The greatest joys and the greatest sorrows we experience are in family relationships. The joys come from putting the welfare of others above our own. That is what love is. And the sorrow comes primarily from selfishness, which is the absence of love. The ideal God holds for us is to form families in the way most likely to lead to happiness and away from sorrow.
Interpretation
Family relationships bring both joy and sorrow, and true love involves selflessness.
This quote highlights the significant emotional spectrum that family relationships entail, emphasizing that our greatest joys arise from selflessly caring for others. Conversely, the greatest sorrows stem from selfishness, which detracts from love and can cause harm within family dynamics. The quote suggests that the ideal way to cultivate happiness in families is through love and selflessness, aligning with a higher moral standard set by God.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a family gathering to emphasize the importance of love and support.
My point is to urge you to find ways to recognize and remember Godβs kindness. It will build our testimonies. You may not keep a journal. You may not share whatever record you keep with those you love and serve. But you and they will be blessed as you remember what the Lord has done.
Increased spiritual strength is a gift from God which He can give when we push in His service to our limits. Through the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our natures can be changed. Then our power to carry burdens can be increased more than enough to compensate for the increased service we will be asked to give.
Whether or not you choose to keep your covenant to always remember Him, He always remembers you.
What all of us long for in our hearts, at Christmastime and always, is to feel bound together in love with the sweet assurance that it can last forever.
We cannot control what others choose to do, and so we cannot force our children to heaven, but we can determine what we will do. And we can decide that we will do all we can to bring down the powers of heaven into that family we want so much to have forever.
It is serving God and others persistently with full heart and soul that turns testimony of truth into unbreakable spiritual strength.
My children come first and the career comes in around that.
As a parent you try to maintain a certain amount of control and so you have this tug-of-war ... You have to learn when to let go. And that's not easy.
I tell the kids that, even in a childhood marked by despair and deprivation, I knew that no matter what happened, I still had my family, or at least the remnants of a family ripped apart by divorce and then glued back together in various odd arrangements through a series of ill- advised remarriages. It was good to know I had a solid foundation.
In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example.
The traditional family table is round. No corners. No sides. No head. No tail. Everything is smooth. The food is in the center, and each family member reaches over the same distance. Someone you love is next to you on each side, and no one is last or at the end. The person farthest away from you is also the person facing you.
Whenever I feel like I'm getting too far away from where I need to be, I think about my sons and the legacy I have to leave for them - and it always brings me back to reality.
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