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)