Reflecting on powerful, wise quotes can transform our thoughts, actions, decisions, and lives in truly joyful ways.
Biblical quote, from Proverbs 23:7: “For as he thinks in his heart , so is he.”
That’s a powerful truth. We can’t become better or happier than we train our thoughts to be. As we pray, with God’s help, and if we work on training our thoughts and actions, we can become more Christlike and therefore more loving, kind, thankful, and joyful, as Jesus Christ taught us to be.
Our loving Heavenly Father is the source of all true love and joy. When we choose to follow God’s teachings and pray for His transforming love and peace in our lives, this comes in miraculous and joyful ways—even if the circumstances of our lives aren’t going well. As we selflessly serve God’s children, He blesses us with His love and other gifts, or fruits, of the Spirit, which transform our lives and our relationships.
Many of the positive, life-changing quotes we share on our website and in our Christ-centered sports and games come from the Bible, which is the number one self-help book and the most widely read book of any kind in the history of humanity.
We are so blessed to have the Bible so readily available to us now. The devil and his team have worked hard to keep the Bible out of our hands throughout history. During the Middle Ages, many good Christians were burned at the stake for having a Bible or even parts of it in their home and sharing it with their children, which was punishable by death. When all books had to be copied by hand, the Roman Emperor Diocletian in 301–304 AD burned thousands of copies of the Bible, ordered all Bibles to be destroyed, and decreed that any home with a Bible inside should be burned. In fact, he even built a monument over what he thought was the last surviving Bible. However, despite evil government leaders throughout history trying to destroy all Bibles, it became the number one most read book in the history of the world. The Bible is still banned and severely persecuted in some countries around the world.
Because of the joyful power for good that a careful and prayerful study of the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ , brings to our lives and relationships, it has become the second most-read self-help book and the sixth most-read book of any kind in world history, with more than 193 million copies in print. The Book of Mormon is another powerful witness that the Bible is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and we quote from that great book as well.
Many millions of us Bible-believing Christians who have read the Bible have come to love and cherish it dearly, and we testify that it has the same uplifting spiritual power that the Bible has and that, like the Bible, it came to us from God through His prophets. And millions of Bible-believing Christians, who have never read the Bible, fear it and believe it to be evil, simply because they are relying on nearly 200 years of false negative slander against it, which has been spread by the devil and his team, who want to keep us away from the Word of God, through His prophets – – – just as they tried to keep the Bible out of the hands of God’s children throughout history whenever they could.
Most of those spreading false slander against the Book of Mormon have no idea of the beautiful truths it teaches. They are simply ignorantly spreading the false slander spread by the devil and his team, without even doing a prayerful, open-minded study of it to discover what it teaches. Those who seriously and prayerfully study the Book of Mormon will come to know that it comes from God, through His prophets, and that it has the same positive, uplifting power that the Bible brings to our lives. It will strengthen their faith in both the Bible and Jesus Christ as our Savior, and it will clear up much of the confusion and disunity that exists in modern Christianity, as God intended. It is undeniable proof that God has not forgotten us and that He also speaks to us today through His modern-day prophets and apostles.
The Book of Mormon is a record of a people who were taken from Jerusalem by God about 600 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. God called prophets from among them. The Book of Mormon contains some of their writings over a period of approximately 1,000 years, from 600 BC to approximately 421 AD.
If someone tells you the Book of Mormon is bad, one thing you can know for sure is that it is based on false slander against it and they have never read it, or at least not with an open mind and a prayerful heart, or they would never come to such a conclusion.
We also share powerful quotes from other wise and helpful sources that can help us make better, wiser decisions and build more loving and trusting relationships.
Below are some notes to help us understand how we can experience true joy and inner peace, even when we are going through extremely difficult trials and tests in our lives, – – – if we choose to be centered on Christ.
Our daughter, Laura, texted me while we were at the MTC (Missionary Training Center), asking if we had heard Portia speak. Yes, Laura, we had a chance to hear her, and it was truly inspiring to hear her story about how she made some really bad choices that ended up getting her incarcerated for four and a half years. Thankfully, she had some prior experience with the beautiful teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints earlier in her life. Shortly after arriving in prison, she humbly and sincerely prayed, saying, “God, I feel so horrible. I have failed everyone; my husband, my children, and others. I am so broken.” She felt she had made such a grave mistake that her situation was completely hopeless, and she sincerely pleaded for help. She said that while praying, “I immediately felt more inner peace than I could have imagined.” (That transformed her life.) She said she fasted every Sunday for four and a half years in prison.” And she spent much time prayerfully studying the teachings of Jesus Christ, as recorded by God’s prophets, both in the Bible and in “The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ,” to remain as Christ-centered as possible. At the end of her talk, she said, “I now know Jesus Christ, and I know that He lives and loves each one of us, no matter what mistakes we have made in the past.” She spoke of how she felt God’s forgiveness and love in her life, how her husband and children forgave her, and how much joy she now has with the Christ-centered life she has chosen.
Each week at the MCC’s Character of Christ meeting, two speakers share their true stories about how the teachings of Jesus Christ transformed their lives.
The other speaker, Ryan, had been at the MTC like us, at the beginning of his Christian mission for our Church, between the ages of 19 and 21. After his mission, while attending BYU Idaho 18 years ago, he had an accident while doing basketball drills. He was sprinting and tripped and crashed into a brick wall, which instantly broke his neck. He has been a quadriplegic ever since. That day, he went from thoroughly enjoying sports and so many activities with his very healthy, athletic body, to being stuck in a wheelchair with no ability to move or feel any part of his body below his chin for the rest of his life. He has had a ventilator on his back that constantly pumps every breath of air into his lungs for these past 18 years to keep him alive. He spoke of another quadriplegic he met shortly after his accident, who told him, “There will be times when you will hate God and blame Him for your accident.” He said, “I realized I could hate God or trust him. I chose to trust God, and that gave me a positive attitude in all my challenges.” He finished college, has a good job, and said, “I still have joy and happiness because of Jesus Christ in my life.” He quoted our beloved living prophet, Russell M. Nelson, who taught the beautiful truth that “the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” Ryan said, “I had to give up my pride and realize that from that moment on, I would have to rely on others to help me with the basic necessities of life.” Isn’t that an amazing and beautiful truth, one that even Ryan, being a quadriplegic, could testify to? If the teachings of Jesus Christ and living a Christ-centered life are so beautiful, uplifting, and powerful that they can actually bring true joy and inner peace to someone in a horrible situation like Ryan as a quadriplegic, or Portia while in prison, shouldn’t each of us wisely choose to seek and receive that joy-producing power at work within our inner spiritual self every day?
Below are some other short quotes from President Russell M. Nelson’s October 2016 conference talk, which Ryan referred to as “Joy and Spiritual Survival” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2016/10/joy-and-spiritual-survival?lang=eng from which we can all learn super valuable, joy-producing lessons:
“Life is full of detours and dead ends, trials and challenges of every kind. Each of us has likely had times when heartache, anguish, and despair nearly consumed us. Yet, are we here to have joy? . . . But how is that possible? . . . (He then told the short true story below to describe how that is definitely possible for those who choose to center their lives on Jesus Christ and His joy-producing teachings.)
Eliza R. Snow, the second Relief Society General President, offered a fascinating answer. Because of Missouri’s infamous extermination order, issued at the beginning of the grueling winter of 1838, she and other Saints were forced to flee the state that same winter. (If some of you readers don’t know about that infamous order from Governor Lilburn Boggs; because of the unjust prejudice caused by many lies against the members and leaders of our Church, he ordered that all members of our Church be removed from the state or exterminated. It’s hard to believe, but in those days people didn’t get in trouble for abusing members of our Church or Black people in the United States, who were still living in slavery.) Eliza’s family spent the night in a small log cabin used by refugee Saints. Much of the rattling between the logs had been logged and burned for firewood by those who had gone before them, so there were holes between the logs large enough for a cat to crawl through. It was bitterly cold, and the food was frozen. That night, about 80 people crowded into that tiny hut, only 20 square feet. Most sat or stood all night trying to stay warm. Outside, a group of men spent the night gathered around a crackling fire, some singing hymns and others roasting frozen potatoes. Eliza recorded: “Not a single complaint was heard; everyone was cheerful.”
Eliza’s report on that tiring and chilling night was surprisingly optimistic. She declared, “That was a very happy night. No one except saints (followers of Jesus Christ) can be happy under any circumstances. That’s it! Saints can be happy under any circumstances. We can feel joy even when we have a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year!” ( Followers and members of the Church of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago were called saints, and the same is true today, although none of Jesus’ followers then or now is a perfect saint yet.)
My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation, . . . and Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening (or not happening) in our lives. Joy comes from and because of Him. He is the source of all joy. We feel it at Christmas when we sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.” And we can feel it all year long. For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy!
We also recognize that there is a system of guidance, given by God to the inner spirit of every child of God anywhere in the world, that gives each of us guidance about what is right and what is wrong, and that if followed, brings true love, joy, and inner peace, regardless of whether someone has been blessed with a Bible or the Book of Mormon to guide them. In the Book of Mormon, that guidance for our inner spirit is called the Light of Christ. Many people call it our conscience.
Some very important questions for each of us to pause for deep reflection and prayer:
If you were in a serious accident today, like Ryan was 18 years ago, and were suddenly paralyzed from the neck down, are you centered enough in Christ to be able to experience true joy, love, and inner peace directly from God within your inner spiritual being, as Ryan was able to do with much prayer and God’s help?
If not, would you like to become more Christ-centered by choosing to do a very serious, prayerful 30-day (or longer) experiment with the amazing, joy-producing teachings of Jesus Christ, as recorded by God’s prophets in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon, so that you can receive more joy, love, and inner peace in your own life? If you don’t have a copy of either the Book of Mormon or the Bible, I highly recommend visiting this website to learn about the teachings of Jesus Christ and requesting your free copy of both: www.ComeUntoChrist.org
Do you recognize that the way Ryan has been able to experience true joy, love, and inner peace is an amazing miracle from God?
Truly, my favorite miracles from God are the love, joy, and inner peace He promises to give us even during our most difficult trials in earthly school. We, Charles and Amparo Hunt, add with delight our own heartfelt testimony, that we have come to know with 100% certainty through much careful study and prayer, fasting, and careful observation of our own lives and the lives of countless others; that choosing to focus our lives on coming fully to Jesus Christ and His teachings will bring more love, joy, and inner peace into our lives and relationships than anything else.