Quoty: quotes tagged with 'gratitude'

We have been the recipients of the richest boun...

We have been the recipients of the richest bounties of heaven.� We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity.� We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, like no other nation ever has.

But we have forgotten God.� We have forgotten the gracious hand that has preserved us in peace and mulitplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the decietfullness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, to proud to pray to God who made us!� It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Author: Abrham Lincoln, Source: Lincoln's Proclamation 1863
Saved by oldrunner in freedom blessings gratitude

I used to think that faith�was sort of like a b...

I used to think that faith�was sort of like a building block, and you put all these blocks together, and you build a house, sort of like the little pig built that the wolf could not blow down. And now I get older and I feel that faith is a matter of surrender. It�s a matter of just giving up, and leaving that house and just walking out and experiencing the cold and the rain and doubt and confusion and trying to keep up your hope and some sense of gratitude. If you just keep up hope and gratitude, maybe that�s�all you need.

Author: Garrison Keillor, Source: A Prarie Home Companion
Saved by Doc in faith belief gratitude hope certainty

On one occasion my wife expected to be away for...

On one occasion my wife expected to be away for the weekend and asked one of the sisters in our ward to teach her Relief Society lesson. The week following the session, that sister came to our home and returned the instruction manual. She also brought to my wife a freshly baked loaf of bread and a handwritten note that read, �I love you. You are a special person. Thank you for thinking of me.� She was grateful to have been asked to serve. She was full of the love of Christ.

Author: Elder C. Max Caldwell, Source: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db0...
Saved by mlsscaress in nature experience opportunity gratitude behavior love kindness charity serve develop actions

Love�for�Christ. This concept proclaims Jesus a...

Love�for�Christ. This concept proclaims Jesus as the object of our love, and our lives should be an external expression of our gratitude for him. Sometimes that is difficult to do. I once visited a high priests group meeting where an older brother taught us. He noted that �as a people we often pray, �We thank thee for all the blessings we enjoy.� But what about the blessings we don�t enjoy? It can be very hard to be thankful for those.� This dear man had just experienced his first Christmas without his sweetheart in more than fifty years. It is difficult to be grateful to the Lord under circumstances we don�t enjoy.

Our beloved President Benson told some of his experiences with the Saints in war-torn countries and shared the following: �One sister walked over a thousand miles with four small children, leaving her home in Poland. She lost all four to starvation and the freezing conditions. Yet she stood before us in her emaciated condition, her clothing shredded, and her feet wrapped in burlap, and bore testimony of how blessed she was.� (Ensign,�Nov. 1980, p. 33.) Things we don�t enjoy must not overshadow our reasons to maintain our love for the Savior. Otherwise we may lose our perspective or become bitter, and our love for Christ may be lost.

Author: Elder C. Max Caldwell, Source: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db0...
Saved by mlsscaress in life circumstances jesuschrist gratitude love perspective expression situational bitter

If you and I would truly pray and ask in faith,...

If you and I would truly pray and ask in faith, as did Joseph Smith�if we would pray with the expectation to act and not just to express�then the work of proclaiming the gospel would move forward in a remarkable way. Such a prayer of faith might include some of the following elements:

-Thanking Heavenly Father for the doctrines and ordinances of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, which bring hope and happiness into our lives.
-Asking for courage and boldness to open our mouths and share the gospel with our family and friends.
-Entreating Heavenly Father to help us identify individuals and families who will be receptive to our invitation to be taught by the missionaries in our homes.
-Pledging to do our part this day and this week and petitioning for help to overcome anxiety, fear, and hesitation.
-Seeking for the gift of discernment�for eyes to see and ears to hear missionary opportunities as they occur.
-Praying fervently for the strength to act as we know we should.

This same pattern of holy communication and consecrated work can be applied in our prayers for the poor and the needy, for the sick and the afflicted, for family members and friends who are struggling, and for those who are not attending Church meetings.
Author: Elder David A. Bednar , Source: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-851-31,00.h...
Saved by mlsscaress in faith strength fear communication gratitude courage poor consecration discernment expectation anxiety prayer boldness sick afflicted missionarywork act fellowship pattern identify awareness proclaim hesitation needy

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore...

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States.
Author: George Washington, Source: http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=NGJlNWNmNzA5ZmZkYjR...
Saved by richardkmiller in god gratitude usa providence

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like...

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
Author: William Arthur Ward, Source: unknown
Saved by bluesfreak in gratitude expression

This same happy blessing could be experienced i...

This same happy blessing could be experienced in every quorum and class and Young Women and Young Men group in the Church if all of us would permit this �best in us� to guide our lives. Peel off the outer layers of shyness and self-interest and lack of confidence and invite to the surface the noble instincts and generosity of spirit we all possess as a heritage from our Heavenly Father.

We can start by feeling and expressing to our Eternal Father our gratitude for being part of his eternal family, and part of his great Church family which extends to far corners of the earth, and part of a ward or branch family. The family we were born or adopted into and the future family we will establish should also be of the greatest concern to us.

Those of us who are lucky enough to belong to one of the good, if imperfect, families we talked about before, can thank God and make our best efforts to be a contributing citizen in a home where friendship and values and traditions and discipline exist, and where we can make a significant contribution if we are willing.

Those whose families are not what we wish they were can be thankful to parents who through God�s gift have given us life, and we can do everything we can do to minimize conflict and enhance harmony in our homes. Some small miracles occur where there just doesn�t appear much probability that one young person can make a difference.
Author: Elder Marion D. Hanks, Source: Fitting into Your Family, New Era, Jun 1991, 4. http://www.lds...
Saved by mlsscaress in gratitude confidence family home home parents miracles futurehome generosity harmony heritage shyness instincts enhance

The Punta Arenas Chile Stake is the Church�s so...

The Punta Arenas Chile Stake is the Church�s southernmost stake anywhere on this planet, its outermost borders stretching toward Antarctica. Any stake farther south would have to be staffed by penguins. For the Punta Arenas Saints it is a 4,200-mile round-trip bus ride to the Santiago temple. For a husband and wife it can take up to 20 percent of an annual local income just for the transportation alone. Only 50 people can be accommodated on the bus, but for every excursion 250 others come out to hold a brief service with them the morning of their departure.

Pause for a minute and ask yourself when was the last time you stood on a cold, windswept parking lot adjacent to the Strait of Magellan just to sing with, pray for, and cheer on their way those who were going to the temple, hoping your savings would allow you to go next time? One hundred ten hours, 70 of those on dusty, bumpy, unfinished roads looping out through Argentina�s wild Patagonia. What does 110 hours on a bus feel like? I honestly don�t know, but I do know that some of us get nervous if we live more than 110 miles from a temple or if the services there take more than 110 minutes. While we are teaching the principle of tithing to, praying with, and building ever more temples for just such distant Latter-day Saints, perhaps the rest of us can do more to enjoy the blessings and wonder of the temple regularly when so many temples are increasingly within our reach.
Author: Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Source: Abide in Me,� Liahona, May 2004, 30�32. http://www.lds.org/lds...
Saved by mlsscaress in sacrifice temple experience gratitude attendance consistent

Although I was eager to worship in the Nauvoo T...

Although I was eager to worship in the Nauvoo Temple, I was even more excited to walk down Parley Street. You recall that Parley Street led to the site of the old Nauvoo Ferry, from which the early Saints began their exodus from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley. I had visited Nauvoo on other occasions and had wondered what it might have been like to walk down Parley Street in the 1840s�leaving a temporally and a spiritually secure environment�and to look back on the city and the Nauvoo Temple before crossing the Mississippi River. Now that the temple was finished, I was anxious to have that experience.

You may also recall that on June 30, 2002, during the final dedicatory service of the rebuilt Nauvoo Temple, President Gordon B. Hinckley extended a heartfelt request that those present in the temple take time upon leaving the service to walk down Parley Street. He asked that, as they did so, they think of a young pioneer family and imagine the difficulty of leaving a comfortable home and departing for an unknown destination.

I will never forget what I felt as I walked down Parley Street last summer and looked back at the temple. My heart swelled with gratitude and my eyes filled with tears as I thought about those noble pioneers. I stood near the bank of the Mississippi River for quite some time and counted my many blessings and tried to imagine what it would have been like to walk or ferry across the river into an uncertain future.
Author: President David A. Bednar, Source: Your Walk Down Parley Street,Brigham Young University-Idaho Co...
Saved by mlsscaress in destination gratitude future perspective pioneers nauvoo parleystreet

Pondering takes our thoughts from the trivial t...

Pondering takes our thoughts from the trivial things of this world and brings us closer to the gentle, guiding hand of our Maker as we heed the �still small voice� of the Holy Ghost (see 1 Kgs. 19:12; 1 Ne. 17:45; D&C 85:6). In the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord spoke to David Whitmer: �Your mind has been on the things of the earth more than on the things of � your Maker � ; you have not given heed unto my Spirit� (D&C 30:2).

Pondering the things of the Lord�His word, His teachings, His commandments, His life, His love, the gifts He has given us, His Atonement for us�brings about a tremendous feeling of gratitude for our Savior and for the life and blessings He has given us.
Author: Elder Robert D. Hales, Source: �Healing Soul and Body,� Ensign, Nov 1998, 14. http://www.lds....
Saved by mlsscaress in life blessings gratitude savior holyghost atonement ponder heed clearthinking

Gratitude is the beginning of all desire.

Gratitude is the beginning of all desire.
Author: Ed J. Pinegar, Source: unknown
Saved by soeurane in gratitude desire

As today we close the doors of this Tabernacle ...

As today we close the doors of this Tabernacle and look forward to opening the doors of the new Conference Center next April, we do so with love, with appreciation, with respect, with reverence--really with affection--for this building and for those who have gone before us, who built so well, and whose handiwork has served so long.

A building develops a personality of its own. The Spirit of the Lord has been in this structure. It is sacred unto us. We hope, we anticipate, we pray that the new structure will likewise radiate the same spirit.
Author: President Gordon B. Hinckley , Source: Good-bye to This Wonderful Old Tabernacle. Oct 1999 Conference...
Saved by mlsscaress in spirit gratitude personality pioneers building reverence tabernacle sacred assemble

There seems to be a superstition among many tho...

There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks, to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and ravishing wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear, the divorce courts are jammed.

Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just ordinary people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. . . .

Life is like an old-time rail journey--delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.
Author: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Source: http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6051
Saved by richardkmiller in life adversity gratitude love patience marriage entitlement toleration

Ingratitude to man is ingratitude to God.

Ingratitude to man is ingratitude to God.
Author: unknown, Source: institute
Saved by osojen in gratitude