Photo by Stephanie Garr

PURPOSEFULLY: "Study with purpose, both in church and in school. Write down your goals and what you plan to do to achieve them. Aim high, for you are capable of heavenly blessings."

Great expectations

Today, as I look at you, my young brothers and sisters, I contemplate who you are and what you are and who you may become. I say to you …you have great expectation — not as a result of an unknown benefactor, but as a result of a known benefactor, even our Heavenly Father, and great things are expected of you.

— From BYU devotional, Sept. 12, 2000

A happy home

Three of the many hallmarks of a happy home:

Hallmark number one: Kneel down to pray. I would suggest a return to the old-fashioned practice of family prayer.

Hallmark number two: Step up to serve. Service is part and parcel of that stirring word – namely DUTY. Stepping up to serve is duty in action.

Hallmark number three: Reach out to rescue. On the journey along the pathway of life, there are casualties. Indifference, carelessness, selfishness and sin all take their costly toll in human lives. Fractured families and shattered homes need the binding band – even the healing balm – of love.

— From International Year of the Family Conference,March 19, 1995

Eternal life as the ultimate goal

He who conquered death and atoned for the sins of the world, even Jesus Christ, invited each of us to follow His divine example. "Follow me" became His kind instruction. Come, "learn of me," was His personal invitation to the learning that lasts beyond life and which endures through eternity.

Where money, rather than morality, dictates one's actions, one is inclined away from God. Turning away from God brings broken covenants, shattered dreams, crushed hopes and wrecked lives. Such a quagmire of quicksand I plead with you to avoid. You are of a noble birthright. Eternal life in the kingdom of our Father is your goal.

Such a goal is not achieved in one glorious attempt; rather, it is the result of a lifetime of righteousness, an accumulation of wise choices – even a constancy of purpose.

— From CES Fireside, Marriott Center, Feb. 7, 1999

Making decisions purposefully

Study with purpose, both in Church and in school. Write down your goals and what you plan to do to achieve them. Aim high, for you are capable of heavenly blessings.

It must not be expected that the road of life spreads itself in an unobstructed view before the person starting her journey. You must anticipate coming upon forks and turnings in the road. But you cannot hope to reach your desired journey's end if you think aimlessly about whether to go east or go west. You must make your decisions purposefully.

— From General Young Women Meeting, March 27, 1999

The Redeemer changes lives

Those who have felt the touch of the Master's hand somehow cannot explain the change which comes into their lives. There is a desire to live better, to serve faithfully, to walk humbly, and to be more like the Savior. Having received their spiritual eyesight and glimpsed the promises of eternity, they echo the words of the blind man to whom Jesus restored sight: "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."

How can we account for these miracles? Why the upsurge of activity in men long dormant? Two fundamental reasons largely account for these changes of attitudes, of habits, of actions. …

First, men have been shown their eternal possibilities and have made the decision to achieve them. They cannot really long rest content with mediocrity once excellence is within their reach.

Second, other men and women and, yes, young people have followed the admonition of the Savior and have loved their neighbors as themselves and helped to bring their neighbors' dreams to fulfillment and their ambitions to realization.

The catalyst in this process has been the principle of love.

The passage of time has not altered the capacity of the Redeemer to change men's lives.

— From general conference address, April 2005.