[selfishness never is happiness]

The horrible nastiness of the U.S. election made me think of President Hinckley's book "Standing for Something - 10 neglected virtues that will heal our hearts and homes" and I decided to reread it. How needed in the world right now are good old values and morals. I miss President Hinckley. He helped me so much in my life. When 9-11 happened, for example, his words and optimism brought comfort and peace to me. How grateful I am for him and his cheerful outlook on life.

I find it interesting that all religions seem to teach this same thing. I'm also reading a book called The Book of Joy in which Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu talk about joy and happiness and they say the exact same thing. Selfishness never is happiness. We are happy when we look past our own self and look to help and serve others.

[different way to think]

I was watching this BYU Women's Conference talk by Elder Oaks when I came across this quote. Love it! :)

{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