The Rich Life: March 2009

This topic of judging others could actually be taught in a two-word sermon. When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following: Stop it!

It’s that simple. We simply have to stop judging others and replace judgmental thoughts and feelings with a heart full of love for God and His children. God is our Father. We are His children. We are all brothers and sisters. I don’t know exactly how to articulate this point of not judging others with sufficient eloquence, passion, and persuasion to make it stick. I can quote scripture, I can try to expound doctrine, and I will even quote a bumper sticker I recently saw. It was attached to the back of a car whose driver appeared to be a little rough around the edges, but the words on the sticker taught an insightful lesson. It read, “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you. - Elder Dieter Uchtdorf

“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic." -Frank Herbert

“The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.” ― Dwight D. Eisenhower

“To believe in God is to know that all the rules will be fair, and that there will be wonderful surprises.” - Ugo Betti

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” ― John Wooden

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, and always with the same person." - Mignon McLaughlin

“Except in the case of his only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with since time began. That must be terribly frustrating to him, but he deals with it. So should we." - Elder Jeffrey Holland

When a battered, weary swimmer tries valiantly to get back to shore, after having fought strong winds and rough waves which he should never have challenged in the first place, those of us who might have had better judgment, or perhaps just better luck, ought not to row out to his side, beat him with our oars, and shove his head back underwater. That's not what boats were made for. But some of us do that to each other. - Jeffrey R. Holland

Our life on Earth = The 2nd Act. Never do you hear the words, "and they lived happily ever after" in the 2nd Act. (author unknown)

If you spend your time judging people, you don't have time to love them - Mother Teresa

The challenge before us, is never larger than the power behind us (author unknown)

Yes, there are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has genuine illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don't give up when the pressure mounts. Don't give in. Certainly don't give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. He wants everyone to be miserable like unto himself. Face your doubts. Master your fears. "Cast not away therefore your confidence." Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you. –Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

If your eyes are always on your shoelaces, if all you can see is this disappointment or that dilemma, then it really is quite easy to throw in the towel and stop the fight. But what if it is the fight of your life? Or more precisely if it is the fight for your life, your eternal life at that? What if beyond this disappointment or that dilemma, you really can see and can hope for all the best and right things that God has to offer? Oh, it may be blurred a bit by the perspiration running into your eyes, and in a really difficult fight one of the eyes might even be closing a bit, but faintly, dimly, and ever so far away you can see the object of it all. And you say it is worth it, you do want it, you will fight on. Like Coriantumr, you will lean upon your sword to rest a while, then rise to fight again (see Ether 15:24&30). – Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him; then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, this I am today, that I shall be tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds." -- from the book The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour

“Taxes are the rent we pay for a civilized society”– Oliver Wendell Holmes

I think self-control is one of the most critical character traits one needs to develop to be successful in life. You never really mature until you learn to delay immediate gratification in exchange for something of greater value in the long-term. “Easy” never turns out to be easy, really. Anything of value in this life requires a lot of hard work and sacrifice. So many people do what is easy at the time, but end up paying the price later. Just do the difficult thing, make the difficult choice because ultimately it will bring you greater rewards. Just because something is hard, so what? You won't die, you won't shrivel up and melt away into nothingness, you won't permanently break down. You will learn to persist and eventually succeed, and you will feel damn proud of what you accomplished. - Sue Richardson Cokeville, WY

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow." ~ Mary Ann Radmacher

"Though we miss the departed righteous so much here, hundreds may feel their touch there. One day those hundreds will thank the bereaved for gracefully foregoing the extended association with choice individuals here in order that they can help hundreds there. In God's ecology, talent and love are never wasted. Those who have true hope understand this." – Neal A. Maxwell

"Sometimes unrealized dreams or prayers not answered in the way we hoped are blessings in disguise that fulfill eternal purposes in our lives." - Elder Robert D. Hales

“May your prayers be answered. May you have peace and strength and love and gladness in your lives. I urge you to lift your heads and walk in gratitude. Spare yourselves from the indulgence of self-pity. It is always self-defeating. Subdue the negative and emphasize the positive. Count your blessings and not our problems.” - Gordon B. Hinckley

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson

“Sometimes we are too quick to judge the effect of our successes and failures.” May I add, don’t look at today’s trials as eternal. Heavenly Father does His work in the long term. “There is much which lieth in futurity,” the Prophet Joseph Smith said. “Therefore, … let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed” D&C 123:15, 17

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” - Frederick Keonig

Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-29, 31

"Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"Whenever those moments of our extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers. He does hear us. He does see us. He does love us. When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry “Where art Thou?”, it is imperative that we remember He is right there with us – where He has always been! We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to pray and plead with heaven, even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away. He is there. Our prayers are heard. And when we weep, He and the angels of heaven weep with us." - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.” - George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

Exercise your God-given right to think through every proposition that is submitted to you and be unafraid to express your opinions, with proper respect for those to whom you talk and proper acknowledgment of your own shortcomings. - Hugh B. Brown

“I shall not ask the Lord to do, that which I am not willing to do” – Brigham Young

Being where you are; Work where you are; The hour, which you are now wasting, dreaming of some far of success, may be crowded with grand possibilities. - Orison Swett Marden

“Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort” - Rick Warren

“It doesn’t matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.” – Charles Kettering

"Things work out the best, for those who make the best of the way things turn out" - Don C. Hale (Founder of Big H)

Understanding that heavy things can’t fly, she let go of what was weighing on her heart, the thing she could no more control than carry, and she gave herself a chance, a chance to reach into the unassuming blue, to embrace the possibility of an open sky, with an open heart. She gave herself a chance to soar. – Jodi Hills, An Imperfect Life

In the gospel of Jesus Christ you have help from both sides of the veil, and you must never forget that. When disappointment and discouragement strike ---and they will---- you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection (see 2 Kings. 6:16-17). They will always be there, these armies of heaven, in defense of Abraham’s seed. – Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Often what seems an impossible climb, is just a staircase without the steps drawn in. – Robert Brault

If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up. – J.M. Power

I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. – Winston Churchill

“There's no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one." - Jill Churchill

One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter. – James Earl Jones

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

“Everything you are learning now, is preparing you for something else.” – Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.

"Live in such a way that those who know you but don’t know Christ, will want to know Christ because they know you."

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." – Thomas Edison

"Therefore dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then my we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God and for his arm to be revealed." D&C 123:17

I have wept in the night for the shortness of sight that to somebody's need made me blind; But I never have yet felt a tinge of regret for being a little too kind.

What if you woke up today, with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?

I didn’t keep my testimony through trying times………My testimony kept me

"He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead; his eyes are closed." ~Albert Einstein

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two. - Louis De Bernieres

We become what we want to be, by consistently being what we want to become each day. – Elder Richard G. Scott

In memory of my dear sweet friend, Theresa Hyde:The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Seuss (The Lorax)

"Seek Heavenly guidance one day at a time...Life by the yard is hard; by the inch, it's a cinch." - President Monson

“You have to believe in yourself, otherwise you can’t do it. If you don’t believe in yourself, how do expect anyone else to? Because ultimately, you’re the one who has to do it.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell rightly said: “The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The many other things we ‘give’ … are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us.”

"Never give up on anyone. And that includes not giving up on yourself.”― Dieter F. Uchtdorf

".....Heaven's kindness will never depart from you, regardless of what happens...... Bad days come to an end, faith always triumphs, and heavenly promises are always kept." --Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

There's one sad truth in life I've found,While journeying east and west,The only folks we really wound,Are those we love the best.We flatter those we scarcely know,We please the fleeting guestAnd deal full many a thoughtless blow,To those who love us best." - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for, to be what they choose for themselves, without any insistence that they satisfy you." -Wayne Dyer

“Oh God of second chances and new beginnings, here I am again.” - Nancy Spiegelberg

Our DOUBTS are TRAITORS, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by failing to ATTEMPT - William Shakespere

"Don't judge someone because they sin differently than you." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Yes, there are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has genuine illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don't give up when the pressure mounts. Don't give in. Certainly don't give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. He wants everyone to be miserable like unto himself. Face your doubts. Master your fears. "Cast not away therefore your confidence." Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you. –Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

If your eyes are always on your shoelaces, if all you can see is this disappointment or that dilemma, then it really is quite easy to throw in the towel and stop the fight. But what if it is the fight of your life? Or more precisely if it is the fight for your life, your eternal life at that? What if beyond this disappointment or that dilemma, you really can see and can hope for all the best and right things that God has to offer? Oh, it may be blurred a bit by the perspiration running into your eyes, and in a really difficult fight one of the eyes might even be closing a bit, but faintly, dimly, and ever so far away you can see the object of it all. And you say it is worth it, you do want it, you will fight on. Like Coriantumr, you will lean upon your sword to rest a while, then rise to fight again (see Ether 15:24&30). – Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"Up to a point a man's life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him; then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, this I am today, that I shall be tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds." -- from the book The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour

I think self-control is one of the most critical character traits one needs to develop to be successful in life. You never really mature until you learn to delay immediate gratification in exchange for something of greater value in the long-term. “Easy” never turns out to be easy, really. Anything of value in this life requires a lot of hard work and sacrifice. So many people do what is easy at the time, but end up paying the price later. Just do the difficult thing, make the difficult choice because ultimately it will bring you greater rewards. Just because something is hard, so what? You won't die, you won't shrivel up and melt away into nothingness, you won't permanently break down. You will learn to persist and eventually succeed, and you will feel damn proud of what you accomplished. - Sue Richardson Cokeville, WY

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson

"Whenever those moments of our extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us or that He does not hear our prayers. He does hear us. He does see us. He does love us. When we are in dire circumstances and want to cry “Where art Thou?”, it is imperative that we remember He is right there with us – where He has always been! We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to pray and plead with heaven, even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away. He is there. Our prayers are heard. And when we weep, He and the angels of heaven weep with us." - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two. - Louis De Bernieres

Why the Title of this Blog?