Thoughts mold your features. Thoughts lift your soul heavenward or drag you toward hell. โฆ As nothing reveals character like the company we like and keep, so nothing foretells futurity like the thoughts over which we brood. โฆ To have the approval of your conscience when you are alone with your thoughts is like being in the company of true and loving friends. To merit your own self-respect gives strength to character. Conscience is the link that binds your soul to the spirit of God.
David O. McKayAll good things require effort. That which is worth having will cost part of your physical being, your intellectual power, and your soul powerโโAsk, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.โ (Matt. 7:7.) But you have to seek, you have to knock. On the other hand, sin thrusts itself upon you. It walks beside you, it tempts you, it entices, it allures. You do not have to put forth effort. โฆ Evil seeks you, and it requires effort and fortitude to combat it. But truth and wisdom are gained only by seeking, by prayer, and by effort.
David O. McKayThe character of a child is formed largely during the first twelve years of his life. He spends 16 times as many waking hours in the home as in the school, and 126 times as many hours in the home as in the church. Each child is, to a great degree, what he is because of the ever-constant influence of home environment and the careful or neglectful training of parents. Home is the best place for the child to learn self-control, to learn that he must submerge himself for the good of another. It is the best place in which to develop obedience, which nature and society will later demand.
David O. McKayAs with companions so with books. We may choose those which will make us better, more intelligent, more appreciative of the good and the beautiful in the world, or we may choose the trashy, the vulgar, the obscene, which will make us feel as though we've been 'wallowing in the mire.
David O. McKayThe world is hungry to hear the truth. ... We have it. Are we equal to the task-to the responsibility God has placed upon us?
David O. McKayYouth need guidance, direction, and proper restraint...Parents, too, have a responsibility in this training not to provoke children to wrath. They should be considerate not to irritate by vexatious commands or place unreasonable blame. Whenever possible they should give encouragement rather than remonstrance or reproof.
David O. McKay