Welcome To Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

--Emily Perl Kingsley

Being Grateful Makes Us Happy

"Mercies and blessings come in different forms--sometimes as hard things. Yet the Lord said, 'Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things' (D&C 59:7). All things means just that: good things, difficult things--not just some things. He has commanded us to be grateful because He knows being grateful will make us happy. This is another evidence of His love." --Bonnie D. Parkin

Patience

"An unusual thing happened after that great first vision. The Prophet Joseph received no additional communication for three years. However, he did not wonder, he did not question, he did not doubt the Lord. The Prophet Joseph patiently waited. The Prophet Joseph taught us the principle of patience--by example." --Boyd K. Packer

Be A Woman Of Christ

"Be a woman of Christ. Cherish your esteemed place in the sight of God. He needs you. This Church needs you. The world needs you. A woman's abiding trust in God and unfailing devotion to things of the Spirit have always been an anchor when the wind and the waves of life were fiercest. I say to you what the Prophet Joseph said more than 150 years ago: If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates."
--Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
--Franklin P. Jones

Divine Guidance

"Becoming unspotted from the world is a promise to those who keep the Sabbath holy. Divine guidance and inspiration are promised to those who 'feast upon the words of Christ' and who 'liken all scriptures' unto themselves. "The Lord also promised that 'whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.' We are promised that the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion when we 'let virtue garnish [our] thoughts unceasingly. We can claim the spiritually liberating promise of fasting, which will loose the bands of wickedness, unto our heavy burdens, and break every yoke."
--Spencer J. Condie

Family Relationships

"All of us, single or married, are eternally part of some family—someway, somewhere, somehow—and much of our joy in life comes as we correctly recognize and properly develop those family relationships. We come to this earth charged with a mission: to learn to love and serve one another. To best help us accomplish this, God has placed us in families, for he knows that is where we can best learn to overcome selfishness and pride and to sacrifice for others and to make happiness and helpfulness and humility and love the very essence of our character." --John H. Groberg

Be Wise

"Be wise with your families. Be wise in fulfilling your Church callings. Be wise with your time. Be wise in balancing all of your responsibilities. O be wise, my beloved brothers and sisters. What can I say more?" --M. Russell Ballard

Our Lives Should Emulate His Standards

"As popular culture across the world degenerates, sleaze increasingly saturates the media, entertainment, advertising, and the Internet. But popularity according to the world's prevailing norms is a very perilous scale to use to measure what's right or even what's not dangerous. A movie or television show may be well known and well liked by millions of viewers and nevertheless portray images and conduct that are pornographic. If something in a movie 'isn't too bad,' that automatically means that it isn't too good either. Thus, the fact that others watch movies or open Web sites that aren't appropriate is no excuse for us. [Our] lives should emulate the standards of the Savior and His Church, not the standards of the world." --L. Whitney Clayton

A Mother Heart

"A woman with a mother heart has a testimony of the restored gospel, and she teaches the principles of the gospel without equivocation. She is keeping sacred covenants made in holy temples. Her talents and skills are shared unselfishly. She gains as much education as her circumstances will allow, improving her mind and spirit with the desire to teach what she learns to the generations who follow her." --Julie B. Beck

Testimony is a Most Precious Possession

"A testimony is a most precious possession because it is not acquired by logic or reason alone, it cannot be purchased with earthly possessions, and it cannot be given as a present or inherited from our ancestors. We cannot depend on the testimonies of other people. We need to know for ourselves." --Dieter F. Uchdorf

We Are Only Lost If We Let Go

"At . . . moments of crisis and challenge, some choose to abandon faith just at the time when it most needs to be embraced. Prayer is ignored at the very hour when it needs to be intensified. Virtue is carelessly tossed aside when it needs to be cherished. God is forsaken in the all-too-human yet mistaken fear that He has forsaken us. The truth is that our only safety, our only security, our only hope is to hold fast to that which is good. As the mists of darkness gather around us, we are only lost if we choose to let go of the iron rod, which is the word of God." --David S. Baxter

Music

"Music in Church meetings and classes should facilitate a spirit of worship, revelation, and testimony. For sacrament meetings, the bishopric or branch presidency is responsible to select or approve music. They ensure that the music, the words, and the musical instruments are sacred, dignified, and will promote worship and revelation." --Jay E. Jensen

God Is In The Details

"As we study and ponder, we are entitled to the promptings of the Spirit, and as we grow more attentive to these promptings, we come to recognize each day the workings of the Lord in our lives. We will find Him, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell stated, 'in the details of our lives.' And when that recognition comes, we feel His peace and recognize that we are truly encircled in the arms of His love." --Kathleen H. Hughes

And Nothing Shall Offend Them

"Certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would allow us to take offense. However, it ultimately is impossible for another person to offend you or to offend me. Indeed, believing that another person offended us is fundamentally false. To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or something else." --David A. Bednar

Charity is the Greatest Principle

"Joseph F. Smith said: 'Charity, or love, is the greatest principle in existence. If we can lend a helping hand to the oppressed, if we can aid those who are despondent and in sorrow, if we can uplift and ameliorate the condition of mankind, it is our mission to do it, it is an essential part of our religion to do it.' When we feel love for God's children, we are given opportunities to help them in their journey back to His presence." --Don R. Clarke

Heed The Warnings

"Arguments . . . will come at you in classrooms and hallways, in what you read, and in what you see in popular entertainment. Many in the world deny the need for a Savior. Others deny that there is any right or wrong, and they scoff at the idea of sin or a devil. Still others rely on the mercy of God and ignore His justice. . . ."Be not deceived. . . . Heed the ancient and modern prophetic warnings against thievery, drunkenness, and all forms of sexual sin. The deceiver seeks to destroy your spirituality by all of these means. . . . Beware of the slick package and the glitz of a good time. What the devil portrays as fun can be spiritually fatal." --Dallin H. Oaks

Be A Light Unto The World

"It is easy to despair when we see about us the moorings of society slipping. We must remember, however, that the Lord sent His Saints into the world 'to be a light unto the world, and to be the saviors of men.' (D&C 103:9.) This is a time when 'Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments.' (D&C 82:14.) The contrast between the Church and the world will be increasingly marked in the future, which contrast, we hope, will cause the Church to be more attractive to those in the world who desire to live according to God's plan for us, His children."

--Ezra Taft Benson

Our Bodies

"In the premortal realm we learned that the body was part of God's great plan of happiness for us. We understood eternal truths about our bodies. We knew that our bodies would be in the image of God. We knew that our bodies would house our spirits. We also understood that our bodies would be subject to pain, illness, disabilities, and temptation. But we were willing, even eager, to accept these challenges because we knew that only with spirit and element inseparably connected could we progress to become like our Heavenly Father and 'receive a fulness of joy' (D&C 93:33)." --Susan W. Tanner

He Always Remembers You

"Jesus Christ is the light and the life of the world. If we do not choose to move toward Him, we will find that we have moved away. . . . Whether or not you choose to keep your covenant to always remember Him, He always remembers you." --Henry B. Eyring