A Thought for Today 
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All Packet 8 Quotes (PDFs and Docs) - Alphabetical Order
All Packet 8 Quotes (PDFs and Docs) - Numerical Order
1. “A century from today, these won’t mean a thing: the house we lived in, the money we made, the clothes we wore, the kind of car we drove. But the world will be a better place…because our children were loved.”
(Family Circle Cartoon, 1996)
2. “As you read the history of the pioneers, it becomes increasingly clear with every page that you read, that they endured adversity and hardship. They could stand persecution; they could bear up under abuse; they could recover from the infliction of all kinds of harmful hatreds. That record is clear. The question before our generation is: Can we and our children endure prosperity and ease? "I have not the time…to compare the two struggles. I sometimes wonder which is the harder.”
Elder Adam S. Bennion, CR, April 1954, p. 97
3. “Be more concerned with what God thinks about you than what people think about you.”
4. “Don’t let good things crowd out what is ESSENTIAL.”
Elder Richard G. Scott (April 1997 Gen. Conf.)
5. Effect of the Righteous: “I think we stand in this dispensation like the righteous in the days of the cities of the plains when perhaps the Lord might spare the wicked, some of them, because of the righteous. That places upon us a great and significant burden. That’s why we are here, to make of ourselves more effective instruments, truer warriors under the direction of the Almighty to save His sons and daughters from those things which will destroy them in time and for eternity unless they turn their lives around.
President Gordon B. Hinckley Eugene, Oregon, Regional Conf. Priesthood Leadership Mtg., Sept. 14,1996
6. “Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
-- Jim Rohn (Empowerment now)
7. “Happiness consists not of having, but of being; not of possessing, but of enjoying. It is the warm glow of a heart at peace with itself.”
William George Jordan - The Majesty of Calmness, 1900, p. 54 Quoted by President David O. McKay, CR Oct. 1955, p. 8 Quoted by Mary Ellen Edmunds, Speeches 1995-96, p. 88
8. “Happiness is a state of being content or satisfied. But sometimes it’s hard to be content and satisfied—to have enough. There will always be a newer watch, a more powerful computer, a fancier car. But you can never get enough of what you don’t need, because what you don’t need never satisfies. We spend money we don’t have to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like who don’t come over and get impressed anyway.”
Mary Ellen Edmunds, BYU Speeches, 1995-96, p. 88
9. “Homemaker is the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only -- to support the ultimate career!”
--C. S. Lewis--
10. “I have noted within the Church the difference in discernment, in insight, conviction, and spirit between those who know and love the Book of Mormon and those who do not. That book is a great sifter.”
--Ezra Taft Benson (1975)--
11. “I have told you many times,” President Brigham Young said, “the property which we inherit from our Heavenly Father is our time and the power to choose in the disposition of the same. This is the real capital that is bequeathed unto us by our Heavenly Father.”
(Journal of Discourses, 18:354)
12. “I love the counsel given in Doctrine and Covenants 10:4: ‘Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength.’ Choose carefully each day that which you will do, and that which you will not do, and the Lord will bless you to accomplish the important things that have eternal consequences.”
Sister Marjorie Hinckley
13. “I testify that it is time for every man to set in order his own house both temporally and spiritually…”
Pres. Ezra Taft Benson, Oct. Gen. Conf. 1988
14. “Idolatry is among the most serious sins. There are unfortunately millions today who prostrate themselves before the images of gold and silver and wood and stone and clay. But the idolatry we are most concerned with here is the conscious worshipping of still other gods. Some are of metal and plush and chrome, of wood and stone and fabrics.
"They are not in the image of God or of man, but are developed to give man comfort and enjoyment, to satisfy his wants, ambitions, passions, and desires. Some are in no physical form at all, but are intangible. Many seem to ‘worship’ on an elemental basis—they live to eat and drink. "Modern idols or false gods can take such forms as clothes, homes, businesses, machines, automobiles, pleasure boats, and numerous other material deflectors from the path of Godhood. Intangible things make just as ready gods. Degrees and letters and titles can become idols. Many people build and furnish a home and buy the automobile first—then find they ‘cannot afford’ to pay tithing.
Whom do they worship?
"Young married couples who postpone parenthood until their degrees are attained might be shocked if their expressed preference were labeled idolatry. Many worship the hunt, the fishing trip, the vacation, the weekend picnics and outings. "Still another image men worship is that of power and prestige. Many will trample underfoot the spiritual and often the ethical values in their climb to success. These gods of power, wealth, and influence are most demanding and are quite as real as the golden calves of the children of Israel in the wilderness.”
--President Spencer W. Kimball--
15. “If we are practicing our faith and seeking the companionship of the Holy Spirit, his presence can be felt in our hearts and in our homes. A family having daily family prayers and seeking to keep the commandments of God and honor his name and speak lovingly to one another will have a spiritual feeling in their home that will be discernible to all who enter it. I know this, because I have felt the presence or absence of that feeling in many LDS homes.”
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, CR Oct. 1996
16. “It is extremely important for you to believe in yourselves, not only for what you are now, but for what you have the power to become. Trust in the Lord as He leads you along. He has things for you to do that you won’t know about now, but that will unfold later. "If you stay close to Him, you will have some great adventures. You will live in a time when instead of just talking about prophecies that will sometime be fulfilled, many of them will actually be fulfilled. The Lord will unfold your future bit by bit.”
--Elder Neal A. Maxwell--
17. “Now I do not care how much wealth you pour into the laps of men, unless there is in their bosoms the Spirit of God they are unhappy…It is so with all of us; unless we have the spirit of contentment in our hearts we are miserable.….If a man has all the wealth in creation, and has heaped upon him all the honours and powers that the world can give, his soul is discontented and miserable, unless he possesses the Spirit of Christ.”
President George Albert Smith, JD 9:349 Quoted by Mary Ellen Edmunds, Speeches 1995-96, p. 89
18. “One Hundred years from now it won’t matter if you got that big break, or finally traded up to a Mercedes…..It will greatly matter, one hundred years from now, that you made a commitment to Jesus Christ.”
19. Purpose of Life: “This life is a time of testing, a time of trials, a time of education. It is a time of gaining experience, a time of trying to qualify for things that lie ahead.”
President Gordon B. Hinckley (June 1995, Church News Interview)
20. "The issue is not what we have done, but what we have become. And what we become is the result of more than our actions. It is also the result of our attitudes, our motives, and our desires."
--Dallin H. Oaks--