Talks that Have Made a Mark on Me

My Mom's got me thinking about the talks I've heard or read that have left a mark on me. I wanted to post them and a memorable line from them. I'd like to read yours if you'd like to do it too!


You may click on the titles and follow the link to read the talks in entirety.
These are not (and cannot be) in any particular order:

1. A Prayer for the Children by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from General Conference April 2003. My favorite part: "Nephi-like, might we ask ourselves what our children know? From us? Personally? Do our children know that we love the scriptures? Do they see us reading them and marking them and clinging to them in daily life? Have our children ever unexpectedly opened a closed door and found us on our knees in prayer? Have they heard us not only pray with them but also pray for them out of nothing more than sheer parental love? Do our children know we believe in fasting as something more than an obligatory first-Sunday-of-the-month hardship? Do they know that we have fasted for them and for their future on days about which they knew nothing? Do they know we love being in the temple, not least because it provides a bond to them that neither death nor the legions of hell can break? Do they know we love and sustain local and general leaders, imperfect as they are, for their willingness to accept callings they did not seek in order to preserve a standard of righteousness they did not create? Do those children know that we love God with all our heart and that we long to see the face—and fall at the feet—of His Only Begotten Son? I pray that they know this."
I remember this talk had such a spirit with it that I can still remember the details of where I was when this talk first given: I was with my sister Janna in my Grandma Beck's basement tv room and when it was over we both looked at each other and said, "Whoa."

2. The Women of God by Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign May 1978. My favorite part: "When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time. The women of God know this."
(We mothers need this perspective every day.)


3. That We May Always Have His Spirit to Be with Us by David A. Bednar, General Conference April 2006. My favorite line: "The standard is clear. If something we think, see, hear, or do distances us from the Holy Ghost, then we should stop thinking, seeing, hearing, or doing that thing. If that which is intended to entertain, for example, alienates us from the Holy Spirit, then certainly that type of entertainment is not for us. Because the Spirit cannot abide that which is vulgar, crude, or immodest, then clearly such things are not for us. Because we estrange the Spirit of the Lord when we engage in activities we know we should shun, then such things definitely are not for us."
(As Brian might say: "YEAH! DO IT Elder Bednar! Ah, the brick.")


4. Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence by Jeffrey R. Holland, BYU Devotional March 2 1999. My favorite part: Yes, there are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has been genuine illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don't give up when the pressure mounts. You can find an apartment. You can win over your mother-in-law. You can sell your harmonica and therein fund one more meal. It's been done before. Don't give in. Certainly don't give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. He wants everyone to be miserable like unto himself. Face your doubts. Master your fears. "Cast not away therefore your confidence." Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you.
(Beautiful!)

5. Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father by Neal A. Maxwell, General Conference October 1995. My favorite line: "For many moderns, sad to say, the query "What think ye of Christ?" (Matt. 22:42) would be answered, 'I really don't think of Him at all!'"
(Whoa.)