Balm to the soul

I always look forward to General Conference when church leaders and prophets of God speak words of encouragement, counsel, and love. I just love listening to the talks. They always seem to be exactly what I need to hear, to learn, to ponder on. I decided I'd post some of my favorite quotes from various talks. I loved the emphasis on teaching children truth and values,  the role of parents, our personal worth as God's children, patience, faith, prayer, and moral cleanliness, and many others. All the talks are available here. I love going back and re-reading them and trying to "study" them so I can find application in my life in each and every talk.

Here are a very few of my favorites:

Mother-daughter relationship and its eternal impact:
"Remember, sisters, God is the source of all moral and spiritual power. We gain access to that power by entering into covenants with Him and keeping those covenants. Mothers, teach your daughters the importance of making covenants, and then show them how to keep those covenants in such a way that they will desire to live worthy to go to the temple." (Elder Russell M. Ballard.)

The role of family in rearing and rescuing children:
"Heavenly Father has assigned us to a great variety of stations to strengthen and, when needed, to lead travelers to safety. Our most important and powerful assignments are in the family. They are important because the family has the opportunity at the start of a child’s life to put feet firmly on the path home. Parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles are made more powerful guides and rescuers by the bonds of love that are the very nature of a family.

"The family has an advantage in the first eight years of a child’s life. In those protected years, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, Satan’s use of the mists of darkness to hide the path to return home is blocked. In those precious years the Lord helps families by calling Primary workers to help strengthen children spiritually. He also provides holders of the Aaronic Priesthood to offer the sacrament. In those sacramental prayers, the children hear the promise that they may someday receive the Holy Ghost as a guide if they are obedient to God’s commandments. As a result, they are fortified to resist temptation when it comes and then, sometime in the future, to go to the rescue of others. " (Elder Henry B. Eyring.)
"Parents must bring light and truth into their homes by one family prayer, one scripture study session, one family home evening, one book read aloud, one song, and one family meal at a time. They know that the influence of righteous, conscientious, persistent, daily parenting is among the most powerful and sustaining forces for good in the world. The health of any society, the happiness of its people, their prosperity, and their peace all find common roots in the teaching of children in the home." (Elder L. Tom Perry.)

Do not judge, be "His Hands"
"When we are tempted to judge, let us think of the Savior, who “loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. . . .
   “[And] he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, . . . [for] all men are privileged the one like unto  
    the other, and none are forbidden.”
"As I read the scriptures, it appears that those who receive the Savior’s strongest reproach are often those who hold themselves in high esteem because of their wealth, influence, or perceived righteousness.

"I am not suggesting that we accept sin or overlook evil, in our personal life or in the world. Nevertheless, in our zeal, we sometimes confuse sin with sinner, and we condemn too quickly and with too little compassion. We know from modern revelation that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.”4 We cannot gauge the worth of another soul any more than we can measure the span of the universe. Every person we meet is a VIP to our Heavenly Father. Once we understand that, we can begin to understand how we should treat our fellowmen.
"One woman who had been through years of trial and sorrow said through her tears, “I have come to realize that I am like an old 20-dollar bill—crumpled, torn, dirty, abused, and scarred. But I am still a 20-dollar bill. I am worth something. Even though I may not look like much, and even though I have been battered and used, I am still worth the full 20 dollars. (Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf)

I could go on and on ... they're all so deep and amazingly instructive.

Things have been going well, life is fast, too much to do in too little time, we're always running from one place to the next but we're happy and wouldn't have it any other way. Our house search has continued and led us to making an offer last night. In our home search our testimony that God guides and provides for us has been strenghtened greatly. When we do our part and put in the effort (study and research) along with prayer, He is there to hold our hand, guide our thoughts. I was able to experience this so first hand with our home search.  Really neat. Although many homes looked great, while digging deeper we found quite a few registered sex offenders in a 1 mile radius/so very scary and that has dramatically changed our preferences. It was incredible to see how much evil is out there, how many convicted ones there are, and how many more out there who have not yet committed a crime but they might in the future... .  So we think we found the right place for us; now we're waiting to hear back from the seller. Let the "waiting game" begin!!! This house would really be a wonderful place for us....

What else... Ella finally started back with swimming (they didn't have enough children and instructors for the longest time) and she loves it. Still says she loves gymnastics although sometimes we feel she's just there to play but that's alright as we're not planning on her being an olympian. As long as she's enjoying it and getting the exercise, we're good.

Oh, forgot to mention in my Easter post that Ella has mastered the "egg knocking/cracking" little game we play with eggs on Easter. She's also gotten quite good at saying "Hristos a-nviat/Adevarat a-nviat!"