Ideal World

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal, is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey...delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas, and thrilling bursts of speed.The trick is to THANK the Lord for letting you have the ride."

Gordon B. Hinkley

The Station

The Station
by Robert J. Hastings

Tucked away in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long, long trip that almost spans the continent. We're traveling by passenger train and out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat. of flat lands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village hills, of biting winter and blazing summer and cavorting spring and docile fall.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station. There will be bands playing and flags waving. And once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true; so many wishes will be fulfilled and so many pieces of our lives finally will be neatly fitted together like a complete jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering...waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.

'When we reach the station, that will be it, we cry.' Translated it means, 'When I'm eighteen, that will be it...when I buy a new Mercedes Benz, that will be it...when I put the last kid through college, that will be it...when I have paid off the mortgage, when I win the promotion, when I retire, that will be it...I shall live happily ever after."

Unfortunately, once we get it, then it disappears. The station somehow hides itself at the end of an endless track.

Sooner or later we must realize there is no one station; no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.

It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad; rather, it is the regret over yesterday, or fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who would rob us of today.

So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot oftener, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less. Life must be lived as we travel along. The station will come soon enough.

If the Savior Came To Visit You

If The Savior Came to Visit You

By Donna Green

If the Savior came to visit you for just a day or two,
Would you be really comfortable with all the things you do?

Would everything within your home go on the old way?
Or would you have to change your ways during the Savior’s stay?

If the Savior came to your house to spend some time with you,
would you be prepared to meet Him and a warm friendship renew?Would you really know Him and long to have Him stay,

Or would you hope that He would wait and come another day?

So you could do the many things that you’ve been planning to,

But never seemed to have the time or take the time to do?

“If only I had known that He would come today,
I really would have been prepared.”
Are these the words you might say?

“Please give me but another day and I will use it to prepare,
To read the scriptures faithfully, help those in need and kneel in prayer.”

But no one knows when He will come. Not the hour or the day.
And if we are to be prepared we must begin today.

To take upon us our Savior’s name, come to know Him and do His will---Look forward to His coming, each sacred scripture to fulfill.

For whether His coming for each of us, is a great or dreadful day,

Will be determined by our faithfulness and how we live each day.