Friday, May 20, 2022

Home-centered, Church-supported curriculum will dramatically change families

 "The new home-centered, Church-supported integrated curriculum has the potential to unleash the power of families, as each family follows through conscientiously and carefully to transform their home into a sanctuary of faith. I promise that as you diligently work to remodel your home into a center of gospel learning, over time your Sabbath days will truly be a delight. Your children will be excited to learn and to live the Savior’s teachings, and the influence of the adversary in your life and in your home will decrease. Changes in your family will be dramatic and sustaining."

President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church, "Becoming Exemplary Latter-day Saints," General Conference, Oct 2018, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/10/becoming-exemplary-latter-day-saints?lang=eng

The purpose of gospel habits is primarily to receive the Holy Ghost

 "everything the Savior’s gospel teaches us to do and become is intended to bless us with the companionship of the Holy Ghost.

"Consider the reasons we pray and study the scriptures. Yes, we yearn to communicate in prayer with Heavenly Father in the name of His Son. And yes, we desire to obtain the light and knowledge available in the standard works. But please remember that these holy habits primarily are ways whereby we always remember Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son and are prerequisites to the ongoing companionship of the Holy Ghost.

"Reflect on the reasons we worship in the house of the Lord and in our Sabbath meetings. Yes, we serve our kindred dead in the temple—and our families and friends in the wards and branches in which we live. And yes, we enjoy the righteous sociality we find among our brothers and sisters. But we primarily gather together in unity to seek the blessings of and instruction from the Holy Ghost.

"Praying, studying, gathering, worshipping, serving, and obeying are not isolated and independent items on a lengthy gospel checklist of things to do. Rather, each of these righteous practices is an important element in an overarching spiritual quest to fulfill the mandate to receive the Holy Ghost. The commandments from God we obey and the inspired counsel from Church leaders we follow principally focus upon obtaining the companionship of the Spirit. Fundamentally, all gospel teachings and activities are centered on coming unto Christ by receiving the Holy Ghost in our lives."

Elder David A. Bednar, Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, "Receive the Holy Ghost," General Conference, Oct 2010, https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2010/10/receive-the-holy-ghost?lang=eng 

Thursday, May 19, 2022

The natural man is not what constitutes our individuality

 "Too often when we seek to excuse ourselves, it is, ironically, “the natural man” we are excusing. Yet scriptures inform us “the natural man” is to be “put off” (see Mosiah 3:19). “He” certainly should not be “kept on” because of a mistaken sense that the natural man constitutes our individuality."

- Elder Neal A Maxwell, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “In Him All Things Hold Together," BYU Devotional, 31 March 1991 

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neal-a-maxwell/in-him-all-things-hold-together/