Thursday, August 30, 2007

Great Quote to Kick me in the Butt

I hate learning lessons. It stinks. Its usually painful even if its good for me. And I'm not usually cooperative. We have having preschool problems which will probably be resolved before most of you read this, but its been a crying...I'm mean trying...day. Basically they told me 6 days before school starts that Luke can't be in the class when I just spoke with them yesterday and everything was okay. And I have no backup plan. So I have been going down fighting to figure out how to get him in or keep him in. I haven't figured out what lesson I'm learning yet, but its always hard to come back from vacation, but California seems to be unusually hot and inconvenient the last two days. But I have a great brother who gave my great sister this book (I also have another great sister and sisters-in-law who have nothing to do with this story) and here is what she read to me. Its from a book by Sister Holland. I'm sorry if its unusually churchy for you.

"George Bernard Shaw once said"
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them
."
(Mrs. Warren's Profession, act 2.)
"When troubles come--and they will; when challenges mount--and they will; when evil abounds and we fear for our children's lives, we can think of the covenant and promise given to Abraham, and especially think of Sarah. And with the angels we can repeat the question, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

"If you think circumstances in your life are not ideal, take heart. I'm beginning to wonder if circumstances ever are ideal. You don't simply yield to circumstances; you shape and use them for your own best purposes...But our ideals can prevail, especially where they affect home and children

(Side note from me: Oh crap, is she talking just to me?)
"When we feel the desire to murmur, when we ask for more means, or more time, or more psychology, or more energy, or even if we wish we just didn't have to do it alone, let's pause and ask one more time, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

"Had Mary Fielding Smith hear our contemporary complaints while administering to her stricken ox and raising it from the dead, she might have smiled just a little at our dismay over such things as the price of gasoline. If we seem to lack something found in the homes of our prophets, maybe what we've suffered is not too much affliction but too little. Could it be that the answers are only to be found on our knees, as our prophets were required to do, while waiting patiently upon the Lord.
"Now perhaps you are saying, "But I am praying now. I am faithfully on my knees, but the answers still don't come." All I can say is that the Lord's counsel seems to be to ask more often, however faithfully you are now praying. Are our hands blotchy, as President Kimball said, from knocking at heaven's door? Do we "labor in the spirit" in any sense that is really labor? Women appreciate that word labor in a way that no man ever can. Do we labor spiritually to deliver our children from evil to the degree that we labored to bring them into the world? Is that fair to ask? But is it faithful not to ask?"

1 comment:

Adam Tait said...

OH no, I'm so sorry. What is the update???
-Beth