REFINER OF SILVER

"Some time ago a few women met in a certain city to study the scriptures. While reading the 3rd chapter of Malachi they came upon a remarkable expression in the 3rd verse: "And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." One woman proposed to visit a silversmith and report to them on what he said about the subject. She went accordingly and without telling the object of her errand begged the silversmith to tell her about the process of refining silver. After he had fully described it to her she asked, "But sir, do you sit while the work of refining is going on?" "Oh yes Madam", replied the silversmith "I must sit with my eye steadily fixed on the furnace, for if the time necessary for refining be exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be injured." The woman at once saw the beauty and comfort of the expression, "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver". Before she left, the woman asked one final question, "When do you know the process is complete?" "Why, that is quite simple", replied the silversmith, "When I can see my own image in the silver, the refining process is finished."

- Anonymous

THE BUTTERFLY

"A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared and he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no further. Then the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. Something was strange however. The butterfly had a swollen body and shrivelled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for a butterfly to get through the small opening of the cocoon are God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. We are very much like butterflies. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need. If God allowed us to go through all of our lives without any obstacles, that would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Not only that, we could never fly."

- Anonymous

LIVING POEMS

"Ye are better than all the ballads that ever were sung or said;

for ye are living poems, 

and all the rest are dead."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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BE A GOOD ONE

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

- Abraham Lincoln

ANGEL MOTHER

"All that I am, or hope to be,

I owe to my angel mother."

- Abraham Lincoln

MOVING MOUNTAINS

"Men can move mountains with their words"

- Winston Churchill

Indeed. The Brother of Jared said to the Mount of Zerin: "Remove - and it was removed" (Ether 12:30). And so great was the faith of Enoch, the great-great grandfather of Noah, that when he spoke the word of God "the earth trembled and the mountains fled" (Moses 7:13). We might not need to change the geography of the world but we sometimes need to change the geography of our lives. Most of us have mountains in our lives that we have been climbing for years. There comes a time though when climbing needs to come to an end. Then perhaps the task at hand is no longer to climb but to move. Many of us lack such faith and feel that climbing is easier than the faith that is required to move the obstacles in our path to greatness. These obstacles can be lack of faith in ourselves, weaknesses, addictions, lack of self-esteem, or simply the lure of the comfort zone. These mountains can be of immense proportions but none are bigger than the power that God can give us. Enoch was a man of 'slow speech' (Moses 6:31) until God gave him utterance (Moses 6:34). The Brother of Jared was a praying man who had the audacity to believe. Both were just ordinary men made powerful by God. So stop climbing and speak the words: Through my faith in Jesus Christ - move.

- Cathryne Allen

HOPE ACHIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE

"Hope sees the invisible; feels the intangible;

achieves the impossible."

-Anonymous

STRONGEST SOULS

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls;

the most massive characters are seared with scars."

-Kahlil Gibran

LIFE

"Life can only be understood backwards;

but it must be lived forwards."

- Soren Kierkegaard