Small Things...Create an Eternal Family

"In that most important of places, our homes, we learn best how it is that “out of small things proceedeth that which is great,” for life at home is a series of small things that combine to create an eternal family.

Virginia U. Jensen,
“Ripples,” Ensign, Nov 2000, 92–94

When you have done [your] best...

“When you have done the best you can, be satisfied and don’t look back. Rather than berate yourself for what you didn’t do, congratulate yourself for what you did.”

-- M. Russell Ballard, November 1991 Ensign

Security vs liberty...

“Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.”

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

Benjamin Franklin

Pursuit of happiness...

“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”

Benjamin Franklin

Battle every day..[for] the Celestial Kingdom

Found on Becky Whitaker's blog:
"These words of President motivate and remind us that we can never give up the fight to endure:

"‘The men and women, who desire to obtain seats in the celestial kingdom, will find that they must battle every day [for this sacred goal].’

"[Brigham Young, as quoted by] Joseph B. Wirthlin, “Press On,” Ensign, Nov 2004, 101."

God...placed us here to succeed...

"When, in situations of stress, we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows our capacities perfectly, placed us here to succeed. No one was foreordained to fail or to be wicked. When we have been weighed and found wanting, let us remember that we were measured before and were found equal to our tasks; and therefore, let us continue but with a more determined discipleship. When we feel overwhelmed, let us recall the assurance that God will not overprogram us; he will not press upon us more than we can bear, D&C 50:40."

Neal A Maxwell, “Meeting the Challenges of Today,” in Devotional Speeches of the Year, Provo: Brigham Young University, 1978, p. 156 as quoted in the Ensign, Feb 1990, 30.

Home for Christ to Linger...

“A true Mormon home is one in which if Christ should chance to enter, he would be pleased to linger and to rest.”

David O. McKay
Gospel Ideals (1953), 169.
Quoted in Nov 2004 Ensign.

Pain is inevitable...

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

Zen Proverb
Sometimes attributed to Sheng-ts'an

Variations:
"Pain is inevitable, misery is optional."
"Pain is inevitable, misery is not."

Conversion is...

“Testimony is to know and to feel, conversion is to do and to become.”

-Elder Dallin H. Oaks, as quoted by By Elder Kenneth Johnson, Ensign, Jul 2008, 28–31

An ideal marriage...

"An ideal marriage is a true partnership between two imperfect people, each striving to complement the other, to keep the commandments, and to do the will of the Lord."

—Elder Russell M. Nelson, Ensign, May 1999, 39

He intended the greatest of happiness...

"God is the designer of the family. He intended that the greatest of happiness, the most satisfying aspects of life, the deepest joys should come in our associations together and our concerns one for another as fathers and mothers and children."

President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, May 1991

Happiness...is the design of our existence...

"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.”

(Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. by Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938, pp. 255–56.)

The home is the laboratory...

"The home is the laboratory of our lives, and what we learn there largely determines what we do when we leave there."

—President Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, Nov. 1988, 69

C. S. Lewis on the value of housework...

"A housewife's work...is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, mines, cars, government, etc. exist for except that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes?... We wage war in order to have peace, we work in order to have leisure, we produce food in order to eat it. So your job is the one for which all others exist,"

Letters of C. S. Lewis, London: Godfrey Publishing Company, 262.