OF GIVING AND GETTING

"My hopes rose high and me thought my evil days were at an end, and I stood waiting for alms to be given unasked and for wealth scattered on all sides in the dust.

The chariot stopped where I stood. Thy glance fell on me and thou camest down with a smile. I felt that the luck of my life had come at last. Then, of  a sudden, thou didst hold out thy right hand and say, "What hast thou to give to me?"

Ah, what a kingly jest was it to open thy palm to a beggar to beg! I was confused and stood undecided, and then from my wallet I slowly took out the least little grain of corn and gave it to thee.

But how great my surprise when at the day's end I emptied my bag on the floor to find a least little grain of gold among the poor heap! I bitterly wept and wished that I had had the heart to give thee my all."

- Rabindranath Tagore, "Song Offerings"

AT THE CHURCH CHRISTMAS PARTY

My little Johnny, who was three,
Climbed with lights in his eyes onto Santa's knee.
"And what would you like this year, my boy?
If I can I'll bring your favorite toy."

Johnny didn't even need time to think.
"I want a dolly", he said, "that will eat and drink."
Twelve parents, at least, turned to look at me,
And a big man said suspiciously,

"Next year he'll want a dress or two".
I replied, "It's the father in him coming through."
"Well, that's not what some folks would say,
A kid's character's built by the way he'll play."

My little Johnny, who was three,
Climbed with lights in his eyes from Santa's knee.
And the big man grinned as he watched his son
As Santa Clause for a tank and a gun.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

LEAN ON MY AMPLE ARM

Lean on my ample arm

O thou depressed!

And I will bid the storm

Cease in thy breast.

Whate'er thy lot may be 

On life's complaining sea,

If thou wilt come to me,

Thou shalt have rest.

Lift up thy tearful eyes

Sad heart, to me;

I am the sacrifice offered for thee.

In me thy pain shall cease,

In me is thy release,

In me thou shalt have peace,

Eternally.

- Theodore E. Curtis

FROM GOD'S ARMS TO MY ARMS TO YOURS

So many wrong decisions in my past I'm not quite sure
If I can ever hope to trust my judgement anymore.
But lately I've been thinking, 'cause it's all I've had to do
And in my heart I feel that I should give this child to you.

And maybe you can tell your baby,
When you love him so, that he's been loved before
By someone who delivered your son
From God's arms to my arms to yours.

If you choose to tell him and if he wants to know
How the one who gave him life could bear to let him go
Just tell him there were sleepless nights
I prayed and paced the floors,
I knew the only peace I'd find was if this child was yours.

And maybe you can tell your baby,
When you love him so, that he's been loved before
By someone who delivered your son
From God's arms to my arms to yours.

Now I know that you don't have to do this
But, could you kiss him once for me
The first time that he ties his shoes or falls and skins his knee?
And could you hold him twice as long when he makes his mistakes?
And tell him that he's not alone, sometimes that's all it takes.
I know how much he'll ache.

This may not be the answer for another girl like me
And I'm not on a soapbox saying how we all should be
I'm just trusting in my feelings and I'm trusting God above
And I'm trusting you can give this baby both his mother's love.

And maybe you can tell your baby
When you love him so, that he's been loved before
By someone who delivered your son
From God's arms to my arms to yours.

- Michael McLean, Album: One Heart In The Right Place

VESSELS OF HONOUR

"On 19 December 1841 the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles met in the home of the Prophet Joseph Smith. According to the minutes of the meeting kept by Wilford Woodruff, 'Elder Heber C. Kimball preached....of the clay in the hands of the potter, that when it [was] marred in the hands of the potter it was cut off the wheel and then thrown back again into the mill, to go into the next batch, and was a vessel of dishonour; but all clay that formed well in the hands of the potter....was a vessel of honour'.

Our lives may also be vessels of honour, a work of beauty in the hands of the Master potter, if we will respond to His call, be pliable in His hands, and learn from the things that we suffer."

-  Jean A. Tefan, "Jeremiah: As Potter's Clay", Ensign, Oct 2002, p 11

THE REWARD OF A PROMISE

"....there is a story told in the Midrash. It begins with Abraham sitting in the door of his tent in the plain of Mamre in the heat of the day...it said it was a day like the breath of Gehinnom. Like the breath of Hell was coming out, and you can see the kind of country it was, and is, when this is, the heat and the dust and the sand...that's utter desolation. And he was worried, of course, because he says some poor stranger might be lost out there. Someone might have lost his way, and be perishing, because you're not going to last an hour in this. So he sent his faithful servant Eleazer out to look everywhere. He sent him out in all directions and he came back, "No, I can't find anyone anywhere." He was still worried. He says, "There might be someone out there"....So he went out himself, though he was very sick at the time. He was sick and ailing, and old, and he went out into that Hell. And he looked and searched, but he found no one. And at the end of the day he came back exhausted toward his tent. As he approached the tent the three strangers were standing there. It was the Lord and the two with Him. Because the Lord goes with His two counselors so to speak. He throws himself down on his face, and then it is that He promises him Isaac. As a reward for what he had done. This supreme offering. It's a very moving story. He's gone out to look for his fellow man and....out in that dusty hell, you see, all alone. Eleazer couldn't find any, and he said, "I think I can find someone". Well he found something. He found the answer to the thing he'd prayed for all his life. His son Isaac. It's a beautiful story."  ("The Faith of an Observer-Conversations with Hugh Nibley", pp 28-29)

EVE'S MEDITATION

Trunk and leaf

Make the tree,

Body and wing

Make the bee.

Gazing at the garden

I cannot think it odd

That you and I together

Make the image of God.

- Carol Lynn Pearson, The Growing Season

DRINK DEEPLY OF LIVING WATERS

"The abundant life is a spiritual life. Too many sit at the banquet table of the gospel of Jesus Christ and merely nibble at the feast placed before them. They go through the motions - attending their meetings, perhaps glancing at scriptures, repeating familiar prayers - but their hearts are far away. If they are honest, they would admit to being more interested in the latest neighborhood rumors, stock market trends, and their favorite TV show than they are in the supernal wonders and sweet ministerings of the Holy Spirit. Do you wish to partake of this living water and experience that divine well springing up within you to everlasting life? Then be not afraid. Believe with all your hearts. Develop an unshakable faith in the Son of God. Let your hearts reach out in earnest prayer. Fill your minds with knowledge of Him. Forsake your weaknesses. Walk in holiness and harmony with the commandments. Drink deeply of the living waters of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

(Joseph B. Wirthlin, The Abundant Life, Ensign, May 2006)

COME THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING

Come, thou fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing thy grace

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, 

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,

Mount of thy redeeming love.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

- Robert Robinson

THE ROCK OF OUR SALVATION

"We live in a world of uncertainty. For some, there will be great accomplishment. For others, disappointment. For some, much rejoicing and gladness, good health, and gracious living. For others, perhaps sickness and a measure of sorrow. We do not know. But one thing we do know. Like the polar star in the heavens, regardless of what the future holds, there stands the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God, certain and sure as the anchor of our immortal lives. He is the rock of our salvation, our strength, our comfort, the very focus of our faith. In sunshine and in shadow we look to Him, and He is there to assure and smile upon us."

(Gordon B. Hinckley, C.R., Sunday Afternoon, April 2002)

AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH

"To be an example of faith means that we trust in the Lord and in His word. It means that we possess and that we nourish the beliefs that will guide our thoughts and actions. Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in our Heavenly Father will influence all that we do. Amidst the confusion of our age, the conflicts of conscience, and the turmoil of daily living, an abiding faith becomes an anchor to our lives. Remember that faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other. I reiterate what we have been told repeatedly - that in order to gain and to keep the faith we need, it is essential that we read and study and ponder the scriptures. Communication with our Heavenly Father through prayer is vital. We cannot afford to neglect these things, for the adversary and his hosts are relentlessly seeking for a chink in our armor, a lapse in our faithfulness. Said the Lord, 'Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good' (D&C 90:24)."

- President Thomas S. Monson, Be An Example And A Light, General Conference, October 2015

THE PRESENCE OF YOUR BEING

Let me look upon your face

For there I see that which is human

And so much more.

Let me share the calm of your spirit

In those moments

When you glimpse the meaning

of it all.

Let me share the rapture

Of the fire within,

And in your absence

Let me share

The presence of your being.

- Ainslee Meares

THE GIFTS OF GOD

When God at first made man
Having a glass of blessings standing by;
Let us [said He] pour on him all we can:
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;
Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone, of all His treasure,
Rest in the bottom lay.

For if I should [said He],
Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature;
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness:
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness,
May toss him to my breast.

- George Herbert, "The Pulley" (1633)

THE GREATNESS OF US

• In 1889, Rudyard Kipling received the following rejection letter from the San Francisco Examiner: "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language".

• Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He did not become Prime Minister of England until he was 62, and then only after a lifetime of defeats and setbacks. His greatest contributions came when he was a "senior citizen".

• Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams". He was expelled and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.

• While turning down the British rock group called the Beatles, one executive of Decca Recording Company said, "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out."

• In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one performance. He told Presley, "You ain't goin' nowhere....son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."

• When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it did not ring off the hook with calls from potential backers. President Rutherford Hayes said, "That's an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?"

• After years of progressive hearing loss, by age 46 German composer Ludwig van Beethoven had become completely deaf. Nevertheless, he wrote his greatest music - including five symphonies - during his later years.

• When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2,000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process."

THE KING OF LOVE MY SHEPHERD IS

The king of love my shepherd is

Whose goodness faileth never.

I nothing lack if I am his

And he is mine forever.

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,

But yet in love he sought me.

And on his shoulder gently laid

And home rejoicing brought me.

- Harry Rowe Shelley

"I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD"

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high e'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

- William Wordsworth

THE MOTHER THE HARBOUR

These little boats

Came by currents

I may never know,

From oceans I cannot see

Even from my highest hill.

I cherish the cargo,

Bless the sea,

And thank the eternal itinerary

That harboured them awhile

In me.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

MORTALITY

"....When we go out of this life, leave this body, we will desire to do many things that we cannot do at all without the body. We will be seriously handicapped, and we will long for the body; we will pray for that early reunion with our bodies. We will know then what advantage it is to have a body."

.......Then every man and woman who is putting off until the next life the task of correcting and overcoming the weaknesses of the flesh are sentencing themselves to years of bondage, for no man or woman will come forth in the resurrection until they have completed their work, until they have overcome, until they have done as much as they can do."

- Melvin J. Ballard, Crusader for Righteousness, p. 213

TO BE REPEATED ALOUD ON A DISCOURAGING DAY

 

 God,

The perfect appraiser,

Passed His creatures

In review,

And called each good -

Including you.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

TRIAL NUMBER FIVE

Carefully they laid

Out on the table

Trials one, two, three,

Four, five and six.

"Choose one", they said.

"Oh, any", she cried, with horror

"Any but number five.

It would kill me.

I promise you I would not survive".

They thanked her graciously,

Escorted her out,

Then gift-wrapped, addressed,

And labeled "Special delivery"

Trial number five -

Sent with love from

Those whose assignment it is

To make sure you know

That you can go

Through trials, one, two,

Three, four, ninety-nine,

Or five -

And, incredibly,

Come out alive.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

MARBLE HALLS

I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls 

With vassals and serfs at my side

And of all who assembled within those walls

That I was the hope and the pride.

I had riches all too great to count

And a high ancestral name.

I dreamt that suitors sought my hand,

That knights upon the bended knee

And with vows no maiden's heart could withstand,

They pledged their faith to me.

And I dreamt that one of that noble host

Came forth my hand to claim.

But I also dreamt which pleased me most

That you loved me still the same,

That you loved me

You loved me still the same.

- Roma Ryan

THE CHARGE OF ANGELS

"Now this is the truth. We humble people; we who feel ourselves sometimes so worthless, so good-for-nothing; we are not so worthless as we think. There is not one of us but what God's love has been expended upon. There is not one of us that He has not cared for and caressed. There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save. There is not one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning.We may be insignificant and contemptible in our eyes, and in the eyes of others, but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that He has actually given His angels - invisible beings of power and might - charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping......"

(Collected Discourses, Vol. 2, George Q. Cannon, November 1890)

HER FATHER'S TEARS

She was always embarrassed
When her father cried
For it was so unmanly
And she always knew
When it would happen.

When he read the note
From Mrs. Lewis
Saying what a joy she was
To have in class
And how proud of her
He must be.

When they brought in
A fifty-candled cake
And sang him a surprise

When the six o'clock news
Showed the kidnapped returned
Or the hostage released
Or the flag at half mast

He would reach for his handkerchief
Folded and white
And dab his left eye
Then his right
And she would just die!

She grew up, of course, and would now
If she could reach across the years
Fill a flask
With the holy water
Of her father's tears.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

PERHAPS LOVE

Perhaps love is like a resting place,
A shelter from the storm.
It exists to give you comfort,
It is there to keep you warm.
And in those times of trouble,
When you are most alone,
The memory of love will bring you home.

Perhaps love is like a window,
Perhaps an open door,
It invites you to come closer,
It wants to show you more.
And even if you lose yourself
And don't know what to do,
The memory of love will see you through.

Love to some is like a cloud,
To some as strong as steel,
For some a way of living,
For some a way to feel.
And some say love is holding on
And some say letting go.
Some say love is everything,
Some say they don't know.

Perhaps love is like the ocean,
Full of conflict, full of change.
Like a fire when it's cold outside,
Or thunder when it rains.
If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true,
My memories of love will be of you.

-  John Denver

THE NIGHT

Grief
Is a narrow thing,
Tight against
My breath -
Begging an answer
To unanswerable
Death.

I'm remembering
A sunrise.
I saw the bright
Quick streams of light
Sing gold across
The Sky.
And it came to me then
How essential
Is the night:
For only from dark
Do we know dawn
At all.

The memory lets
One small solace in.
If we must
Endure an end
To know the endless -
Oh, gladly
I will let you go:
That when I see you
Standing at the door
To that more
Permanent place,

How quickly
I'll recognize
The eternal
In your embrace.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

HEREDITY

I am the family face;

Flesh perishes, I live on,

Projecting trait and trace

Through time to times anon,

And leaping from place to place

Over oblivion.

The years - heired feature that can

In curve and voice and eye

Despise the human span

Of durance - that is I;

The eternal thing in man,

That heeds no call to die.

-  Thomas Hardy

HE THOUGHT OF ME

I am worth the coming down,
the silence
in return for mockery.
I am worth the thorns,
the bleeding back,
the wincing, weakening steps to Calvary.
He suffered these and thought of me.
He could have halted soldiers
with a fiery eye,
And pronounced death
in words that rang
from marble palace walls,
And in the garden dreamed instead of prayed.
But as the glistening crimson beads
slipped from his face,
He thought that I was worth the price he paid.
I'm blind to what
he sees in me,
Yet I know thorns
and what it is
to wince and weaken.
Gethsemane and Calvary-
He suffered so
and thought of me.

- Margery Stockseth

THE FRIEND

Let me
Be the hearth
Where you sit
To work your clay.
I'll not say
"Shape it like this,
Or like that",
I promise.

Let me watch
As you
In absolute agency
Mold your
Mortal dream.

Only -
Sit close
And let me give
A little light,
A little warmth.
Yes -
Warmth especially.

Cold clay yields
To no form.
Let me
Be your hearth.
Sit close -
Be warm.

-  Carol Lynn Pearson

THE POWER BEHIND US

"When we face seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the fulfillment of righteous responsibilities, we should remember that when we are involved in the work of the Lord, the obstacles before us are never as great as the power behind us. We should reach out and climb. Handholds will only be found by hands that are outstretched. Footholds are only for feet that are on the move."

- Dallin H. Oaks, Reach Out And Climb, New Era Aug 1985

ON NEST BUILDING

Mud is not bad for nest building.
Mud and sticks
And a fallen feather or two will do
And require no reaching.
I could rest there, with my tiny ones,
Sound for the season, at least.

But -
If I may fly awhile -
If I may cut through a sunset going out
And a rainbow coming back,
Color upon color sealed in my eyes -
If I may have the unboundaried skies
For my study,
Clouds, cities, rivers for my rooms -
If I may search the centuries
For melody and meaning -
If I may try for the sun -

I shall come back
Bearing such beauties
Gleaned from God's and man's very best.
I shall come filled.

And then -
Oh, the nest that I can build!

- Carol Lynn Pearson

A BROKEN HEART

"The real act of personal sacrifice is not now nor ever has been placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal that is in us upon the altar - then willingly watching it be consumed. Such is the 'sacrifice unto the Lord of a broken heart and a contrite spirit'."

- Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Meek and Lowly, p. 94

ON BENDED KNEE

"And, if you sense that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, why not do so now? For in the coming of that collective confession, it will mean much less to kneel down when it is no longer possible to stand up."

-  Neal A. Maxwell, Why Not Now?, Ensign April 1975

HOLY GROUND

"We bear grave responsibility for the purity of our motives when some trusting heart has offered us entrance. Anyone who stands on that threshold stands on holy ground......"

- Bruce C. Hafen

COMING HOME

"When we return to our real home, it will be with the 'mutual approbation' of those who reign in the 'royal courts on high'. There we will find beauty such as mortal 'eye hath not seen'; we will hear sounds of surpassing music which mortal 'ear hath not heard'. Could such a regal home coming be possible without the anticipatory arrangements of a Heavenly Mother? Meanwhile, there are no separate paths back to home. Just one straight and narrow way, at the end of which, though we arrive trailing tears, we shall at once be 'drenched in joy'".

- Neal A Maxwell, The Women of God,  Ensign May 1978

REDEMPTION

 

O Thou in whose presence my soul takes delight
On whom in affliction I call,
My comfort by day and my song in the night
My hope, my salvation, my all.

Where dost thou at noontide resort with thy sheep
To feed on the pastures of love?
Say why in the valley of death should I weep,
Or alone in the wilderness rove?

O why should I wander an alien from Thee
Or cry in the desert for bread?
Thy foes will rejoice when my sorrows they'll see
And smile at the tears I have shed.

Dear shepherd, I hear and will follow thy call;
I know the sweet sound of Thy voice.
Restore and defend me, for Thou art my all,
And in Thee I will ever rejoice.

   - Joseph Swain, London, 1791

FUTURE

"I see a wonderful future in a very uncertain world. If we will cling to our values, if we will build on our inheritance, if we will walk in obedience before the Lord, if we will simply live the gospel, we will be blessed in a magnificent and wonderful way. We will be looked upon as a peculiar people who have found the key to a peculiar happiness. And many people shall go and say, 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord....for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem' (Isaiah 2:3). Great has been our past, wonderful is our present, glorious can be our future."  (President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, November 1997, p 69)

I CARRY YOUR HEART

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart);
I am never without it (anywhere I go you go, my dear;
And whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling).
I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet);
I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true).
And it's you are whatever a moon has always meant,
And whatever a sun will always sing, is you.
Here is the deepest secret nobody knows,
Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud,
And the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
Which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide.
And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart.

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart).

- E.E. Cummings

ELIAS

In solemn council sat the Gods; …

Silence self-spelled; the hour was one

When thought doth most avail;

Of worlds unborn the destiny

Hung trembling in the scale.

Silence o’er all, and there arose,

Those kings and priests among,

A Power sublime; than whom appeared

None nobler ’mid the throng.

A stature mingling strength with grace,

Of meek though Godlike mien,

The love-revealing countenance

Lustrous as lightning sheen;

Whiter his hair than ocean spray,

Or frost of alpine hill.

He spake;—attention grew more grave,

The stillness e’en more still.

‘Father!’—the voice like music fell,

Clear as the murmuring flow

Of mountain streamlet trickling down

From heights of virgin snow.

‘Father,’ it said, ‘since one must die,

Thy children to redeem,

Whilst earth, as yet unformed and void,

With pulsing life shall teem;

‘And thou, great Michael, foremost fall,

That mortal man may be,

And chosen Saviour ye must send,

Lo, here am I—send me!

I ask, I seek no recompense,

Save that which then were mine;

Mine by the willing sacrifice,

The endless glory, Thine!’ …

Silence once more. Then sudden rose

Aloft a towering form,

Proudly erect as lowering peak

’Lumed by the gathering storm;

A presence bright and beautiful,#

With eye of flashing fire,

A lip whose haughty curl bespoke

A sense of inward ire.

‘Give me to go!’ thus boldly cried,

With scarce concealed disdain;

‘And hence shall none, from heaven to earth,

That shall not rise again.

My saving plan exception scorns;

Man’s agency unknown;

As recompense, I claim the right

To sit on yonder throne!’

Ceased Lucifer. The breathless hush

Resumed and denser grew.

All eyes were turned; the general gaze

One common magnet drew.

A moment there was solemn pause;

Then, like the thunder-burst,

Rolled forth from lips omnipotent—

From Him both last and first:

‘Immanuel! thou my Messenger,

Till time’s probation end.

And one shall go thy face before,

While twelve thy steps attend.

And many more, on that far shore,

The pathway shall prepare,

That I, the First, the last may come,

And earth my glory share.’ …

’T was done. From congregation vast

Tumultuous murmurs rose;

Waves of conflicting sound, as when

Two meeting seas oppose.

’T was finished. But the heavens wept;

And still their annals tell

How one was choice of Elohim,

O’er one who fighting fell.

- Elder Orson F. Whitney

HIDDEN TREASURES

The human heart has hidden treasures:
In secret kept, in silence sealed;
The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.

- Charlotte Bronte

THE PATHS JESUS WALKED

I walked today where Jesus walked
In days of long ago;
I wandered down each path He knew,
With reverent step and slow.
Those little lanes, they have not changed -
A sweet peace fills the air.
I walked today where Jesus walked,
And felt his presence there.

My pathway led through Bethlehem,
A memory's ever sweet.
The little hills of Galilee,
That knew His childish feet.
The mount of Olives, hallowed scenes,
That Jesus knew before,
I saw the mighty Jordan row,
As in the days of yore.

I knelt where Jesus knelt,
Where all alone he prayed;
The Garden of Gethsemane -
My heart felt unafraid.
I picked my heavy burden up,
And with Him by my side
I climbed the hill of Calvary
Where on the cross he died.

I walked today where Jesus walked
And felt Him close to me.

Daniel S. Twohig

LIFE'S WAGES

I bargained with life for a penny

And life would pay no more;

However I begged at evening

When I counted my scanty store.

For life is a just employer,

It pays you what you ask;

But once you have set the wages,

Why you must bear the task.

I work for a menial's hire,

Only to learn, dismayed;

That any wage I had asked of life,

Life would have willingly paid.

- Jessie Belle Rittenhouse

FULNESS

An empty manger,

An empty upper room,

An empty garden,

An empty tomb.

- Clyde Hollinger

GIVING

"Go give to the needy sweet charity's bread,
For giving is living" the Angel said,
"But must I keep giving again and again?"
My peevish, petulant answer ran.
"Oh no" said the angel, piercing me through.
"Just give till the Master stops giving to you".

- Author unknown

BUILD THEE MORE STATELY

Build thee more stately mansions,
O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

-  Oliver Wendell Holmes
    "The Chambered Nautilus"

THE VOW

How could I hide you
From hate?
I would,
Though my arms break
With the trying.

Life leans in
At the window there,
With its bag
Of dark treasures
Trying for your eyes -
So utterly open,
So unaware.

You will see
Men smile over blood,
And you will know
There is hate.
You may see bombs
And butcheries,
And you will know
There is horror.

Against all this
What can I do?
Only vow
That before you
Leave my arms,
You will know
Past ever doubting
That there is
Love, too.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

THORN BIRD

"There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its' life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest, it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And dying, it rises above its' own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain...or so says the legend."

Anonymous

PRAYER

Heaven

Holds out the blessing

Like a bright

Ripe fruit,

Only waiting

For us to ask it:

Our words

Weave the basket.

- Carol Lynn Pearson

A LIGHT UNTO MY FEET

....I give unto you to be the light of this people.... 3 Nephi 12:14

"An English writer tells of a blind man who always carried a lantern. People were wont to ask of what use the lantern could be to his sightless eyes. 'I do not carry it to prevent my stumbling over others', he replied, 'but to keep them from stumbling over me.' Let your light so shine so that somebody else will not stumble because of you."

- Rev. Peter Pleune

THE KNOT

With thoughtless and impatient hands
We tangle up the plans
The Lord hath wrought;
And when we cry in pain He saith,
'Be quiet, man, while I untie the knot'.

- Anonymous