No Business

I have no business blogging right now because I have a house to finish cleaning/picking up, I need to shower after the gym and I have a talk to write for church tomorrow. I do not like speaking in church. At all! Our ward doesn't assign topics and for me that's not good. All the counselor told me was 'to go ahead and pick a talk from the last conference or two.' Hello, that's a huge amount of info, most of which I love. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I've settled on the talk by President Uchdorf, The Infinite Power of Hope. (I've been known to change my mind at the last minute so we'll see) This is such a great talk, here are a few of my favorite quotes.

~I had to add in this photo for my mom. She thinks he is one good looking apostle, ha!~

~Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool, together with faith and charity. These three stabilize our lives regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces we might encounter at the time.

~Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness. Its absence—when this desire of our heart is delayed—can make “the heart sick.”

~The scriptures say that there must be “an opposition in all things.” So it is with faith, hope, and charity. Doubt, despair, and failure to care for our fellowmen lead us into temptation, which can cause us to forfeit choice and precious blessings.

~Despair kills ambition, advances sickness, pollutes the soul, and deadens the heart. Despair can seem like a staircase that leads only and forever downward.

~Hope, on the other hand, is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances. It pierces the darkness with a brilliant dawn. It encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father, who has prepared a way for those who seek for eternal truth in a world of relativism, confusion, and of fear.

~Hope is not knowledge,but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us. It is confidence that if we live according to God’s laws and the words of His prophets now, we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance.

~The things we hope for are often future events. If only we could look beyond the horizon of mortality into what awaits us beyond this life. Is it possible to imagine a more glorious future than the one prepared for us by our Heavenly Father? Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we need not fear, for we will live forever, never to taste of death again.~The things we hope in sustain us during our daily walk. They uphold us through trials, temptations, and sorrow. Everyone has experienced discouragement and difficulty. Indeed, there are times when the darkness may seem unbearable. It is in these times that the divine principles of the restored gospel we hope in can uphold us and carry us until, once again, we walk in the light.

~We learn to cultivate hope the same way we learn to walk, one step at a time.

~There may be times when we must make a courageous decision to hope even when everything around us contradicts this hope.

~Faith, hope, and charity complement each other, and as one increases, the others grow as well.

~The things we hope for lead us to faith, while the things we hope in lead us to charity.

~Each time a hope is fulfilled, it creates confidence and leads to greater hope.

Now I've got to go finish this talk! (and if I get that done, maybe I'll finish my other post that's hanging out in draft form)