Broken Things to Mend

• “The first words Jesus spoke in His majestic Sermon on the Mount were to the troubled, the discouraged and downhearted. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” He said, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland)- Kindle Location: 35-37
• “Trust me, learn of me, do what I do. Then, when you walk where I am going,” He says, “we can talk about where you are going, and the problems you face and the troubles you have. If you will follow me, I will lead you out of darkness,” He promises. “I will give you answers to your prayers. I will give you rest to your souls.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland)- Kindle Location: 51-53
• “Just believing, just having a molecule of faith—simply hoping for things which are not yet seen in our lives, but which are nevertheless truly there to be bestowed (see Alma 32:21)—that simple step, when focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, has ever been and always will be the first principle of His eternal gospel, the first step out of despair.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland)- Kindle Location: 59-61
• “Second, we must change anything we can change that may be part of the problem. In short, we must repent, perhaps the most hopeful and encouraging word in the Christian vocabulary.”  Broken Things to Mend(Jeffrey R. Holland)- Kindle Location: 61-63
• “Certainly not everything we struggle with is a result of our actions. Often our trials result from the actions of others or just the mortal events of life. But anything we can change we should change, and we must forgive the rest.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland)- Kindle Location: 64-65
• “Following these most basic teachings, a splendor of connections to Christ opens up to us in multitudinous ways: prayer and fasting and meditation upon His purposes, savoring the scriptures, giving service to others, “succor[ing] the weak, lift[ing] up the hands which hang down, . . . strengthen[ing] the feeble knees” (D&C 81:5). Above all else, loving with “the pure love of Christ,” that gift that “never faileth,” that gift that “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, [and] endureth all things” (Moroni 7:47, 46, 45).”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland)- Kindle Location: 71-75
• “I think also of that night when Christ rushed to the aid of His frightened disciples, walking as He did on the water to get to them, calling out, “It is I; be not afraid.” Peter exclaimed, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” Christ’s answer to him was as it always is, every time: “Come,” He said. Instantly, as was his nature, Peter sprang over the vessel’s side and into the troubled waters. While his eyes were fixed upon the Lord, the wind could toss his hair and the spray could drench his robes, but all was well—he was coming to Christ. It was only when his faith wavered and fear took control, only when he removed his glance from the Master to look at the furious waves and the ominous black gulf beneath, only then did he begin to sink into the sea. In newer terror, he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Undoubtedly with some sadness, the Master over every problem and fear, He who is the solution to every discouragement and disappointment, stretched out His hand and grasped the drowning disciple with the gentle rebuke, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matthew 14:27–31; emphasis added).”  Broken Things to Mend(Jeffrey R. Holland)- Kindle Location: 94-103
• “In Nazareth, the narrow road, That tires the feet and steals the breath, Passes the place where once abode The Carpenter of Nazareth. And up and down the dusty way The village folk would often wend; And on the bench, beside Him, lay Their broken things for Him to mend. The maiden with the doll she broke, The woman with the broken chair, The man with a broken plow, or yoke, Said, “Can you mend it, Carpenter?” And each received the thing he sought, In yoke, or plow, or chair, or doll; The broken thing which each had brought Returned again a perfect whole. So, up the hill the long years through, With heavy step and wistful eye, The burdened souls their way pursue, Uttering each the plaintive cry: “O Carpenter of Nazareth, This heart, that’s broken past repair, This life, that’s shattered nigh to death, Oh, can You mend them, Carpenter?” And by His kind and ready hand, His own sweet life is woven through Our broken lives, until they stand A New Creation—” all things new.” “The shattered [substance] of [the] heart, Desire, ambition, hope, and faith, Mould Thou into the perfect part, O, Carpenter of Nazareth!”  Broken Things to Mend(Jeffrey R. Holland)- Kindle Location: 104-21
• “We can be reasonably active, meeting-going Latter-day Saints, but if we do not live lives of gospel integrity and convey to our children powerful, heartfelt convictions regarding the truthfulness of the Restoration and the divine guidance of the Church from the First Vision to this very hour, then those children may, to our regret but not surprise, turn out not to be visibly active, meeting-going Latter-day Saints or sometimes anything close to it.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 165-68
• “Moms and dads can do everything right and yet have children who stray. The moral agency still obtains. But even in such painful hours, it will be comforting for you to know that your children knew of your abiding faith in Christ, in His true Church, in the keys of the priesthood, and in those who hold them. It will be comforting then for you to know that if your children choose to leave the straight and narrow way, they leave it very conscious that their parents were firmly in it. Furthermore, they will be much more likely to return to that path when they come to themselves (see Luke 15:17) and recall the loving example and gentle teachings you offered them there.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 185-89
• “Nephi-like, might we ask ourselves, what do our children know? From us? Personally? Do our children know that we love the scriptures? Do they see us reading them and marking them and clinging to them in daily life? Have our children ever unexpectedly opened a closed door and found us on our knees in prayer? Have they heard us not only pray with them but also pray for them out of nothing more than sheer parental love? Do our children know we believe in fasting as something more than an obligatory first-Sunday-of-the-month hardship? Do they know that we have fasted for them and for their future on days about which they knew nothing? Do they know we love being in the temple, not least because it provides a bond to them that neither death nor the legions of hell can break? Do they know we love and sustain local and general leaders, imperfect as they are, for their willingness to accept callings they did not seek in order to preserve a standard of righteousness they did not create? Do those children know that we love God with all our heart and that we long to see the face—and fall at the feet—of His Only Begotten Son? I pray that they know this.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 193-201
• “In speaking of mothers generally, I especially wish to praise and encourage young mothers. The work of a mother is hard, too often unheralded work. The young years are often those when either husband or wife—or both—may still be in school or in those earliest and leanest stages of developing the husband’s breadwinning capacities. Finances fluctuate daily between low and nonexistent. The apartment is usually decorated in one of two smart designs: Deseret Industries provincial or early Mother Hubbard. The car, if there is one, runs on smooth tires and an empty tank. But with night feedings and night teethings, often the greatest challenge of all for a young mother is simply fatigue. Through these years, mothers go longer on less sleep and give more to others with less personal renewal for themselves than any other group I know at any other time in life. It is not surprising when the shadows under their eyes sometimes vaguely resemble the state of Rhode Island. Of course, the irony is that this is often the sister we want to call—or need to call—to service in the ward and stake auxiliaries. That’s understandable. Who wouldn’t want the exemplary influence of these young Loises- and Eunices-in-the-making? It would be well for leaders to be wise, to remember that families are the highest priority of all, especially in those formative years. Even so, young mothers will still find magnificent ways to serve faithfully in the Church, even as others serve and strengthen them—and their families—in like manner. Do the best you can through these years, but whatever else you do, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones. Husbands—especially husbands—as well as Church leaders and friends in every direction, be helpful and sensitive and wise. Remember, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 221-35
• “You have every right to receive encouragement and to know in the end your children will call your name blessed, just like those generations of foremothers before you who hoped your same hopes and felt your same fears. Yours is the grand tradition of Eve, the mother of all the human family, the one who understood that she and Adam had to fall in order that “men [and women] might be” and that there would be joy (2 Nephi 2:25). Yours is the grand tradition of Sarah and Rebekah and Rachel, without whom there could not have been those magnificent patriarchal promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that bless us all. Yours is the grand tradition of Lois and Eunice and the mothers of the 2,000 stripling warriors. Yours is the grand tradition of Mary, chosen and foreordained from before this world was, to conceive, carry, and bear the Son of God Himself. We thank all of you, including our own mothers, and tell you there is nothing more important in this world than participating so directly in the work and glory of God, in bringing to pass the mortality and earthly life of His daughters and sons, so that immortality and eternal life can come in those celestial realms on high.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 262-71
• “Rely on Him. Rely on Him heavily. Rely on Him forever. And “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope” (2 Nephi 31:20). You are doing God’s work. You are doing it wonderfully well. He is blessing you and He will bless you, even—no, especially—when your days and your nights may be the most challenging. Like the woman who anonymously, meekly, perhaps even with hesitation and some embarrassment, fought her way through the crowd just to touch the hem of the Master’s garment, so Christ will say to the women who worry and wonder and sometimes weep over their responsibility as mothers, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole” (Matthew 9:22). And faith—yours and your children’s—will make your children whole as well.”  Broken Things to Mend(Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 279-85
• “This relationship between Christ and His Father is one of the sweetest and most moving themes running through the Savior’s ministry. Jesus’ entire being, His complete purpose and delight, were centered in pleasing His Father and obeying His will. Of Him He seemed always to be thinking; to Him He seemed always to be praying. Unlike us, He needed no crisis, no discouraging shift in events to direct His hopes heavenward. He was already instinctively, longingly looking that way.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 296-99
• “I suppose no book I have read in recent months has alarmed me more than a work entitled Fatherless America. In this study, the author speaks of “fatherlessness” as “the most harmful demographic trend of this generation,” the leading cause of damage to children. It is, he is convinced, the engine driving our most urgent social problems, from poverty to crime to adolescent pregnancy to child abuse to domestic violence. Among the principal social issues of our time is the flight of fathers from their children’s lives.” Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 319-23
• “Of even greater concern than the physical absenteeism of some fathers is the spiritually or emotionally absent father. These are fatherly sins of omission that are probably more destructive than sins of commission. Why are we not surprised that when 2,000 children of all ages and backgrounds were asked what they appreciated most about their fathers, they answered universally, “He spends time with me”?”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 323-26
• “As Edgar A. Guest wrote in these little storybook verses remembered from my youth: Only a dad with a tired face, Coming home from the daily race . . . Glad in his heart that his own rejoice To see him come home and to hear his voice. . . . Only a dad, neither rich nor proud, Merely one of the surging crowd, Toiling, striving from day to day, Facing whatever may come his way, . . . Only a dad but he gives his all, To smooth the way for his children small, Doing with courage stern and grim The deeds that his father did for him. This is the line that for him I pen, Only a dad, but the best of men.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 332-40
• “At a vulnerable moment in young Nephi’s life, his prophetic future was determined when he said, “I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father” (1 Nephi 2:16). At the turning point of the prophet Enos’ life, he said it was “the words which I had often heard my father speak” (Enos 1:3) that prompted one of the great revelations recorded in the Book of Mormon. And sorrowing Alma the Younger, when confronted by the excruciating memory of his sins, “remembered also to have heard [his] father prophesy . . . concerning the coming of . . . Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world” (Alma 36:17). That brief memory, that personal testimony offered by his father at a time when the father may have felt that nothing was sinking in, not only saved the spiritual life of this, his son, but changed forever the history of the Book of Mormon people.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 355-61
• “In that most burdensome moment of all human history, with blood appearing at every pore and an anguished cry upon His lips, Christ sought Him whom He had always sought—His Father. “Abba,” he cried, “Papa,” or from the lips of a younger child, something akin to “Daddy” (Mark 14:36). This is such a personal moment it almost seems a sacrilege to cite it. A Son in unrelieved pain, a Father His only true source of strength, both of them staying the course, making it through the night—together. Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 365-69
• “In this same vein may I address an even more sensitive subject. I plead with you to please be more accepting of yourself, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing to look like someone else. We are all different. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are round, and some are thin. And almost everyone at some time or other wants to be something he or she is not! But as one adviser to teenage girls said: “You can’t live your life worrying that the world is staring at you. When you let people’s opinions make you self-conscious you give away your power. . . . The key to feeling [confident] is to always listen to your inner self—[the real you.]” And in the kingdom of God, the real you is “more precious than rubies” (Proverbs 3:15). Every young woman is a child of destiny and every adult woman a powerful force for good. I mention adult women because they are our greatest examples and resource for these young women. And if a woman is obsessing over being a size 2, she won’t be very surprised when her daughter or the Mia Maid in her class does the same and makes herself physically ill trying to accomplish it. We should all be as fit as we can be—that’s good Word of Wisdom doctrine. That means eating right and exercising and helping our bodies function at their optimum strength. We could probably all do better in that regard. But I speak here of optimum health; there is no universal optimum size.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 408-18
• “In terms of preoccupation with self and a fixation on the physical, this is more than social insanity; it is spiritually destructive, and it accounts for much of the unhappiness women, including young women, face in the modern world. And if adults are preoccupied with appearance—tucking and nipping and implanting and remodeling everything that can be remodeled—those pressures and anxieties will certainly seep through to children. At some point, the problem becomes what the Book of Mormon called “vain imaginations” (1 Nephi 12:18). And in secular society, both vanity and imagination run wild. One would truly need a great and spacious makeup kit to compete with beauty as portrayed in media all around us. Yet at the end of the day, there would still be those “in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers” as Lehi saw (1 Nephi 8:27) because however much one tries in the world of glamour and fashion, it will never be glamorous enough.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 422-29
• “President Gordon B. Hinckley often called on us to hold our people close to the Church, especially the newly converted member. In issuing this call, he reminded us that we all need at least three things to remain firmly in the faith: a friend, a responsibility, and “[nourishing] by the good word of God” (Moroni 6:4).”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 508-10
• “President David O. McKay once said, “No greater responsibility can rest upon any man [or woman] than to be a teacher of God’s children.””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 519-20
• “President Spencer W. Kimball once pled: “Stake presidents, bishops, and branch presidents, please take a particular interest in improving the quality of teaching in the Church. . . . I fear,” he said, “that all too often many of our members come to church, sit through a class or a meeting, and . . . then return home having been largely [uninspired]. It is especially unfortunate when this happens at a time . . . of stress, temptation, or crisis [in their life]. We all need to be touched and nurtured by the Spirit,” he said, “and effective teaching is one of the most important ways this can happen. We often do vigorous work,” President Kimball concluded, “to get members to come to Church but then do not adequately watch over what they receive when they do come.””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 528-34
• “” Effective teaching is the very essence of leadership in the Church. Eternal life,” President Hinckley continued, “will come only as men and women are taught with such effectiveness that they change and discipline their lives. They cannot be coerced into righteousness or into heaven. They must be led, and that means teaching.””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 535-37
• Ecclesiasticus 28:17…The stroke of the whip maketh marks in the flesh: but the stroke of the tongue breaketh the bones
• “The voice that bears profound testimony, utters a fervent prayer and sings the hymns of Zion can be the same voice that berates and criticizes, embarrasses and demeans, inflicts pain and destroys the spirit of oneself and of others in the process. “Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing,” James grieves. “These things ought not so to be.””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 613-16
• “I speak against verbal and emotional abuse of anyone against anyone, but especially of husbands against wives. These things ought not to be. Yet the sin of verbal abuse knows no gender. Wives, what of the unbridled tongue in your mouth, of the power for good or ill in your words? How is it that such a lovely voice, which by divine nature is so angelic, so close to the veil, so instinctively gentle and inherently kind, could ever, in turn, be so shrill, so biting, so acrid and untamed? A woman’s words can be more piercing than any dagger ever forged, and they can drive the people she loves to retreat beyond a barrier more distant than anyone would ever have imagined when such a verbal exchange was beginning. There is no place in that magnificent spirit of yours for acerbic or abrasive expression of any kind, including gossip or backbiting or catty remarks.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 624-30
• “negative speaking so often flows from negative thinking, including negative thinking about ourselves. We see our own faults, we speak—or at least think—critically of ourselves, and before long that is how we see everyone and everything. No sunshine, no roses, no promise of hope or happiness. Before long we and all around us are miserable.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 639-41
• “Elder Orson F. Whitney once said: “The spirit of the gospel is optimistic; it trusts in God and looks on the bright side of things. The opposite or pessimistic spirit drags men down and away from God, looks on the dark side, murmurs, complains, and is slow to yield obedience.” We should honor the Savior’s declaration to “be of good cheer” (Matthew 14:27; Mark 6:50; John 16:33). (Indeed, it seems to me we may be more guilty of breaking that commandment than almost any other!) Speak hopefully. Speak encouragingly, including about yourself. Try not to complain and moan incessantly. As someone once said, “Even in the golden age of civilization someone undoubtedly grumbled that everything looked too yellow.””  Broken Things to Mend(Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 641-46
• “As President Gordon B. Hinckley once said in a Churchwide broadcast: “My heart reaches out to you missionaries. You simply cannot do it alone and do it well. You must have the help of others. That power to help lies within each of us. . . . “Now, my brethren and sisters, we can let the missionaries try to do it alone, or we can help them. If they do it alone, they will knock on doors day after day and the harvest will be meager. Or as members we can assist them in finding and teaching investigators. . . . “Brothers and sisters, all of you out in the wards and stakes and in the districts and branches, I invite you to become a vast army with enthusiasm for this work and a great overarching desire to assist the missionaries in the tremendous responsibility they have to carry the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 678-84
• “People do not join the Church because of what they know. They join because of what they feel, what they see and want spiritually. Our spirit of testimony and happiness in that regard will come through to others if we let it.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 688-89
• “We should watch for the signs and read the meaning of the seasons, we should live as faithfully as we possibly can, and we should share the gospel with everyone so that blessings and protections will be available to all. But we cannot and must not be paralyzed just because that event and the events surrounding it are out there ahead of us somewhere. We cannot stop living life. Indeed, we should live life more fully than we have ever lived it before. After all, this is the dispensation of the fullness of times.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 774-78
• “I have heard very fearful and even dismal opinions coming from some in your age group regarding the questions that missionary had in mind. I have heard some of you say that you wonder whether there is any purpose in going on a mission or getting an education or planning for a career if the world we live in is going to be so uncertain. I have even heard sweethearts say, “We don’t know whether we should get married in such uncertain times.” Worst of all, I have heard reports of some newlyweds questioning whether they should bring children into a terror-filled world on the brink of latter-day cataclysms. May I tell you that, in a way, those kinds of attitudes worry me more than Al-Qaeda worries me. We must never, in any age or circumstance, let fear and the father of fear (Satan himself) divert us from our faith and faithful living. There have always been questions about the future. Every young person and every young couple in every era has had to walk by faith into what has always been some uncertainty—starting with Adam and Eve in those first tremulous steps out of the Garden of Eden. But that is all right. This is the plan. It will be okay. Just be faithful. God is in charge. He knows your name and He knows your need.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 778-87
• “God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future (that sounds pretty grim and stoic); He expects you to embrace and shape the future—to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 791-93
• “God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 739-94
• “President Gordon B. Hinckley taught: “We of this generation are the end harvest of all that has gone before. It is not enough to simply be known as a member of this Church. A solemn obligation rests upon us. Let us face it and work at it. “We must live as true followers of the Christ, with charity toward all, returning good for evil, teaching by example the ways of the Lord, and accomplishing the vast service He has outlined for us. “May we live worthy of the glorious endowment of light and understanding and eternal truth which has come to us through all the perils of the past. Somehow, among all who have walked the earth, we have been brought forth in this unique and remarkable season. Be grateful, and above all be faithful.””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 831-36
• “In fact, I have a theory about those earlier dispensations and the leaders, families, and people who lived then. I have thought often about them and the destructive circumstances that confronted them. They faced terribly difficult times and, for the most part, did not succeed in their dispensations. Apostasy and darkness eventually came to every earlier age in human history. Indeed, the whole point of the Restoration of the gospel in these latter days is that it had not been able to survive in earlier times and therefore had to be pursued in one last, triumphant age. We know the challenges Abraham’s posterity faced (and still do). We know of Moses’ problems with an Israelite people who left Egypt but couldn’t quite get Egypt to leave them. Isaiah was the prophet who saw the loss of the ten Israelite tribes to the north. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel were all prophets of captivity. Peter, James, John, and Paul, the great figures of the New Testament, all saw apostasy creeping into their world almost before the Savior had departed and certainly while they themselves were still living. Think of the prophets of the Book of Mormon, living in a dispensation ending with such painful communication between Mormon and Moroni about the plight they faced and the nations they loved dissolving into corruption, terror, and chaos. In short, apostasy and destruction of one kind or another were the ultimate fate of every general dispensation we have ever had down through time. But here’s my theory. My theory is that those great men and women, the leaders in those ages past, were able to keep going, to keep testifying, to keep trying to do their best, not because they knew that they would succeed but because they knew that you would. I believe they took courage and hope not so much from their own circumstances as from yours—a magnificent collection of young adults like you gathered by the hundreds of thousands around the world in a determined effort to see the gospel prevail and triumph.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 860-73
• “One way or another, I think virtually all of the prophets and early Apostles had their visionary moments of our time—a view that gave them courage in their own less-successful eras. Those early brethren knew an amazing amount about us. Prophets such as Moses, Nephi, and the brother of Jared saw the latter days in tremendously detailed vision. Some of what they saw wasn’t pleasing, but surely all those earlier generations took heart from knowing that there would finally be one dispensation that would not fail. Ours, not theirs, was the day that caused them to sing and prophesy of victory. Ours is the day, collectively speaking, toward which the prophets have been looking from the beginning of time, and those earlier brethren are over there still cheering us on! In a very real way, their chance to consider themselves fully successful depends on our faithfulness and our victory. I love the idea of going into the battle of the last days representing Alma and Abinadi and what they pled for and representing Peter and Paul and the sacrifices they made. If you can’t get excited about that kind of assignment in the drama of history, you can’t get excited!”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 876-84
• “Edith Stein was a woman of Jewish birth who became an atheist by age fourteen, earned a doctorate degree, later converted to Catholicism at age thirty, then wrote a number of theological treatises including “The Prayer of the Church.” At age forty-two, Edith entered the Carmel of Cologne as a nun, and four years later fled to the Carmel at Echt (Holland) to escape Nazi persecution of Jews. While in Holland she wrote: “The thought that we have . . . no lasting home is always with me. I have no other wish than that God’s Will should be accomplished in me. How long I am to be here depends on Him. As to what will happen then, it is not for me to concern myself. But it is necessary to pray much, in order to remain faithful come what may.” At age fifty-one she was arrested, transported to Auschwitz, and executed in August 1942 for faithfulness to her Jewish heritage and opposition to the Nazi cause. Edith—now beatified and known to Catholics as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross—was seen peacefully praying and actively serving her fellowman in the concentration camp until her last moments.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1096-1104
• “After she lost her husband in the martyrdom at Nauvoo and made her way west with five fatherless children, Mary Fielding Smith continued in her poverty to pay tithing. When someone at the tithing office inappropriately suggested one day that she should not contribute a tenth of the only potatoes she had been able to raise that year, she cried out to the man, “William, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Would you deny me a blessing? If I did not pay my tithing, I should expect the Lord to withhold His blessings from me. I pay my tithing, not only because it is a law of God, but because I expect a blessing by doing it. [I need a blessing.] By keeping this and other laws, I expect to . . . be able to provide for my family.””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1166-71
• “Paying tithing is not a token gift we are somehow charitably bestowing upon God. Paying tithing is discharging a debt. Elder James E. Talmage once described this as a contract between us and the Lord. He imagined the Lord saying: “‘You have need of many things in this world—food, clothing, and shelter for your family . . . , the common comforts of life. . . . You shall have the means of acquiring these things, but remember they are mine, and I require of you the payment of a rental upon that which I give into your hands. However, your life will not be one of uniform increase . . . [so] instead of doing as mortal landlords do—requir[ing] you to . . . pay in advance, whatever your fortunes or . . . prospects may be—you shall pay me . . . [only] when you have received; and you shall pay me in accordance with what you receive. If it so be that in one year your income is abundant, then . . . [your 10 percent will be a] little more; and if it be so that the next year is one of distress and your income is not what it was, then . . . [your 10 percent will be] less. . . . [Whatever your circumstance, the tithe will be fair.]’ “Have you ever found a landlord on earth who was willing to make that kind of [equitable] contract with you?” Elder Talmage asked. “When I consider the liberality of it all,” he said, ” . . . I feel in my heart that I could scarcely raise my countenance to . . . Heaven . . . if I tried to defraud [God] out of that [which is rightfully His].””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1189-1200
• “And deep down everyone knows that, even those who are mired in the depths of this. One of our national associates in this fight wrote, “When I ask men who are sex addicts if they would want their wife or daughter to be in porn, 100 percent say, ‘No.’ . . . They want it to be somebody else’s wife or daughter. They know this material is damaging [and the practice degrading.]””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1240-43
• “”The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. “Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. “If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light” (Luke 11:34–36).”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1256-60
• “I invite you to join me in regularly turning inward to confront there anything we wouldn’t want others to see. It may not be pornography, but it may be arrogance or unkindness, impatience or vanity, or any number of other flaws we need to remedy. Whatever it is let us trim our lamps, add oil, and make those changes necessary that allow us to hold up a brighter candle, a purer light. Christ-focused some of His most pointed opprobrium for the hypocrite. We must never be guilty of that in this battle. Each of us must be the best person we can be in every way we can.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1262-65
• “As Elder Robert D. Hales has observed: “Light and darkness cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Light dispels darkness. When light is present, darkness is vanquished and must depart. More importantly, darkness cannot conquer light unless the light is diminished or departs.””  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1277-79
• “Parental love, family activity, gentle teaching, and respectful conversation—sweet time together—can help keep the generations close and build bonds that will never be broken.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1300-1301
• “But both research and experience show that parental love and a happy home is the strongest defense our children have against anything the lords of darkness can throw at them.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1302-3
• “When you are confronted with challenges that are difficult to conquer or have questions arise, the answers to which you do not know, hold fast to the things you do know. Hang on to your firmest foundation, however limited that may be, and from that position of strength face the unknown.”  Broken Things to Mend (Jeffrey R. Holland) Kindle Loc. 1347-49