A Thought For Today - Packet 13
1. “A contented person is the one who enjoys the scenery along the detours. Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”
~Anonymous~
2. “A Quitter Never Wins & A Winner Never Quits.”
~Napoleon Hill~
3. “As you work with your associates to help them with their faith, you will save them and also yourselves.”
Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, CR, April 1997 (Priesthood Session)
4. “Continue to invest in your personal development. Expand your occupational horizons by constant study...look to your present job as a stepping-stone along your career path. Take time to think.
The dimensions of most jobs are constrained only by the mind of the uncreative worker. I like what one business man counseled: If at first you do succeed, try something harder!!!”
J. Richard Clarke (Ensign, May 1982, p. 78)
5. Definition of Status: “Buying something you don’t need with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like.”
Dr. Eugene Swearingen, quoted in God’s Little Devotional, p. 32
6. “Don’t ask God for what you think is good; ask Him for what He thinks is good for you.”
Quoted in God’s Little Devotional for Graduates, p. 52
7. “Every home has both body and spirit. You may have a beautiful house with all the decorations that modern art can give or wealth bestow. You may have all the outward forms that will please the eye and yet not have a home. It is not home without love. It may be a hovel, a log hut, a tent, a wickiup, if you have the right spirit within, the true love of Christ, and love for one another...you have the true life of the home that (we) build and are trying to establish.”
David O. McKay, CR 1907, p. 63
8. “Every Latter-day Saint knows that to be found in the discharge of his duty makes him a happy man, and when he is not in the discharge of his duty, there is an uneasiness about him which makes him feel that something is wrong.”
Matthias F. Cowley, CR, April 1902, p. 39
9. “I like the man who faces what he must with step triumphant and a heart of cheer; who fights the daily battle without fear; sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering trust that God is God; that somehow, true and just, His plans work out for mortals;...”
(from “Unfaltering Trust,” by Sarah K. Bolton)
Quoted by El Ray L. Christiansen, BYU Speeches, Jan. 6, 1960, p. 3
10. “I urge you to choose companions well and cherish those friends who lift you and make you better in their presence. And be such friends to one another.”
Russell M. Nelson, BYU Dev., Jan. 7, 1990
11. Francois Rene’ de Chateaubriand gave the history of man in a sentence: “In the days of service, all things are founded; in the days of special privilege, they deteriorate; and in the days of vanity, they are destroyed.”
(quoted by Vaughn J. Featherstone in his book: Millennial Generation, p. 118
12. It’s almost Christmas-------Time to hang up the stockings....or put ‘em in your drawer....or in the hamper.....ANYTHING—just get ‘em off the floor!!!
13. “Learn to pay compliments. Start with the members of your family, and you will find it will become easier later in life to compliment others. It’s a great asset.”
God’s Little Devotional for Graduates, p. 314
14. “Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”
~ Hellen Keller
15. “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
Abraham Lincoln
16. Obstacles: For a long time it seemed to me that real life was about to begin, but there was always some obstacle in the way. Something had to be got through first, some unfinished business; time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
Bette Howland
17. “One hundred years from now, it won’t matter if you got that big break, or finally traded up to a Mercedes.....It will greatly matter, one hundred years from now, that you made a commitment to Jesus Christ.”
David Shibley, God’s Little Devotional for Graduates
18. “Opportunities are seldom labeled.”
John A. Shedd, God’s Little Devotional for Graduates, p. 54
19. “The way to get to the top is to get off your bottom.”
Dr. Eugene Swearingen, God’s Little Devotional for Graduates, p. 36
20. “The work will wait while you show the child a rainbow, but the rainbow won’t wait while you do the work.”
Patricia Clifford
21. “There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
Mahatma Gandhi
22. “There is a power that flows into our lives when we read and study the scriptures on a daily basis that cannot be found in any other way.”
President Ezra Taft Benson
23. “To the world, you might be one person; but to one person, you might be the world.”
24. “We are too prone to accept the activities in which we engage as accomplishments of our own, not giving the slightest amount of credit to the One who blessed us with health, strength, opportunities, inspiration, and the ability to achieve. We feel that we individually made the accomplishment through our own superior brain power or physical strength. What conceited fools we mortals are!”
Milton R. Hunter, BYU Speeches, Dec. 15, 1964, p. 3
25. “We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.”
J. Reuben Clark, Jr., CR 10/36:111
26. “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
Norman MacFinan
27. “When you are offended at anyone’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. By attending to them, you will forget your anger and learn to live wisely.”
Marcus Aurelius
28. “When you are tempted to look elsewhere for greener pastures, just remember someone else is probably looking at yours. And if another pasture looks greener, perhaps it is getting better care and attention. Grass is always greener......where it is watered.”
29. “Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy.....”
2 Nephi 9:51
30. “With the arrival of Spring, we hope all of you will put in your gardens and prepare to enjoy their produce this summer. We hope you are making this a family affair, with everyone, even the little ones, assigned to something. There is so much to learn and harvest from your garden, far more than just a crop itself.”
President Spencer W. Kimball, Gen. Conf., April 1978