Words To Ponder

Quotes That Inspire

"In each teaching setting, whether it is a family home evening, a class, a sacrament meeting, or a general or stake conference, the teacher should strive to create a heartfelt desire in his students to live worthy of eternal life with our Heavenly Father."  —M. Russell Ballard

"The amount of trust we place in God is the amount of support we will receive"…BYU Professor Andrew Skinner

"Memory Informs Maturity"…BYU Professor Andrew Skinner

"If people knew better they would do better."  Pres. Ezra Taft Benson

"Indulgence is not mercy."  BYU Professor Daniel Judd

"Purity of Heart is to will one thing." Kink Agar (Danish Leader, quoted by Robert Millet)

"One of the Gospel purposes is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."  Harold B. Lee

"A testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith can come differently to each of us. It may come as you kneel in prayer, asking God to confirm that he was a true prophet. It may come as you read the Prophet’s account of the First Vision.  A testimony may distill upon your soul as you read the Book of Mormon again and again.  It may come as you bear your own testimony of the Prophet or as you stand in the temple and realize that through Joseph Smith the holy sealing power was restored to the earth.  With faith and real intent, your testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith will strengthen. The constant water balloon volleys from the sidelines may occasionally get you wet, but they need never, never extinguish your burning fire of faith."  —Neil L. Andersen

“Education is when you read the fine print.  Experience is when you don't.”  Pres. James E. Faust

“The greater want is to be content with a little.”  Author Unknown


“If envy were a fever, all the world would be ill.”  Danish Proverb

“My musical ability is so bad; I couldn't catch a note with Velcro.”  Jeffrey R. Holland

“You can't be wrong by doing right and you can't be right by doing wrong.”  Thomas S. Monson

“Believe in order to understand instead of understanding in order to believe.”  Neal A. Maxwell

“A baby is God's opinion that life should go on.”  Carl Sandburg

“Real Joy Awaits Us on the Other Side of Sorrow.”   -Russell M. Nelson

“Even in the golden age of civilization, someone undoubtedly grumbled, things look too yellow.   -Jeffrey R. Holland

“Hit me one more time; I can still hear you.”  - Jeffrey R. Holland

“No misfortune is so bad, that whining about it won't make it worse.” - Jeffrey R. Holland

“Most men faithfully perform their priesthood duties. They magnify their callings. They serve the Lord by serving others. They stand close together and lift where they stand.  However, there are those who sometimes struggle with this concept. Some want to lead, others want to hide.  They covet a crown or a cave.  There is a better way, taught to us by the Savior Himself: “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” The Lord judges so very differently from the way we do. He is pleased with the noble servant, not with the self-serving noble.  Brethren, may we cease to aspire and cease to retire!”  – Dieter F. Uchtdorf  

A Joyful Heart

A LITTLE HUMOR

If you regularly listen to General Conference every year, you no doubt remember the story below.  It was not mentioned in the televised or written recording but only the audio version of the Oct. 2007 General Priesthood Meeting.  Both Pres. Hinckley and Pres. Monson are beloved by the people and both have a keen sense of humor.  I presume that humor will follow us all into our next life.

Pres. Monson said, toward the conclusion of his remarks, “We express appreciation for the father and son choir and for the beautiful music they provided this evening.  I must mention one simple thing that I observed while the boys and fathers sang.

I observed a father with flaming red hair and I saw a son also with flaming red hair.   I remembered one conference where I felt compelled to shake off security and go down front and see someone who was standing there and who needed a visit.  I did so and I talked to him.  Then I saw a boy and mentioned,  “You have beautiful red hair.  I know that boys with red hair can accomplish anything.  When I was a mission president, I liked to have a boy with red hair in every zone in every district because they were pace-setters.”

“I then shook his hand and ruffled his hair and went back up and left the building.  Later, I got a lovely note from his mother.  She said, ‘What you did for my boy, I can never repay.  He’s always been shy, he’s always been embarrassed about having red hair and every one teased him.  You changed all that by what you said.  Now he stands, every morning in front to the mirror, combing and brushing his flaming red hair.’

“Sometimes we do some good without some advanced thinking, by following the Spirit to help a boy who is embarrassed about his red hair to become a winner and an achiever, thru one simple little visit. 

Pres. Hinckley is that kind of man.  He brings out the best in all he meets.”

Pres Hinckley was the next speaker and he began his talk with, “Bro. Monson, I’m looking for you to dye your hair!”

Pres. Hinckley then gave his talk about avoiding anger.  Within his talk he mentioned the following:

A small publication that came to me some years ago carried the following:

“Once a man who had been slandered by a newspaper came to Edward Everett asking what to do about it. Said Everett, “Do nothing! Half the people who bought the paper never saw the article. Half of those who saw it, did not read it. Half of those who read it, did not understand it. Half of those who understood it, did not believe it. Half of those who believed it are of no account anyway” (“Sunny Side of the Street,” Nov. 1989; see also Zig Ziglar, Staying Up, Up, Up in a Down, Down World [2000], 174).

“So many of us make a great fuss of matters of small consequence.  We are so easily offended.  Happy is the man who can brush aside the offending remarks of another and go on his way.”

Subtle Clues

Subtle Clues of the Book of Mormon Truthfulness (emphasis added)

By Taylor Halverson (Ph.D., biblical studies), a BYU teaching and learning consultant. He wrote the following:

“The Book of Mormon provides many small or subtle clues that are relevant to its authenticity as an ancient record. The story of Nephi’s confrontation with Laban and the story of Teancum contain some of these often unnoticed, yet relevantly essential details.

A reader of the Book of Mormon might ask, “How is it after the death of Laban, Nephi put on his clothes and Zoram didn’t see what a mess the clothes were? Shouldn’t that have tipped Zoram off that something was out of place, that there was a problem?”

This is a great question.

What is significant are the small details that are found in the Book of Mormon and that are easy to overlook. Particularly intriguing is that we hear on occasion Book of Mormon authors saying that they are careful not to include extraneous details in the record.

So, why the apparently extraneous details? Because upon closer inspection, we see that these details matter to the truthfulness of the story.

When Nephi encountered Laban, we learn that Laban was drunk (1 Nephi 4:7). If Laban’s clothes were later visible to Zoram, then perhaps if he did see any blood on the clothes he may have mistook it for spilled wine.  More likely is that the darkness of night meant Zoram couldn’t see a thing.  No amount of blood-stained clothes would be visible in the darkness of an ancient Jerusalem night.

That is one fact that modern people don’t typically appreciate, how truly dark nighttime is without artificial light.

And how do we know that it was night? Nephi includes as a small detail, almost as an afterthought, this seemingly innocuous statement as he narrates his entry into the city.

“And it was by night; and I caused that they should hide themselves without the walls. And after they had hid themselves, I, Nephi, crept into the city and went forth towards the house of Laban” (1 Nephi 4:5, emphasis added).

Nephi’s confrontation with Laban is one of many stories in the Book of Mormon that contains subtle, yet essential clues to the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.

Consider another creeping-by-night story. At the end of chapter 51 in the Book of Alma, we hear the story of the Nephite general Teancum going forth at night to seek out Amalickiah, the opposing general in the Lamanite army. Teancum finds the tent of Amalickiah and assassinates him with a javelin. Successfully returning to his camp, Teancum wakes his soldiers and has them stand ready to battle.

What many of us miss, however, are some important calendric details. They appear at the beginning of the next chapter:

‘And now, it came to pass in the twenty and sixth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, behold, when the Lamanites awoke on the first morning of the first month, behold, they found Amalickiah was dead in his own tent; and they also saw that Teancum was ready to give them battle on that day.

And now, when the Lamanites saw this they were affrighted’ (Alma 52:1-2, emphasis added).

Notice that it is the first day of the first month — New Year’s Day. Why does Mormon occupy any space on the plates with dates? And why should we care? In the ancient Near Eastern culture, which likely influenced Book of Mormon culture, New Year’s Day was the time when the king of the land would sally forth to demonstrate his vitality and liveliness to successfully rule as a king for another year. The rising forth of the king on this day was like a divine foreshadowing of a prosperous year. A dead king was the sure sign of a disastrous future.

Hence, no act could be more psychologically demoralizing to an opposing army than to find their king dead on New Year’s Day. Teancum chose New Year’s Eve to assassinate Amalickiah. He sought to win a massive psychological victory against the Lamanites by sending a message of disaster, despair and fear.

The seemingly small details in the text of the Book of Mormon matter. In narrative context, they signify the authenticity of the Book of Mormon as an ancient text.”

(Taylor Halverson, Ph.D., biblical studies, instructional tech is a BYU teaching & learning consultant; founder of Creativity, Innovation & Design Group; and travel leader to Mesoamerica and Middle East. Taylorhalverson.com. His views are his own. Printed in the 1 Jan 2015 Deseret News)