Decisions

• Mosiah 26:13…When you’re not sure of what to do, go to the Lord and inquire.
• Mosiah 28: 6-8…The Lord will give you an answer, but the final decision is yours (Mosiah granted it, not the Lord.  He made the final decision)
• Mosiah 28: 6…When in doubt or not sure, inquire of the Lord through prayer
• Alma 17: 29-31…When you’re in a tough situation, don’t get down, just think for solutions and overcome it happily
• Mosiah 18: 19…Only teach things spoken by Prophets
• 2 Nephi 32:3…Study word of Christ because they’ll tell you all you need to do
• 2 Nephi 32:5…The Spirit will show us all we need to do
• “The collapse of wealth over several generations is not news to your financial or legal advisors. It wasn’t news two thousand years ago when a Chinese scholar penned the adage: “fubuguo san dai,” or “Wealth never survives three generations.” Or in the thirteenth century England, where the proverb, “Clogs to clogs in three generations,” had morphed by the 1600s to “Rags to riches to rags.” In nineteenth-century America, where fortunes were made and lost with astounding speed amidst the goldfields, oil wells, copper mines, and railroad booms, people said “From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” Beating the Midas Curse, by Perry L. Cochell and Rodney C. Zeeb, Page 26-27
• “It has never been God’s intention that His children stand-alone in important decisions and responsibilities. During our premortal existence, He himself called for a grand council to present His glorious plan for our eternal welfare. His Church is organized with councils at every level, beginning with the Council of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and extending right on through to our stake, ward, and family councils.” Counseling with Our Councils M. Russell Ballard, Page 11
• “Those who have the courage to discover and bring forth their genius breakthrough to unparalleled heights of productivity and life satisfaction. Discovering your Zone of Genius is your life’s Big Leap. Everything up until now has been about hops, not leaps. Hopping, though it seems safe, is actually hazardous to your health. If you confine yourself to hops, you run the risk of rusting from the inside out. I know. I caught myself, halfway through my life, in the very act of rusting. There I was, hopping along in my Zone of Excellence when suddenly I became aware of a dull and sluggish feeling deep within me. I couldn’t figure out what it was at first. As I tuned in to it, I realized it had been there for months, maybe years. I had gotten to a place in my life where I could almost sleepwalk through doing all the things that kept me successful—writing books, giving speeches, coaching executives, teaching seminars. I did them and did them and did them, and the money kept pouring in. Soon there were employees, a big building, three houses, and an army of support personnel that needed to be fed. I remember well the day it all imploded on me. I got off the plane, exhausted from a grueling trip during which I’d given many talks and seminars—nineteen cities in twenty-one days. I stopped by the office on the way home, and there I encountered glum looks on the faces of my accountant and administrative director. They announced that taxes were due and that because of a cash-flow shortfall I needed to borrow $120,000 from myself to pay our taxes. I felt like a hunter-gatherer returning with a wild boar for the campfire, expecting high-fives and a hot dinner, only to be told I also owed a couple of buffalo. I slunk home, dejected and irritated, and there I found that my garage door opener had died. Leaving my car in the driveway, I trudged out to get the mail. The first thing I pulled out was a big envelope emblazoned with this headline: “Congratulations on Turning 50! Here Is Your Free AARP Card!” I paused to digest the significance of this moment, and that’s when I became aware of the sluggish, dull feeling deep within me. At first, I worried it might be a medical problem, so I started by getting a thorough workup. I discovered that I was in the best of health, except for twenty extra pounds of prosperity-induced padding, the effects of too many well-paid after-dinner speeches. Finding I was in good health meant I had to take a deeper look. When I did, I found the source of my rust, and that discovery changed my life. The source was hidden in plain sight: it was the Upper Limit Problem I knew so well. In spite of knowing a lot about it intellectually, I had gotten comfortably numb in my Zone of Excellence. So comfortably numb, in fact, that the ULP had sneaked up and gotten me. Without realizing it, I’d worn such a comfortable rut in my Zone of Excellence that I had overlooked the beckoning calls of my Zone of Genius. Fortunately, I got the message in time. I want to make sure you do, too.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 113
• “Ah, my soul, look to the road you are walking on. He who picks up one end of the stick picks up the other. He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to.” (Harry Emerson Fosdick, Ensign, Nov. 1990, 40)
• “The things that matter most must not be at the mercy of the things that matter least.” (Marion D. Hanks, Ensign, May 1991, 46)
• “…Our decisions here lay the foundation for what awaits us there.” (Gerald E. Melchin, Ensign, May 1994, 81)
• “The Lord’s willingness to assist in our decisions will be based on the same principles that led the Prophet to the grove and the Savior to the garden.” (Gerald E. Melchin, Ensign, May 1994, 81-82)
• “Decisions determine destiny.” (Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, May 1988, 54)
• “When we seek inspiration to help make decisions, the Lord gives gentle promptings. These require us to think, to exercise faith, to work, to struggle at times, and to act. Seldom does the whole answer to a decisively important matter or complex problem come all at once. More often, it comes to a piece at a time, without the end in sight.” (Richard G. Scott, Ensign, Nov. 1989, 32)
• “Although you’re wired to solve problems, you’re not wired to accurately define them. In the fight for survival, which determined your inherent characteristics, the ability to make a quick decision was more important than the ability to make an accurate one. You’re wired for speed and not precision. Imagine your ancient ancestor observing the rustling of the grass approaching him on the prehistoric savannah. This was either a saber-toothed tiger or the wind blowing the tall grass. The ancestor who made a quick decision to run was the one who survived, passing this trait to you; the one who stayed to determine the source of the rustling grass was more apt to be eaten by the tiger. His genes, and aptitude for problem analysis, were taken out of the gene pool long before modern times. Speed of thought is in your genetic makeup. It served your ancestors well with life-threatening problems, but now causes you to misdiagnose the not-so-life-threatening ones you now face.” Borrowing Brilliance: The Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others (David Kord Murray) Page 35
• “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
• “And remember this one last thing. There’s only one guy here in this room who knows whether you’re going to make it, or fail. And that’s you. Go to it, gentlemen. And always give it everything.”Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 (Luttrell, Marcus) page 123
• “I started to feel like I was getting in the way. I wasn’t contributing, and although I knew manager Nick Leyva was in my corner, I also knew he had to be taking heat about keeping me in the four-hole. The focus of the team during that period was basically me—and my home run total. This was uncomfortable, and the loss only made the situation worse. I started looking for real signs, and I also prayed for direction, as this was a life decision that would affect a lot of people. My hitting slump continued. I went 2 for 21 on the road trip, which along with the loss was a sign in itself. Then, during the Sunday getaway game, came the epiphany. The Giants had men on first and second, and Robby Thompson hit a double-play ground ball right at me. It went through my legs and into my left to load the bases. Another sign, this one that I was losing it defensively. It was almost like I didn’t want to be in the game like I was afraid of the ball. In my prime, I would have taken a broken nose rather than let that ball go through me. The final sign came on the next pitch, a Will Clark grand slam. As he rounded the bases and ran in front of me at third base, I made my decision: This was my last game. Just recalling it puts a lump in my throat. I dreaded the announcement, the press conference, the cameras in my face, the interviews, a media circus, all that would go with it, but at the same time, and most of all, I felt relief. It was time. The weight would be off my shoulders. I saw a Phillies team free to rebuild, to move on without me as the ball and chain.” Clearing the Bases (Schmidt, Mike; Waggoner, Glen) Kindle Location 953-957
• Hebrews 11:8….8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
• “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”  – Winston Churchill
• “For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming of the Lord. Every previous gospel dispensation has drifted into apostasy, but ours will not… God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the Kingdom triumphantly. And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God. All through the ages, the prophets have looked down through the corridors of time to our day. Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes on us. Make no mistake about it – you are a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time as there is of us. Never before on the face of this earth have the forces of evil and the forces of good been as well organized…. …Each day we personally make many decisions that show where our support will go. The final outcome is certain – the forces of righteousness will finally win. What remains to be seen is where each of us personally, now and in the future, will stand in this fight – and how tall we will stand. Will we be true to our last-days, foreordained mission?”  (Ezra Taft Benson, “In His Steps,” Speeches of the Year 1979, 59-60)
• “Brothers and sisters, we may not be able to change [the trends of the world], but we can refuse to be a part of them.”  (Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, May 1994, 89)
• “You can’t make eternal decisions without eternal consequences.”  (Thomas S. Monson, Church News, 12 Nov. 2005, 3)
•  2 Nephi 32:9…But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform anything unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.
• December 20, 1995 – Wednesday – Quito Ecuador… “Wow.  Great day.  We taught 8 second charlas today and we committed 4 to be baptized.  We’re going to commit the other 4 ya mismo.  I’m really seeing the positive side of things.  When Satan does something, or something fails, I can recognize it, think, and do the best of the situation.  Many times the citas are stood up, so we think of another option – nada, and then another – nada – but we always find someone in the road, or by their house so that we make contact, or take out the referral.  The Lord really does guide us to do the things that he wants us to do.  I know this is His work, and no one elses.  I love being here.  It’s so important to be worthy of the Spirit.  If not – no success.” – Clinton Brown Missionary Journal