30 Days of Thanksgiving #7

Yesterday I had a good friend suggest some reading from one of Elder Maxwell's books, "Not My Will, But Thine". The chapter I read last night was amazing and powerful. I am grateful for this friend and for his recommendation.

As I was touched by many of the things Elder Maxwell said, I starting thinking of all of my favorite quotes by Elder Maxwell - and they are a lot! So today, I am grateful for Elder Maxwell, for his service and example. I am grateful for his willingness to share his spiritual insights so that I can grow as well. And in that same spirit of sharing, here are some of my favorite Elder Maxwell quotes. These first are from that chapter last night:

• One of the most important contributions submissiveness makes to our individual happiness occurs in crucial moments of truth. These are moments when we teeter back and forth between surrender to Him and surrender to ourselves, between obedience and defiance. Submissiveness not only helps us to make right resolutions but also dissolves our pride, with its worry about what others will think if we admit error and yield to God.
• Spiritual submissiveness is not blind faith but deliberate obedience.
• Submission to God, among many things, requires us to strip ourselves of our pride in order to be obedient to Him.
• Certain supernal spiritual blessings seem to come only after demonstrated obedience.

One of my favorite talks by Elder Maxwell is "Notwithstanding My Weakness" from the November 1976 Ensign. Here are some of my favorite quotes from that talk (although I highly encourage you to read the entire talk!):

• The scriptural advice, "Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength" (D&C 10:4) suggests paced progress, much as God used seven creative periods in preparing man and this earth. There is a difference, therefore, between being "anxiously engaged" and being over-anxious and thus underengaged.
• We can distinguish more clearly between divine discontent and the devil's dissonance, between dissatisfaction with self and disdain for self. We need the first and must shun the second, for when conscience calls to us from the next ridge, it is not solely to scold but also to beckon.
• We can make quiet but more honest inventories of our strengths, since, in this connection, most of us are dishonest bookkeepers and need confirming "outside auditors." He who was thrust down in the first estate delights to have us put ourselves down. Self-contempt is of Satan; there is none of it in heaven. We should, of course, learn from our mistakes, but without forever studying the instant replays as if these were the game of life itself.
• We can learn that at the center of our agency is our freedom to form a healthy attitude toward whatever circumstances we are placed in!
• Discouragement is not the absence of adequacy but the absence of courage, and our personal progress should be yet another way we witness to the wonder of it all!

Another of my favorite talks from Elder Maxwell is "Endure It Well" from the May 1990 Ensign. I haven't read it for awhile - that's on my agenda for today. And one final quote - I have this on a magnet and I haven't been able to find any source information so far - if you can help, please leave a comment!

• Faith in God includes faith in His timing.

I found it! It was in the beginning of the very next chapter after the one I read last night! From Elder Maxwell's "Not My Will, But Thine":

• Real faith in God includes faith in His timing.