Given our drastically different life experiences, unless we exercise charity, it is all too easy to write off others’ soul-trying experiences as instances in which they simply made choices. I have three really good friends who have come out as gay, and I highly admire each of them, the first for his ability...

Self-reliance gives us the freedom to follow Christ’s commandment to “lift up the hands that hang down” (Doctrine & Covenants 81:5). “Let’s not be gullible gulls. We…must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence.” In...

As the world’s expectations for women change with the seasons, nothing is as empowering as Heavenly Father’s plan for his daughters. The modern world has opened up exciting opportunities for women. But with these opportunities, we often feel increased pressure. When we want to look beautiful, the world says, “Look perfect.” When we want to...

Agency is not the power to make choices in a vacuum—it is the power to make choices in relationship to our surroundings. We as children of heavenly parents have agency, or the ability to choose. The hymn “Choose the Right” expresses succinctly what we are to do with this ability:...

In a world focused on achievement and perfection, let’s remove unrealistic expectations by celebrating our progress. In his talk “Be Ye Therefore Perfect—Eventually,” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles emphasizes the importance of not beating ourselves up when we seem to keep falling short. He...

When you are flooded with conflicting messages and instructions, faith it ‘til you make it. Discerning truth can be difficult. Years ago, Elder Bruce R. McConkie shared some valuable insights that are just as relevant today as they were then. In his Brigham Young University devotional discourse “The Seven Deadly...