Tidbit Tuesday: Talking About Family

We talk a lot about families. Sometimes in bitterness, you will want to say ‘all this talk about families, but I don’t have a family, and …, ’ stop there! Don’t add that extra phrase, ‘I wish they would stop talking so much about families.’ You pray that we do keep talking about families; about fathers and mothers and children and family home evening, temple marriage and companionship and all of the rest, because all of that will be yours. If we stop talking about it, then you, among all others, will be the losers.

-James E. Faust quoting Boyd K. Packer

Tidbit Tuesday - Women and the Priesthood

"The emancipation of women in this mortal sphere does not yet involve priesthood. Women in our great nation enjoy civil rights and liberties like men: they can vote and run for public offices like men: they can own property and drive cars like men; they can frequent public places like men, they can work when, where, and if they please like men; they can smoke, curse, and blaspheme the name of God like men; they can eat, drink, and be merry like men; they can cut their hair like men and wear men's clothes. One thing they cannot do as men—they cannot violate the oath and covenant of the priesthood as some men who bear the priesthood do. Maybe you should thank God for that. If that, dear Sister, gives comfort to your soul, then let me disturb your comfort by reminding you that by reason of your temple experience, you do have certain priesthood covenants to keep and uphold. Had you forgotten them?" 

-William J. Critchlow Jr.

General Conference October 1965

Tidbit Tuesday - Attention to Placement

"That same God that placed that star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well."

-Neal A Maxwell
That My Family Should Partake p. 86

Tidbit Tuesday - Leaders and Followers

" . . .What happens in cultural decline both leaders and followers are really accountable. Historically, of course, it is easy to criticize bad leaders, but we should not give followers a free pass. Otherwise, in their rationalization of their degeneration they may say they were just following orders, while the leader was just ordering followers! However, much more is required of followers in a democratic society wherein individual character matters so much in both leaders and followers."

-Neal A. Maxwell

Tidbit Tuesday - Self-Improvement

The most important cause of our lifetime is our families. If we will devote ourselves to this cause, we will improve every other aspect of our lives.

-Russell M. Ballard

Tidbit Tuesday - Down with Dishes!!

The Americans, as a nation, are killing themselves with their vices and high living. As much as a man ought to eat in half an hour they swallow in three minutes, gulping down their food like the canine quadruped under the table, which, when a chunk of meat is thrown down to it, swallows it before you can say “twice.” If you want a reform, carry out the advice I have just given you. Dispense with your multitudinous dishes, and, depend upon it, you will do much towards preserving your families from sickness, disease and death."

-Brigham Young
Journal of Discourses, 13:154

Tidbit Tuesday - The Fine Art of Lifting

"Often the greatest lifts we receive come from within the ranks of our families. Sometimes the hands needed most are those closest to us. Often the hands closest to us are the strongest. When we begin to realize this relationship, one family member to another, we begin to understand the basics of our great welfare services programs which are the gospel of Jesus Christ in action. God has decreed family members are to help family members. God has decreed family members are to be a blessing to family members. When some of us in a discouraged frame of mind identify a family member as not worth a hand or a lift, may I remind us that when we continue to lift, regardless of the apparent results, added strength is ours. The more we lift, the more we are able to lift."

-Marvin J. Ashton

Tidbit Tuesday - DO NOT Give Him Your Honor

"Who is it that whispers so subtly in our ear that a gift given to another somehow diminishes the blessings we have received? Who makes us feel that if God is smiling on another, then He surely must somehow be frowning on us? You and I both know who does this—it is the father of all lies. It is Lucifer, our common enemy, whose cry down through the corridors of time is always and to everyone, “Give me thine honor.”"

- Jeffrey R. Holland

Tidbit Tuesday - Heavenly Home

"There are no separate paths back to that heavenly home. Just one straight and narrow way, at the end of which, though we arrive trailing tears, we shall at once be “drenched in joy.”"

-Neal A. Maxwell

Tidbit Tuesday - Super Tuesday

"No political party is justified to continue in existence unless it clearly states the principles which it advocates, the platform upon which its candidates stand, and then with integrity, when and if elected, carry out those principles and live up to that platform. Except that be the case, we as Latter-day Saints should not align ourselves to any party, because we do not have the basis upon which we can make an intelligent decision. We must know what they stand for before we can favor them with our vote. I do not ask you, my brethren and sisters, to go to the polls and just vote, important as that is; but that when you vote, you vote intelligently for those principles and those things and those men which will give to you the kind of government you want, the kind of environment that you desire for yourself and for your posterity."

-Henry D. Moyle
General Conference, April Conference 1952

Tidbit Tuesday - True Worship

"We have hundreds of thousands of youth in this heaven-blessed Church, and they must be taught the restored truth. But they must know that this truth includes virtue as well as worship and that there can be no true worship without chastity."

Mark E. Peterson
Conference Report, April 1965

Tidbit Tuesday - We Are A Happy Family (really!)

"You call this a happy family? Why did we have to have all these kids?"

-George Bailey
It's a Wonderful Life

Tidbit Tuesday - Hearing the Voice of the Lord

"It is vital that we, the sisters of Relief Society, learn to hear the voice of the Lord. Yet I worry that too often we fail to seek the guidance of the Spirit. Perhaps we don’t know how and haven’t made it a priority to learn. Or we’re so aware of our personal failings that we don’t feel worthy, don’t really believe the Lord will talk to us, and therefore don’t seek revelation. Or we’ve allowed the distractions and pace of our lives to crowd out the Spirit. What a tragedy! For the Holy Ghost blesses us with optimism and wisdom at times of challenge that we simply cannot muster on our own. No wonder that one of the adversary’s favorite tactics among righteous LDS women is busyness—getting us so preoccupied with the flurry of daily life that we fail to immerse ourselves in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sisters, we can’t afford not to seek the things of the Spirit! There is too much at stake. Too many people are depending on us as mothers, as sisters, leaders, and friends. A woman led by the Lord knows where to turn for answers and for peace. She can make difficult decisions and face problems with confidence because she takes her counsel from the Spirit, and from her leaders who are also guided by the Spirit. Our responsibility, therefore, is to learn to hear the voice of the Lord. "

-Sheri L. Dew
General Conference October 1998

Tidbit Tuesday - Self-Discipline and Internal Control

"Self-discipline has eroded and societies are left to try to maintain order and civility by compulsion. The lack of internal control by individuals breeds external control by governments."

D. Todd Christofferson
General Conference October 2009

Tidbit Tuesday - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Okay, so I shared this last year.
But at the beginning of another year it's worth the reminder . . .
AND THE LAUGH!

Happy 2012.

Tidbit Tuesday - Joy

"Joy is the flag you fly when the Prince of Peace is in residence within your heart."

-Wilfred Peterson

Absolute Security or Freedom?

In the war in heaven the devil advocated absolute eternal security at the sacrifice of our freedom. Although there is nothing more desirable to a Latter-day Saint than eternal security in God's presence, and although God knew, as did we, that some of us would not achieve this security if we were allowed our freedom - yet the very God of heaven, who has more mercy than us all, still decreed no guaranteed security except by man's own freedom of choice and individual initiative.

Today the devil as a wolf in a supposedly new suit of sheep's clothing is enticing some men, both in and out of the Church, to parrot his line by advocating planned government guaranteed security programs at the expense of our liberties. Latter-day Saints should be reminded how and why they voted as they did in heaven. If some have decided to change their vote they should repent - throw the support on the side of freedom - and cease promoting this subversion.

Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, October 1961 (italics added)

Tidbit Tuesday - Adversity

"If you haven't been through adversity, where have you been?"

-Mary Ellen Edmunds

Tidbit Tuesday - The Grass is Greener

"The grass that looks greener on the other side may be artificial turf."

-Mary Ellen Edmunds

Tidbit Tuesday - Miracles

"Dew settles without the fanfare of thunder or the patter of falling rain yet our wet feet in the morning still tell us there is something there.  Sometimes miracles are like that.  There is no overwhelming proof, but deep inside we know."

-Chris and Ted Stewart
from Seven Miracles that Saved America