Tender Mercies: Simple Quotes From a Beautiful Woman

Don't we all love when our prayers are answered through the words of another?  There are times in life where my prayers have been answered through a scripture I'm lead to, through a call from a friend or reminder from another.  I've found answers in pages of books, through lessons at church, on the radio, and even whispered in my ear from the still small voice.  Today's answers came in the form of a reminder - a reminder of a quote I have always loved by one of my heroes - Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley.  A good friend shared this quote in our Relief Society lesson today and it was the answer I needed:

 “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 a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors 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." --Sister Marjorie Hinckley

As I went looking for the quote once I got home from church I was lead to a myriad of wonderful quotes she has shared over the years she was on earth.  As I re-read these gems I was reminded that right now I need to slow down and love my family.  I need to enjoy the time I have with my boys at this age, I need to cherish and treasure every moment.  In the particular challenge I had been longing to "fix" I was reminded that I need to "save the relationship" and not be filled with despair.  As I read her thoughts I felt a huge weight lifted and a reminder that I am good enough (you're good enough too!) and that I need to not be so hard on myself as a wife, mother and woman.  I need to try, and I need to move forwars with love in my heart.  I hope that some of these quotes can be a beautiful reminder to you as well. 

(These quotes were all found at this website.)
• "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."

• "Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

• "Home is where you are loved the most and act the worst."

• "The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead. The grand and the simple. They are equally wonderful."

• "I know it is hard for you young mothers to believe that almost before you can turn around the children will be gone and you will be alone with your husband. You had better be sure you are developing the kind of love and friendship that will be delightful and enduring. Let the children learn from your attitude that he is important. Encourage him. Be kind. It is a rough world, and he, like everyone else, is fighting to survive. Be cheerful. Don't be a whiner."

• "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."

• "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."

• "We are all in this together. We need each other. Oh, how we need each other. Those of us who are old need you who are young, and hopefully, you who are young need some of us who are old...We need deep and satisfying and loyal friendships with each other. These friendships are a necessary source of sustenance. We need to renew our faith every day. We need to lock arms and help build the kingdom so that it will roll forth and fill the whole earth."

• "There are some years in our lives that we would not want to live again. But even these years will pass away, and the lessons learned will be a future blessing."

• "The grand and the simple. They are equally wonderful."

• "Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, "We are here in mortality, and the only way to go is through; there isn't any around!" I would add, the only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache."

• "The trouble with the world and the trouble with you and me is that we don't love each other enough. And if we do, we don't bother to show it, or we don't bother to say it. If the world is to know love, it has to be in your heart and in mine."

• "Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

• "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow what a ride!"

• "Just Save the Relationship" - from the book Glimpses, Sis's Hinckley's advice to her grandaughter when she needed to know what to do about the fits her daughter was throwing. Just save the relationship."

• "True spirituality makes you loving and grateful, and forgiving, and patient, and gentle, and long-suffering. True spirituality breathes reverence into every act and deed."

• "As we got closer to marriage, I felt completely confident that Gordon loved me. But I also knew somehow that I would never come first with him. I knew I was going to be second in his life and that the Lord was going to be first. And that was okay. It seemed to me that if you understood the gospel and the purpose of our being here, you would want a husband who put the Lord first."

• "...the beautiful thing--perhaps the thing I love most about the gospel-- is that everything we learn we can use and take with us and use it again. No bit of knowledge goes wasted. Everything you are learning now is preparing you for something else. Did you know that? What a concept!"

• "As you create a home, don't get distracted with a lot of things that have no meaning for you or your family. Don't dwell on your failures, but think of your successes. Have joy in your home. Have joy in your children. Have joy in your husband. Be grateful for the journey."

• "Develop some intellectual curiosity. If you have it, you will never be bored. If you haven't, cultivate it, hold fast to it. Never let it go. To the intellectually curious, the world will always be full of magic, full of wonder. You will be interesting to your friends, to your spouse, and a joy to your children. You will be alive to all the wonderful possibilities of this world."

• "Everything you are learning is preparing you for something else.”

Thank you Sister Hinckley for sharing your words of wisdom and advice.  I felt as if I had spent an afternoon being taught at the loving side of a grandmother or friend.  Thank you.