Stay Focused

That simple practice is: In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day with your heart full of faith and love, looking for someone to help. Stay focused, just like the honeybees focus on the flowers from which to gather nectar and pollen. If you do this, your spiritual sensitivities will be enlarged and you will discover opportunities to serve that you never before realized were possible.

Elder M. Russell Ballard - October 2012 General Conference "Be Anxiously Engaged"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/be-anxiously-engaged?lang=eng

The Precious Gift of Time

I think of our Lord and Exemplar, Jesus Christ, and His short life among the people of Galilee and Jerusalem. I have tried to imagine Him bustling between meetings or multitasking to get a list of urgent things accomplished. I can’t see it.  Instead I see the compassionate and caring Son of God purposefully living each day. When He interacted with those around Him, they felt important and loved. He knew the infinite value of the people He met. He blessed them, ministered to them. He lifted them up, healed them. He gave them the precious gift of His time.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - October 2012 General Conference "Of Regrets and Resolutions"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng

Meaningful Time With Loved Ones

Perhaps the most universal regret dying patients expressed was that they wished they had spent more time with the people they love...  If we fail to give our best personal self and undivided time to those who are truly important to us, one day we will regret it. Let us resolve to cherish those we love by spending meaningful time with them, doing things together, and cultivating treasured memories.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - October 2012 General Conference "Of Regrets and Resolutions"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng

Becoming Humble

The greatest, most capable, most accomplished man who ever walked this earth was also the most humble. He performed some of His most impressive service in private moments, with only a few observers, whom He asked to “tell no man” what He had done.  When someone called Him “good,” He quickly deflected the compliment, insisting that only God is truly good.  Clearly the praise of the world meant nothing to Him; His single purpose was to serve His Father and ‘do always those things that please him.” We would do well to follow the example of the Master.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - April 2015 General Conference "On Being Genuine"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/on-being-genuine?lang=eng

Why Do We Do It?

I am here because I desire with all my heart to follow my Master, Jesus Christ. I yearn to do all that He asks of me in this great cause. I hunger to be edified by the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of God as He speaks through His ordained servants. I am here to become a better man, to be lifted by the inspiring examples of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and to learn how to more effectively minister to those in need.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - April 2015 General Conference "On Being Genuine"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/on-being-genuine?lang=eng

Stewardship of Our Time

If Jesus Christ‍ were to sit down with us and ask for an accounting of our stewardship, I am not sure He would focus much on programs and statistics. What the Savior would want to know is the condition of our heart. He would want to know how we love and minister to those in our care, how we show our love to our spouse and family, and how we lighten their daily load. And the Savior would want to know how you and I grow closer to Him and to our Heavenly Father.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf - April 2015 General Conference "On Being Genuine"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/on-being-genuine?lang=eng

Service in Family Life

One way for you to reproduce the successes of Father Lehi is by the way you lead family prayers and family time, such as family home evenings. Give children opportunities to pray, when they can pray, for each other in the circle who need blessings. Discern quickly the beginnings of discord and recognize acts of unselfish service, especially to each other. When they pray for each other and serve each other, hearts will be softened and turned to each other and to their parents.

President Henry B. Eyring - April 2012 General Conference "Families Under Covenant"
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/families-under-covenant?lang=eng

My Thoughts on Peace and Comfort Through the Atonement

God knew that life would not be easy for any one of us.  Life is hard and burdens come to us all, but God did not leave us comfortless.  Part of the plan of salvation was providing for us to have peace and joy even amidst the pain and anguish.  God provided us with the Holy Ghost so that we can gain peace and comfort in a way that the world can never offer it.  Through the Atonement Christ knows how we feel and how we will best be helped.  Through the Atonement He offers us peace and comfort.  Our burdens can be lifted and lightened.  One of the ways this happens is through us helping each other.  It is our responsibility as member of His church to look for those who need help and need lifting.  The Lord does help us, but often it is by the hands of one of His other children.  We go to the Lord to ask for strength and comfort, then we look around for ways that we can offer strength and comfort to those around us.  It is a beautiful system He has devised.

My Thoughts on Living to Our Potential

Each of us has unique talents and gifts given to us from a loving Heavenly Father.  He wants us to learn how to use them so that we can bless and lift those around us.  To become our best selves we must learn to see ourselves the way the Lord sees us.  We can’t compare ourselves to others or make excuses for our failures.  We have to learn how to rely on the Savior to help us become better day by day.  We are not perfect, but neither were some of the best men God has chosen to serve Him.  We just need to remember to be humble, courageous, and cheerful. 

Nazareth Was a Little Place

“‘Father, where shall I work today?’

And my love flowed warm and free.

Then he pointed out a tiny spot

And said, ‘Tend that for me.’

I answered quickly, ‘Oh no, not that!

Why, no one would ever see,

No matter how well my work was done.

Not that little place for me.’

And the word he spoke, it was not stern;

He answered me tenderly:

‘Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;

Art thou working for them or for me?

‘Nazareth was a little place,

And so was Galilee.’”

—Meade MacGuire

 https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1973/04/yellow-canaries-with-gray-on-their-wings?lang=eng&query=yellow+canaries+with+grey+on+their+wings

Choose to Live Greatly

All of us are prone to excuse our own mediocre performance. We blame our misfortunes, our disfigurements, or our so-called handicaps. Victims of our own rationalization, we say silently to ourselves: “I’m just too weak,” or “I’m not cut out for better things.”

Can we not appreciate that our very business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves? To break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our todays, to bear our trials more beautifully than we ever dreamed we could, to give as we have never given, to do our work with more force and a finer finish than ever—this is the true idea: to get ahead of ourselves...

   
To live greatly, we must develop the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and triumph with humility. You ask, “How might we achieve these goals?” I answer, “By getting a true perspective of who we really are!” 

President Thomas S. Monson - April 1973 General Conference “Yellow Canaries with Gray on Their Wings”
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1973/04/yellow-canaries-with-gray-on-their-wings?lang=eng&query=yellow+canaries+with+grey+on+their+wings