Love is the catalyst that causes change. Love is the balm that brings healing to the soul.

If you are persistent, you will succeed

A grateful heart, then, comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort-at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. Often we feel grateful and intend to express our thanks but forget to do so or just don't get around to it. Someone has said that "feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

There is much that is difficult and challenging in the world today, my brothers and sisters, but there is also much that is good and uplifting. As we declare in our thirteenth article of faith, 'If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.' May we ever continue to do so.

From the Book of Mormon come other precious promises, including promises of peace, freedom, and blessings if we 'will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ' (Ether 2:12).

Keep the commandments of God. If you have sinned, the sooner you begin to make your way back, the sooner you will find the sweet peace and joy that come with the miracle of forgiveness. Happiness comes from living the way the Lord wants you to live and from service to God and others.

If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues.