{ultimate hope}

"Just as doubt, despair, and desensitization go together, so do faith, hope, charity, and patience. The latter qualities must be carefully and constantly nurtured, however, whereas doubt and despair, like dandelions, need little encouragement in order to sprout and spread. Alas, despair comes so naturally to the natural man!"

"...viewing life without the prospect of immortality can diminish not only hope but also the sense of personal accountability."

"Nevertheless, because proximate hopes are so vulnerable to irony and the unexpected, there is an increasing and profound sense of existential despair in the world. A grumpy cynicism now pervades politics. Many feel burdened by society's other accumulating anxieties.

Even those who are spiritually secure themselves can sense the chill in the air."

"Much as I lament the gathering storms, there will be some usefulness in them. Events will help to draw fresh attention to God's higher ways..."

"...in this hastened ripening process, let us not be surprised that the tares are looking more like tares all the time."

"Though otherwise a "lively" attribute, hope stands quietly with us at funerals. Our tears are just as wet, but not because of despair. Rather, they are tears of heightened appreciation evoked by poignant separation. Those tears of separation change, ere long, becoming tears of glorious anticipation."

"Real hope inspires quiet Christian service, not flashy public fanaticism."

"...when we are unduly impatient with an omniscient God's timing, we really are suggesting that we know what is best."

"The truly hopeful, for instance, work amid surrounding decay at having strong and happy families."

"We may not be able to fix the whole world, but we can strive to fix what may be amiss in our own families."

"...plow in hope," not looking back..."

"...more loving even while the love of many waxes cold. We are to be more holy, even as the world ripens in iniquity; more courteous and patient in a coarsening and curt world, and to be of strong hearts even when the hearts of others fail them."

"...never mind that the world will become more bipolar as between those who are secular and permissive and those who hold spiritual values."

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Ensign, November 1998

{work = a spiritual necessity}

"...we were all poor together, and we didn't know it. Work was a given. Today, for some, receiving is a given."

"Some of today's otherwise good young men mistakenly think that putting their shoulders to the wheel is the same thing as putting their hands on a steering wheel!"

"...work is always a spiritual necessity even if, for some, work is not an economic necessity."

"If the young man is permitted to spend his all on himself, that spirit of selfishness may continue with him to his grave." (President Kimball)

"Your grade-point average is very important, but what is your GPA for Christian service?"

"Whatever the mix of work, the hardest work you and I will ever do is to put off our selfisness. It is heavy lifting!"

"Be careful, fathers, when you inordinately desire things to be better for your children than they were for you. Do not, however unintentionally, make things worse by removing the requirement for reasonable work as part of their experience, thereby insulating your children from the very things that helped make you what you are!"

"I want to see our Elders so full of integrity that their work will be preferred... If we live our religion and are worthy of the name... Latter-day Saints, we are just the men that all such business can b e entrusted to with perfect safety; if it can not be it will prove that we do not live our religion." (Brigham Young)

"...you are sojourning sons of God who have been invited to take the path that leads home. There, morticians will find theirs is not the only occupation to become obsolete. But the capacity to work and work wisely will never become obsolete."

"I have not seen any perspiration-free shortcuts to the celestial kingdom..."

Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Ensign, May 1998

{priorities}

When Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve was in law school, he had to make the most of limited time with his daughters. He recalls, "My favorite play activity with the little girls was 'daddy be a bear.' When I came home from my studies for a few minutes at lunch and dinnertime, I would set my books on the table and drop down on all fours on the linoleum. Then, making the most terrible growls, I would crawl around the floor after the children, who fled with screams, but always begged for more."

Dallin H. Oaks, "The Student Body and the President", in Brigham Young University 1975 Speeches

Some info on Elder Oaks:

Jay teaches seminary at the moment and today a person came from Salt Lake who closely works with Elder Oaks. He told the class that Elder Oaks wakes up at 4am each morning and studies the scriptures for an hour. Then he goes for a long run with his wife.