God is very serious about joy in the lives of His children.

To think of enduring to the end as ‘hanging in there,’ doing one’s duty relentlessly, is not inaccurate. Yet enduring to the end is more than outlasting and surviving, though it includes those qualities. We are called upon, as was the Prophet Joseph, to ‘endure it well,’ gracefully, not grudgingly. (D&C 121:8.) We are also told that we must ‘endure in faith.’ (D&C 101:35.) These dimensions of enduring are important to note. Likewise, we are asked to endure ‘valiantly.’ (D&C 121:29.)

Education brightens a darkened world.

The unwillingness of most leaders to set standards, to administer feedback when standards are not met, to praise clearly when standards are met, stands in the way of the development of excellence. The leader who makes no demands of his disciples cannot really lead them at all. The sense of new excitement and new challenge generated by the gospel will be blunted by leaders who shield followers from the full demands of fellowship.

God’s grace will cover us like a cloak-enough to provide for survival but too thin to keep out all the cold.

Real hope is much more than wishful musing. It stiffens, not slackens, the spiritual spine.

We are vulnerable if we can be taken by a wave of emotion, invaded by an invidious impulse, roughed up by resentment, or engulfed by a surge of selfishness.