When men, women, and children are honest with God and pay their tithes and offerings, the Lord gives them wisdom whereby they can do as much or more with the remainder than they could if they had not been honest with the Lord. Many times they are blessed and prospered in various ways—spiritually, physically, and mentally, as well as materially.

While tithing is paid with money, more importantly it is paid with faith.

I think you’d be as aware as I am that that we have many people who are members of the church who do not have some burning conviction as to its origins, who have some other feeling about it that is not as committed to foundational statements and the premises of Mormonism. But we’re not going to invite somebody out of the church over that any more than we would anything else about degrees of belief or steps of hope or steps of conviction. … We would say: “This is the way I see it, and this is the faith I have; this is the foundation on which I’m going forward. If I can help you work toward that I’d be glad to, but I don’t love you less; I don’t distance you more; I don’t say you’re unacceptable to me as a person or even as a Latter-day Saint if you can’t make that step or move to the beat of that drum.” …

During our lifetime, each of us will experience extraordinary circumstances and events. We will even see miracles in our personal lives. Such miracles reaffirm that our Heavenly Father lives, that Jesus is the Christ and that through the gift of the Holy Ghost we can feel His presence in our daily lives.

Too often we dismiss some of the little miracles that happen to us as merely coincidence. However, on closer examination, little miracles act as testimonies that the Savior is very much involved in our lives. Then we know we are truly children of our Heavenly Father and He can be with us. Mormon asked:

My beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven…?

Behold, I say unto you nay, for it is by faith that miracles are wrought. Wherefore, if these things have ceased, woe be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief… (Moroni 7:27, 37).

Mormon said, “Behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth and all things that in them are” (Mormon 9:11).
Heavenly Father is always a God of miracles because, “…God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness…” (Mormon 9:9).

During the early days of the restoration there were many miracles; beginning with young Joseph, when he was prompted by a passage from the Epistle of James. His prayer was answered and miracles followed. They included the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the establishment of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As magnificent as these miracles are, personal miracles occurring in our own lives are important to us. They teach us to trust in the Lord and have faith in him. These miracles come to us when we recognize and heed the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He is a revelator, teacher and comforter. He can lift our burdens and give us courage. He can have a calming effect on us. We can be hopeful that the Spirit will “enlighten our minds and fill our souls with joy” (Doctrine and Covenants 11:13).

In fact, the Lord said, “…I will show miracles, signs and wonders unto all those who believe on my name” (Doctrine and Covenants 35:8).

We should not be dismayed either if, in the winding-up scenes, the enemies of God attack the very foundation of the church. Their assaults will include derision of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the reality of continuing revelation. These efforts will surely fail, but not before damaging some unsteady members-those who have unnecessary difficulty following the Brethren.

Basically, however any supposed issue will do for those who seek a grievance with the church, for detractors are very flexible.

Those of little faith can always find a cause or make a man "an offender for a word." (2 Nephi 27:32)

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

The first characteristic behavior (of a great learner) is to welcome correction. You've noticed that in the people around you who seem to be learning most. You see that in your fellow students, for instance, who value wise editing of their writing. If they seek that correction, study it when they get it, and then revise what they have written, they become better writers. In the same way the scientists who submit their work to be reviewed by those who understand their methods and their research findings make the most rapid progress.

... The desire to receive wise correction is a hallmark of a learner and of a community of learners. That is why you can appreciate getting back one of your papers when it is covered with jottings in red ink. The wise learner cares more for the jottings than for the grade at the top of the page. In the same way the wise student of a new language seeks not the tutor who praises whatever they say but one who won't let a mispronounced word or an error in conjugating a verb pass uncorrected.

That desire for correction, a mark of great learners, comes naturally to a Latter-day Saint who knows and values what it means to be a child of God. For him or her it begins with seeking frequent correction directly from our Heavenly Father. One of the most valuable forms of personal revelation can come before private prayer. It can come in the quiet contemplation of how we might have offended, disappointed, or displeased our Heavenly Father. The Spirit of Christ and the Holy Ghost will help us feel rebuke and at the same time the encouragement to repent. Then prayers asking for forgiveness become less general and the chance to have the Atonement work in our life becomes greater.

We have another advantage as Latter-day Saints. We know that a loving Father has allowed us to live in a time when Jesus Christ has called prophets and others to serve as judges in Israel. Because of that we listen to a prophet's voice or sit in counsel with a bishop with the hope that we will hear correction.

There is a third characteristic you have seen in great learners. They work hard. Oh, think of President Hinckley! I've traveled with him, and I know something of this great learner and how hard he works. When people quit working they quit learning, which is one of the hazards of getting too much recognition early in a career and taking it too seriously.

You will notice that the learners who can sustain that power to work hard over a lifetime generally don't do it for grades or to make tenure in a university or for prizes in the world. Something else drives them. For some it may be an innate curiosity to see how things work.

For the child of God who has enough faith in the plan of salvation to treat it as reality, hard work is the only reasonable option. Life at its longest is short. What we do here determines the rest of our condition for eternity. God our Father has offered us everything he has and asks only that we give him all we have to give. That is an exchange so imbalanced in our favor that no effort would be too much and no hours too long in service to him, to the Savior, and to our Father's children. Hard work is the natural result of simply knowing and believing what it means to be a child of God.

Sometimes the greatest kindness we could receive would be to have someone expect more from us than we do, because they see more clearly our divine heritage.