The Family is Eternal

"The family is eternal. Love must be nurtured. It must be spoken. We must put away our pride, our haughtiness, our shyness, our misunderstandings, and with humility say, "I love you. Is there something I can do to help you?" You can never be completely happy under any other circumstances."
Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Be a Mother who is Committed...

  "Be a Mother who is committed to loving her children into standing on higher ground than the enviroment surrounding them. Mother's are endowed with a love that is unlike any other love on the face of the earth."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Enjoy Life

"The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead"
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I Was Really Here

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautiful tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt form making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my nails from helping weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheek and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived. "
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I absolutely love Marjorie Hinckley and miss her wit and insight. This is one of my favorite quotes from her, including the one where she says something along the lines of choosing laughter over crying, because crying gives her a headache. Choices can make or break us, sometimes they break us for a little bit and we are made to our fullest potential in the end, but it is the choices that get us there. It's also about changing our perception to see how blessed we really are, leaving the wants behind and cherishing what we have in the here and now. I know, as I have seen it in my own life and others, that when we do our part that the Lord expects of us, hopes of us, He in turn can do His part and bless us in ways that we never thought possible. I love being a mom, and am grateful for the opportunity that I can be a mom after the many challenges I have faced with several miscarriages and coming to a point that I thought that I would never have this blessing in my life. I have my days, as everyone does of pulling my hair out --- maybe that is where all my gray comes from. But nevertheless, I do enjoy the life that has been given to me and do my best to make the choices that like Marjorie Hinckley, I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived.

Small and Simple Thing

"Think about your particular assignment at this time in your life. It may be to get an education, it may be to rear children, it may be to be a grandparent, it may be to care for an relieve the suffering of someone you love, it may be to do a job in the most excellent way possible, it may be to support someone who has a difficult assignment of their own. Our assignments are varied and they change from time to time. Don't take them lightly. Give them your full heart and energy. Do them with enthusiasm. Do whatever you have to do this week with your whole heart and soul. To do less than this will leave you with an empty feeling."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley (Small and Simple Things)

Simplify

"We women have a lot to learn about simplifying our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove something. We have to learn to be content with what we are."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Be Kind

"Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
— Marjorie Pay Hinckley