C.S. Lewis said: "When I come to my evening prayers and try to recon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity. I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed and the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected, I was caught off guard, I had not to collect myself. Now that may be extenuating circumstances regard to those particular acts. They would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand surly what a man dose when he is taken off guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is. Surly what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth. If there are rats in a cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness doesn’t create the rats; it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way, the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man, it only shows me what an ill-tempered man i am"
This is such a ' take a hard look at yourself' sort of thing but it is so true. Especially as an older sister with 2 younger sisters, it’s hard to realize how much i snap at them with or without provocation, but like the quote implies is there any provocation that really merits snapping or snubbing or storming etc.? Of course you are nice when you are collected but then, is that a true indication of who you are?
Oliver Wendell Holms said:"Many people die with their music still inside them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out."
I love the idea that we all have music inside of us, waiting to be released. Live every day, every week, every month and every year like its your last.
Elder Orison Prat said:" A saint who is one in deed and truth, doesn’t look for an immaterial heaven, but he expects a heaven with lands houses, cities, vegetation, rivers, and animals, with thrones , temples, palaces, kings, prince’s, priests, and angles with food, raiment, musical instruments all of which are material, indeed the saints heaven is a redeemed glorified material creation inhabited with glorified material beings, male and female, organized into family’s, embracing all the relationships of husbands and wives, parents and children, were sorrow , crying, pain and death will be no more. Of to speak still more defiantly, this earth, when glorified, is the scant eternal heaven, on it they expect to live with body, mind, parts, and holy passions, on it they expect to move and have their being eat , drink, converse, worship, sing, play on musical instruments, engage in joyful innocent social amusements, visiting neighboring towns and neighboring worlds. Indeed matter and its qualities and properties are the only beings or things in which they expect to associate."
Ok that’s like REALLY cool. Neighboring worlds? wow. That could change the way you look at heaven.
Elder Maxwell either wrote this of just said it in one of his talks:
My life is but a weaving between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors, he worketh steadily,
Oft times he weaveth sorrow and I in foolish pride,
Forgets he sees the upper and lower side.
Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why
The dark threads are as needful in the skillful weaver’s hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned
"You know what I am craving? Perspective. That’s it! I would like nice, clear perspective. Can you suggest a good wine for that?"
" Uhh....?"
-Ratatouille
I think that the term 'have an eternal perspective' is used a lot but it is so true. Look back on past trials. Are you better because of them in the end? Yes... probably
Ok these are not from john Bytheway talks, these are some of my favorites.
Abraham Lincoln said:“Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of him can spare time for personal contention”
I like this because it basically says that fighting is a waste of time. And except for very few circumstances, it is.
Elder Holland said:“If you can smile when thing go wrong and say it doesn’t matter, if you can laugh off cares and woe and trouble makes you fatter, if you can keep a cheerful face when all around is blue, than have your head examined there is something wrong with you! For one thing I have arrived at there are no and or buts a guy that grinning all the time must be completely nuts!”
Sometimes I think that if I am not happy there is something wrong. Not so. Everyone has bad days and times and it is perfectly normal
This is probably one of my all-time favorite quotes
C.S. Lewis said:“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts civilizations—these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit… everlasting splendors… next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”
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