Take a hand

Primary leaders, do you know the children you are serving? Young Women leaders, do you know your young women? Aaronic Priesthood leaders, do you know the young men? Relief Society and Melchizedek Priesthood leaders, do you know the women and men over whom you have been called to preside? Do you understand their problems and their perplexities, their yearnings, ambitions and hopes? Do you know how far they have traveled, the troubles they have experienced, the burdens they have carried, the sorrows they have borne? …

Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News

Reach out to all of those whose lives we have been called to touch.

My dear brothers and sisters, ours is the responsibility, even the solemn duty, to reach out to all of those whose lives we have been called to touch. Our duty is to guide them to the celestial kingdom of God. May we ever remember that the mantle of leadership is not the cloak of comfort but rather the robe of responsibility. May we reach out to rescue those who need our help and our love.

As we succeed, as we bring a woman or man, a girl or boy back into activity, we will be answering a wife's or sister's or mother's fervent prayer, helping fulfill a husband's or brother's or father's greatest desire. We will be honoring a loving Father's direction and following an obedient Son's example. And our names will forever be honored by those whom we reach. — "Sugar Beets and the Worth of a Soul," Ensign, July 2009

All things possible

When we obey as did Adam, endure as did Job, teach as did Paul, testify as did Peter, serve as did Nephi, give of ourselves as did the Prophet Joseph, respond as did Ruth, honor as did Mary, and live as did Christ, we are born anew. All power becomes ours. Cast off forever is the old self, and with it defeat, despair, doubt and disbelief. To a newness of life we come — a life of faith, hope, courage, and joy. No task looms too large. No responsibility weighs too heavily. No duty is a burden. All things become possible. — "My Personal Hall of Fame," Ensign, July 1991

Try prayer

We live in troubled times. Doctors' offices throughout the land are filled with individuals who are beset with emotional problems as well as physical distress. Our divorce courts are doing a land-office business because people have unsolved problems. Personnel workers and grievance committees in modern industry work long hours in an effort to assist people with their problems.

One personnel officer, assigned to handle petty grievances, concluded an unusually hectic day by placing facetiously a small sign on his desk for those with unsolved problems to read. Its message: "Have you tried prayer?" What that director did not know when he placed such a sign upon his desk was that he was providing counsel and direction that would solve more problems, alleviate more suffering, prevent more transgression and bring about greater peace and contentment in the human soul than could be obtained in any other way. — "Scouting: The Family's Treasured Friend," National Scouting Meetings in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 15, 1992

Time of testing

When compared to eternal verities, the questions of daily living are really rather trivial. What shall we have for dinner? Is there a good movie playing tonight? Have you seen the television log? Where shall we go on Saturday? These questions pale into insignificance when times of crisis arise, when loved ones are wounded, when pain enters the house of good health, or when life's candle dims and darkness threatens. Then truth and trivia are soon separated. The soul of man reaches heavenward, seeking a divine response to life's greatest questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where do we go after we leave this life? Answers to these questions are not discovered within the covers of academia's textbooks, by dialing information, in tossing a coin, or through random selection of multiple-choice responses. These questions transcend mortality. They embrace eternity.

How grateful we should be that a wise Creator fashioned an earth and placed us here, with a veil of forgetfulness on our previous existence, so that we might experience a time of testing, an opportunity to prove ourselves and qualify for all that God has prepared for us to receive.

We are here to gain experience that could come only through separation from our heavenly parents. In a thousand ways, we are privileged to choose for ourselves. Here we learn from the hard taskmaster of experience. We discern between good and evil. We differentiate as to the bitter and the sweet. We learn that decisions determine destiny. — "Invitation to Exaltation," Ensign, June 1993