February Commonplace Sampler

This month in my notebook:

Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time, we should let them slip.
-Hebrews 2:1


"I grew up believing that the willingness and ability to work is the basic ingredient of successful farming. Hard, intelligent work is key. Use it, and your chances for success are good.
-Ezra Taft Benson


"Why have prophets of God been commanded to proclaim liberty and lead the battle to preserve freedom? Because freedom basic to the great plan of the Lord. The gospel can prosper only in an atmosphere of freedom. This fact is confirmed by history, as well as by sacred scriptures. The right of choice - free agency - runs like a golden thread throughout the gospel plan of the Lord for the blessing of His children."
-Ezra Taft Benson


"When you... see our Father, you will see a Being with whom you have long been acquainted, and He will receive you into His arms, and you will be ready to fall into His embrace and kiss Him... You will be so glad and joyful, ... When you are qualified and purified, ... you can endure the glory of eternity."
-Brigham Young (JD 4:54-55)


"I have told you many times that there are pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles, now what is our duty? -to prepare tabernacles for them; to take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of the wicked, where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery, and every species of crime. It is a duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can..."
-Brigham Young (JD 4:56)


"While we try to teach our children about life, our children teach us what life is all about."
-Unknown


"They are illustrious because they think."
-Victor Hugo, Les Miserables


"How sweet are Thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"
-Psalm 119:103


"There are some who feel that venting their personal anger or deeply held opinions is more important than conducting themselves as Jesus Christ lived and taught. How we disagree is a real measure of who we are and whether we truly follow the Savior."
-Quentin L. Cook


"I never like to have my own feelings wounded. I try to have charity for the sincere sentiments of all men; but it is needful that the truth be spoken in plainness. It is no act of friendship to flatter, to deceive and to gloss over error, when by exposing it the souls of some honest people may be saved."
-Orson F. Whitney (JD 26:263)


"The plan of salvation is the gospel of liberty. And now, in these the last days, immediately precedent to the return of Christ, who shall come to rule in righteousness on earth, the arch-fiend is making desperate effort to enthrall mankind under the autocracy of hell. The conflict under which the earth has been made to groan was a repetition of the premundane war, whereby the free agency of spirits was vindicated; and the eventual issue of the later struggle was equally assured."
-James E. Talmage

January Commonplace Sampler

From my notebook this past month:

"And if my soul may find her peace
In sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
And in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
Then I have been dipped again in God, and new created."
- D. H. Lawrence


"The most important work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own home."
-Harold B. Lee



"Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling... It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in, it is what God gave you time for."
-quoted by Neil L. Anderson



And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us."
-1 Nephi 15:9-10



"The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts."
-Marcus Aurelus



Gratitude transcends whatever is happening around us. It surpasses disappointment, discouragement, and despair. It blooms just as beautifully in the icy landscape of winter as it does in the pleasant warmth of summer."
-Dieter F. Uchtdorf



"I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are lead by Him. I am fearful that they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give their leaders if they did know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in their right way. Let every man and woman know, by the whisperings of the Spirit... whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not."
-Brigham Young