Good Thoughts

I was searching in Gospelink for God's promises and came upon these verses and thought I would share them with you. I think they are good to ponder on.

EVEN AS I AM by Neal A. Maxwell

"Gospel gladness is possible even in the midst of affliction, because of the reassuring realities that pertain to our mortal circumstance. The everlastingness of certain things puts the temporariness of other things in perspective. God's promises to us are so rich that even difficult tactical circumstances cannot conceal our causes for genuine cheerfulness: God is in charge; God's plan of happiness is underway; momentary tribulation does not set aside the universal resurrection, which is a reality; individual identity and personality are thereby assured; death has been defeated by Christ's atonement; and Satan and his misery-causing minions will finally be defeated. Each of these (and many more) form the litany of reassuring reality. Thus we should not let the gray mists of the moment obscure the bright promises and prospects of eternity. Gospel gladness is a precious, precious perspective—essential to have, if one is to keep his attitudinal balance while traveling the straight and narrow way. The way is often no more than a path. It inclines sharply, and it is strewn with loose rocks. Indeed, there are points along the way to be traversed only on one's hands and knees." Woman by Marion D. Hanks (pg 109)

" David Grayson, in the book Great Possessions, talked to this intent with a lady and then said to her, "I see now why you have just one rose on your table." "Yes," she responded eagerly, "isn't it a beauty! I spent half an hour this morning looking for the best and most perfect rose in the garden and there it is." We need to look widely, but also to be discriminating. It is also important to be alive to what is around us. From an unknown source comes this testament: "Life is what we are alive to. It is not length but breadth. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, moneymaking, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, history, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hope, is to be all but dead." The mind is a magnificent instrument that in many of us is scarcely used. It can be fed, exercised, filled, emptied, stretched, and disciplined. It is the seat of content and the source of strength. Samuel Johnson gave it a respectful summation: "The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove."