President Gordon B. Hinckley was such a special man and will be very sorely missed. At least now he is with his dear sweet wife Marjorie. What a sweet couple and wonderful people.
I want to share part of my favorite talk he ever gave. Sorry it's long, but it's good. He said,
"First, I want to tell you that I love you. I love you kids, you wonderful young people of this Church. I believe you are the best generation this Church has ever had. No generation which has gone before measures up to the stature to which you measure up. God bless you for what you are and who you are.
The world is on a slippery slide, it is going downhill and it is going fast. And you are as a beacon on a hill young people of rectitude and virtue and decency and goodness. Remain that way... You can stand above them. You must stand above them! The world will look to you as the years pass, of that I have no doubt whatever. For if it continues to go in the direction in which it is going, the disparity between the world and this Church will grow and lengthen and we will become more and more of a peculiar people.
Now, be faithful, be true, go forward, be ambitious. Don't short-circuit yourself. Don't stop now. Keep growing. Keep going. Educate your minds and your spirits and never lose sight of the fact that you are a child of God with a divine destiny and capability of doing great and good and wonderful things. Don't sell yourselves short. Don't cheapen yourselves. You know who you are. Each of you knows that you are a child of God and that your Heavenly Father expects something great and noble and good of you.
You just have to do your very best with all the capability you have. And somehow, if you do that, God will open the way before you and... you will accomplish great good in the world in which you take a part. May heaven smile upon you. May you be blessed. May your tears be few and your smiles many as you go forward with your lives is my humble prayer. There is no end in sight for the good you can do. Do you know it? You are just simple kids. You are not geniuses. I know that. But the work of the world isn't done by geniuses. It is done by ordinary people who have learned to work in an extraordinary way people of your kind who can do these things." - President Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct 22, 2002 (Click here to access the whole talk)
I was sitting in the audience listening when he gave that talk and I remember feeling so loved by this wonderful man. I think we all left there feeling like we could change the world in our own quiet little ways. :)
His wife was no less profound or loving. Here are 2 quotes she said that I love:
"The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cray. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache." - Marjorie Pay Hinckley (Aaron loves to remind me of this quote whenever I have one of those sobfests that most girls do.)
"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, 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 from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks 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
If you don't know who President Hinckley is, click here to read the New York Times article, or visit www.mormon.org to learn about the Church beliefs.
