"No one knows what it is like. No one understands."

"There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of weakness we may cry out, “No one knows what it is like. No one understands.” But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and eternal sacrifice (see Alma 34:14), He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy. He can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power. Indeed, His yoke is easy and His burden is light."

From Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease by Elder David A. Bednar
April 2014 LDS General Conference

The Eternal Blessing of Marriage

 

 

"   Please pardon me for speaking of my precious wife, Jeanene, but we are an eternal family. She was always joyously happy, and much of it came from service to others. Even while very ill, in her morning prayer she would ask her Father in Heaven to lead her to someone she could help. That sincere supplication was answered time and again. The burdens of many were eased; their lives were brightened. She was blessed continually for being an instrument directed by the Lord.

     I know what it is to love a daughter of Father in Heaven who with grace and devotion lived the full feminine splendor of her righteous womanhood. I am confident that when, in our future, I see her again beyond the veil, we will recognize that we have become even more deeply in love. We will appreciate each other even more, having spent this time separated by the veil. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

 

Elder Richard G. Scott The Eternal Blessings of Marriage April 2011 General Conference

Whole talk found HERE

Righteous aren't taken before their time....

Image courtesy creative commons license flickr.com by calamur

President Joseph Fielding Smith at the funeral of Elder Richard L. Evans.

Quote: “No righteous man is ever taken before his time. In the case of the faithful Saints, they are simply transferred to other fields of labor. The Lord’s work goes on in this life, in the world of spirits, and in the kingdoms of glory where men go after their resurrection.”
(President Joseph Fielding Smith, Funeral Services of Elder Richard L. Evans, Ensign, Dec. 1971)

Dr. Seuss & Optimism

Dr.Seuss has many a good point in this book,

"When you think things are bad,

when you feel sour and blue,

when you start to get mad...

you should do what I do!

Just tell yourself, Duckie,

you're really quite lucky!

Some people are much more...

oh, ever so much more...

oh, muchly much-much more

unlucky than you!"

And who is more unlucky than you?
"And suppose that you lived in that forest in France,
where the average young person just hasn't a chance
to escape from the perilous pants-eating plants!
But your pants are safe! You're a fortunate guy.
And you ought to be shouting, "How lucky am I!"

More wisdom from the book,

"Thank goodness for all of the things you are not!

Thank goodness you're not something someone forgot,

and left all alone in some punkerish place

like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space."

Chillin' With Jesus

Dr.Seuss....

Relish Life as We Live It

Image courtesy creative commons license flickr.com by alyceobvious' 2008

" Friends move away, children grow up, loved ones pass on. It’s so easy to take others for granted, until that day when they’re gone from our lives and we are left with feelings of ‘what if’ and ‘if only.’ …

Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey and share our love with friends and family. One day, each of us will run out of tomorrows. Let us not put off what is most important."

President Thomas S. Monson (Ensign August 2011 "Love at Home")

No Man Is An Island

(Image courtesy creative commons license flickr.com by postbear)

John Donne's Meditation no. 17 from "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions" (1624):

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a
Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,
as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor
of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death
diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And
therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

Star Wars and Death

(Image courtesy Wookieepedia)

"Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is."

-Yoda (From Star Wars Episode III)

Spirit Doesn't Change After Death

"When a person who has always been good and faithful to his God lays down his body in the dust, his spirit will remain the same in the spirit world. It is not the body that has control over the spirit, but it is the spirit that controls the body. When the spirit leaves the body, the body because lifeless. The spirit has not changed one single particle of itself by leaving the body." - Heber C. Kimball

Death is Only a Horizon

Rossiter W. Raymond has said, "Life is eternal and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon, and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."

“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. ~Christopher Robin to Pooh” - A. A. Milne

Pluck a thistle, Plant a flower

7art image

Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

- Abraham Lincoln

Live fully

 Family - Daytona Beach image by Rekkid, courtesy of CC 2.0.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life.  A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.  ~Mark Twain

Final Awakening

Reno, NV LDS Temple

“Death - the last sleep?  No, it is the final awakening."  Sir Walter Scott

Death and Butterflies

Image courtesy creative commons license flickr.com by Bob Rockefeller June 2008

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”  

Richard Bach (Illusions)

Is Death a Disaster?

Image courtesy creative commons license flickr.com by Sandeep Pawar Sept. 2010

"If we say that early death is a calamity, disaster or a tragedy, would it not be saying that mortality is preferable to earlier entrance into the spirit world and to eventual salvation and exaltation? If mortality be the perfect state, then death would be a frustration but the Gospel teaches us there is no tragedy in death, but only in sin."

Spencer W. Kimball, Tragedy or Destiny, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year, 6 Dec. 1955