Children Will Be Prepared

“If we faithfully have family prayer, scripture study, family home evening, priesthood blessings, and Sabbath day observance,” said Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “our children will … be prepared for an eternal home in heaven, regardless of what befalls them in a difficult world.”

Quentin L. Cook, “The Lord Is My Light,” Ensign, May 2015, 64.

Discipline = To Teach

“Our Father in Heaven exemplifies the pattern we should follow. He loves us, teaches us, is patient with us, and entrusts us with our agency. … Sometimes discipline, which means ‘to teach,’ is confused with criticism. Children—as well as people of all ages—improve behavior from love and encouragement more than from fault-finding.”

Susan W. Tanner, “Did I Tell You … ?” Ensign, May 2003, 74.

a person to be loved

“Give your child a compliment and a hug; say, ‘I love you’ more; always express your thanks. Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.”

Thomas S. Monson, “Love at Home—Counsel from Our Prophet,”Ensign, Aug. 2011, 4.

Pure Religion

• SEPTEMBER 2016
• PRACTICE PURE RELIGION

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Practice Pure Religion

By Elder Don R. Clarke

Served as a General Authority Seventy from 2006 to 2015

From a devotional address, “Pure Religion,” given at Brigham Young University on January 13, 2015. For the full address, go to speeches.byu.edu.

The day missionaries start to care more about others than themselves, they become happy. It is that way for all of us. Our lives will always be happier if we care for and love others.

The opposite of caring for others is thinking about oneself: my car, my studies, my job, my problems. When it is always about us, our connection with heaven isn’t as strong as it could be....

if you want to be happy, feel the Holy Ghost, and grow closer to the Savior, then practice pure religion. ...

Does the Lord trust us to be an answer to someone else’s prayer? Can He count on us to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost? The more we follow the Spirit’s promptings, the more opportunities the Lord will present to us to be the answer to someone else’s prayer....

As we practice pure religion by visiting and caring for widows, helping orphans, caring for the poor and needy, and feeding His lambs and sheep, we will show the Savior that we love Him! As we do this, we will be happy, feel the Holy Ghost, and feel closer to Him.

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