Transformative Truths Podcast

Even where we fall feebly short of the ideal, we have no question what the ideal is. When in biography or among our friends we see folk face crushing trouble—not embittered by it, made cynical, or thrust into despair, but hallowed, sweetened, illumined, and empowered—we are aware that noble characters do not alone bear trouble; they use it well. It becomes more clear the more one ponders it that, while this is often a hard world in which to be happy, to people of insight and faith it may be a great world in which to build character.

Harry Emerson Fosdick
The Meaning of Faith (1918)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Meaning of Faith, by Harry Emerson Fosdick

How delightful is the company of generous people, who overlook trifles and keep their minds instinctively fixed on whatever is good and positive in the world about them. People of small caliber are always carping. They are bent on showing their own superiority, their knowledge or prowess or good breeding. But magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And what is more, they find it everywhere.

Van Wyck Brooks
A Chilmark Miscellany
E. P. Dutton & Company, 1948.

If we filed every experience from our lives, we would have cabinets that stretch for football fields and folders that could fill several stadiums. On the other hand, if we discarded experience after experience and never paused to put some of them in their proper drawer and file, we would have little sense of continuity or meaning in our lives.

Effective personal memory, then, is a selection process that requires the ability to forget, as well as remember, personal events from our lives.

Jefferson A. Singer, Ph.D.
Memories That Matter: How to Use Self-Defining Memories to Understand and Change Your Life
(New Harbinger Publications, 2005).

For the Dominion Day celebration in July, my parents and some friends arranged to meet in the afternoon for a picnic at Park Lake. My family and two others arrived first.

Camp kitchens were filling fast, and we needed a stove for hamburgers and hot dogs. The men stayed at the entrance of the park to meet our other friends, and under a darkening sky, the mothers and children walked some distance around the lake to a three-walled rectangular shelter complete with a roof, two wooden tables, and a metal-covered cement stove for fires.

A violent thunderstorm came up. Splits and rumbles shaking the universe and us with light and sound. And finally, a deluge under the sheltering roof. We huddled in wonder till an astonishing clap of brilliance, tingles, shaking, and smell came all together. Lightning came down the chimney and exploded our stove.

Pieces of cement flew into bare arms. Children were thrown against walls. Purple-brown lines streaked down next to ankles, and I ran out into the rain and tall, wet weeds screaming my question. I thought Heavenly Father would take care of us. No one was dead or permanently damaged, and my mother came into the rain answering me.

What do you think He did? What do you think He just did?

Story by Francine Bean, as shared on the Transformative Truths podcast with Wally Goddard & Sarah Waldron (Episode 26: “Lightning, Faith, and Meaning Making”).

Let the kaleidoscope of life’s circumstances be shaken again and again, and the true believer in Christ will still see, with the eye of faith, divine design and purpose in his life

Neal A. Maxwell, Even As I Am(Deseret Book, 1982), often cited in devotionals and quote collections.

There is not one of us but what God’s love has been expended upon.
There is not one of us that He has not cared for and caressed.
There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save.
There is not one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning us.

We may be insignificant and contemptible in our own eyes and in the eyes of others; the truth remains that we are the children of God,
and that He has actually given His angels— invisible beings of power and might— charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping.

George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truth, Vol. 1 (Deseret Book, 1957)
Gospel truth; discourses and writings of president George Q. Cannon : Cannon, George Q. (George Quayle), 1827-1901 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

He watched his son gather all the goods
that were his lot,
anxious to be gone from tending flocks,
the dullness of the fields.

He stood by the olive tree gate long
after the caravan disappeared
where the road climbs the hills
on the far side of the valley,
into infinity.

Through changing seasons he spent the light
in a great chair, facing the far country,
and that speck of road on the horizon.

Mocking friends: “He will not come.”
Whispering servants: “The old man
has lost his senses.”
A chiding son: “You should not have let him go.”
A grieving wife: “You need rest and sleep.”

She covered his drooping shoulders, 
his callused knees, when east winds blew chill, until that day . . . 
A form familiar, even at infinity,
in shreds, alone, stumbling over pebbles.

When he was a great way off,
his father saw him,
and had compassion, and ran,
and fell on his neck, and kissed him

To Any Who Have Watched for a Son’s Returning” by Mary Lyman Henrie
A Robe, a Ring, and a Fatted Calf | Jeffrey R. Holland | BYU Speeches

And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless?

And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end.

Moses 1:3-4
Moses 1

We must take a stand against intolerance and advocate respect and understanding across cultures and traditions. Meeting refugee families and hearing their stories with your own ears, and not from a screen or newspaper, will change you. Real friendships will develop and will foster compassion and successful integration.

The Lord has instructed us that the stakes of Zion are to be “a defense” and “a refuge from the storm.” We have found refuge. Let us come out from our safe places and share with them, from our abundance, hope for a brighter future, faith in God and in our fellowman, and love that sees beyond cultural and ideological differences to the glorious truth that we are all children of our Heavenly Father.

Elder Patrick Kearon
(2016, May). Refuge from the storm. Ensign. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2016/04/refuge-from-the-storm

A sense of belonging is important to our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Yet it is quite possible that at times each of us might feel that we don’t fit in. In discouraging moments, we may feel that we will never measure up to the Lord’s high standards or the expectations of others. We may unwittingly impose expectations on others or even ourselves that are not the Lord’s expectations.

We may communicate in subtle ways that the worth of a soul is based on certain achievements or callings, but these are not the measure of our standing in the Lord’s eyes. The Lord looketh on the heart. He cares about our desires and longings and what we are becoming.

D. Todd Christofferson, “The Doctrine of Belonging,” General Conference, October 2022, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Doctrine of Belonging

Have you heard of the Sacred Window Theory? It is an often fleeting period of time when both your children and your parents are young and healthy, and all generations overlap without effort.

For me, this sacred window is a time when our children are still young and innocent, our time together is simple yet meaningful, and I am not yet competing with technology or friends. At the same time, our parents are still alive and healthy, and they truly love our children as much as we do.

Many people say this is something you only recognize after it has passed. During the holidays, I became acutely aware of this sacred window and how grateful I am to be able to soak it in. Does anyone else feel like they’re living in their sacred window?

Alyson Kenny (@chasingcivity), originally posted on Instagram

God loves us. He’s watching us. He wants us to succeed. We will know someday that He has not left one thing undone for the eternal welfare of each of us—if we only knew it. Heavenly hosts are pulling for us; friends in heaven whom we cannot now remember yearn for our victory. This is our day to show what we can do.

What life and sacrifice we can daily, hourly, instantly make for God. If we give our all, we will get His all from the greatest of all. I love the idea that if we give our all, we will get His all—from the greatest of all, the Lord Jesus Christ.

President Ezra Taft Benson
Jesus Christ—Gifts and Expectations, Introduction, p. 313

Some of us have been momentarily wrenched by the sound of a train whistle spilling into the night air, and we have been inexplicably subdued by the mix of feelings that this evokes.

Or perhaps we have been beckoned by a lighted cottage across a snow-covered meadow at dusk, or we have heard the warm and drawing laughter of children at a nearby playground. Or we have been tugged at by the strains of congregational singing from a nearby church, or we have encountered a particular fragrance that has awakened memories deep within us of things which once were.

In such moments, we have felt a deep yearning, as if we were temporarily outside of something to which we actually belonged, and of which we so much wanted again to be a part. There are spiritual equivalents of these moments; such seem to occur most often when time touches eternity.

In these moments we feel a longing closeness, but we are still separate. The partition which produces this paradox is something we call the veil—a partition the presence of which requires our patience. We define the veil as the border between mortality and eternity. It is also a film of forgetting which covers the memories of earlier experiences.
This forgetfulness will be lifted one day, and on that day we will see forever rather than through a glass, darkly. We experience close separateness when a baby is born, but also as we wait with those who are dying. For then we brush against the veil, as goodbyes and greetings are said almost within earshot of each other. In such moments, this resonance with realities on the other side of the veil is so obvious that it can be explained in only one way.

When the veil which encloses us is no more, time will also be no more. Even now, time is clearly not our natural dimension. Thus, it is that we are never really at home in time. Alternately, we find ourselves impatiently wishing to hasten the passage of time or to hold back the dawn. We can do neither, of course, whereas the bird is at home in the air. We are clearly not at home in time because we belong to eternity. Time, as much as any one thing, whispers to us that we are strangers here. If time were natural to us, why is it that we have so many clocks and wear wristwatches?

Thus, the veil stands not to shut us out forever, but to remind us of God’s tutoring and patient love for us. Any brush against the veil produces a feeling of “not yet,” but also faint whispers of anticipation of that moment when, in the words of today’s choral hymn, Come, Let Us Anew, those who have prevailed by the patience and hope and the labor of love will hear the glorious words, “Well and faithfully done. Enter into my joy and sit down on my throne.”

Neal A. Maxwell, “Patience,” BYU Devotional, November 27, 1979. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neal-a-maxwell/patience/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

My story is now told, and I hope, kind reader, you are convinced how little able I was to write it. I live in my own way the life that you do, and I am as happy as you are. The outward circumstances of our lives are but the shell of things. My life is pervaded by love as a cloud by light. Deafness is a barrier against intrusion, and blindness makes us oblivious to much that is ugly and revolting in the world. In the midst of unpleasant things I move as one who wears an invisible cap … Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, ‘There is joy in self-forgetfulness, so I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.’

Helen Keller, The Story of My Life (autobiography)

“When you face adversity, you can be led to ask many questions. Some serve a useful purpose; others do not. To ask, ‘Why does this have to happen to me? Why do I have to suffer this now? What have I done to cause this?’ will lead you into blind alleys. It really does no good to ask questions that reflect opposition to the will of God. Rather, ask, ‘What am I to do? What am I to learn from this experience? What am I to change? Whom am I to help? How can I remember my many blessings in times of trial?’ Willing sacrifice of deeply held personal desires in favor of the will of God is very hard to do. Yet when you pray with real conviction, ‘Please, let me know Thy will and may Thy will be done,’ you are in the strongest position to receive the maximum help from your loving Father.

Elder Richard G. Scott, Lord, I Believe, General Conference, April 2003.

Surely, I thought, if man can take the ruins, rubble, and remains of a broken city and rebuild an awe-inspiring structure that rises toward the heavens, how much more capable is our Almighty Father to restore His children who have fallen, struggled, or become lost?
It matters not how completely ruined one’s life may seem — destroyed by sin, loneliness or a broken heart.
Even those who are without hope, who live in despair, who have betrayed trust, surrendered their integrity, or turned away from God, can be rebuilt. There is no life so shattered it cannot be restored.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home,” General Conference, April 2016.

There is still so much love in this world—quiet, unassuming, yet endlessly generous. You may not always find it in people, not right away, but if you pause and soften your gaze, you’ll see it woven into everything.

The trees don’t ask if you’re worthy before they dance for you in the wind. The birds sing their morning songs as if the world is still full of promise—because it is. Even the smallest flower opens just for the chance to share its beauty with you. The butterfly doesn’t question your heaviness; it simply flutters by as a reminder that transformation is possible. And the dragonfly, shimmering in the light, says without words, You are a part of this. You belong.

The earth doesn’t just carry you—it cherishes you.
So, when your heart feels tired and you’re tempted to believe that love has forgotten you, step outside. Breathe. Listen.
The world is still whispering—Don’t give up.
You are loved more than you know.

Unknown

It has sometimes been hard for me to accept that God can forget in mercy what I remember with so much pain. I have sometimes felt like I was playing a game of mnemonic whack-a-mole—resolving one remembered sin only to recall another. I have doubted at times the adequacy of my repentance, even as I have anguished over the sins that made repentance necessary.

Justin Collings, Divine Law, 2024, p. 30

As I age I refuse to deny my years. When asked at 30, I’ll be 30. When the question comes up at 45, I’ll take 45. For what year could I subtract — the one in which my son or daughter was born? Or the year I first fell in love? How about one less favourable? Like the year I came down with pneumonia. Or one of those grief-filled years spent saying goodbye to someone close? Maybe I could choose the seemingly insignificant. That year I saw a falling star? Or the one spent not enthralled with life, just content with it?
No. I think I’ll keep them all — the good years, the bad and even the not so memorable. To deny one would be to deny myself. Because added up, they are my life.

Sheila B. Cabrera, Reader’s Digest, Jan. 1994

Perhaps with the future in mind, we might live with greater confidence, trust in the Lord’s providence, and be more accepting of and joyful in the life of willing discipleship. Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God and for His arm to be revealed. Anxiety is, for many of us, a more instinctual response to life than cheerfulness.

Agency, Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants by Terryl Givens, 2024, BYU Maxwell Institute, p. 52

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

Doctrine and Covenants 123:17

It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor.

The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship—or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another—all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.

C.S. Lewis. The Weight of Glory. Sermon delivered at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, June 8, 1941.
Reprinted in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (New York: HarperCollins, 1980).
Online version available at https://www.doxaweb.com/assets/weight_of_glory.pdf.

As members of the Church, as a people, we don’t have to look far in our history to reflect on times when we were refugees, violently driven from homes and farms over and over again. The Savior also knows how it feels to be a refugee. He was one. As a young child, Jesus and His family fled to Egypt to escape the murderous swords of Herod. At various points in His ministry, Jesus found Himself threatened and His life in danger, ultimately submitting to the designs of evil men who had plotted His death.

We must be careful that news of the refugees’ plight does not somehow become commonplace when the initial shock wears off and yet the wars continue and the families keep coming. Millions of refugees worldwide, whose stories no longer make the news, are still in desperate need of help. The possibilities for us to lend a hand and to be a friend are endless. You might help resettled refugees learn their host country’s language, update their work skills, or practice job interviewing. You could offer to mentor a family or a single mother as they transition to an unfamiliar culture, even with something as simple as accompanying them to the grocery store or the school.

We must take a stand against intolerance and advocate respect and understanding across cultures and traditions. Meeting refugee families and hearing their stories with your own ears—and not from a screen or newspaper—will change you. Real friendships will develop and will foster compassion and successful integration. Let us come out from our safe places and share with them from our abundance: hope for a brighter future, faith in God and in our fellow man, and love that sees beyond cultural and ideological differences to the glorious truth that we are all children of our Heavenly Father.

This moment does not define them, but our response will help define us. “For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me. Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Elder Patrick Kearon, “Refuge from the Storm,” April 2016 General Conference, Ensign, May 2016, pp. 111–113.
🔗 Official text on churchofjesuschrist.org

It should come as no surprise that one of the adversary’s tactics in the latter days is stirring up hatred among the children of men.
He loves to see us criticize each other, make fun or take advantage of our neighbor’s known flaws, and generally pick on each other. The Book of Mormon is clear about where all anger, malice, greed, and hate come from.

None of us need one more person bashing or pointing out where we have failed or fallen short. Most of us are already well aware of the areas in which we are weak.

What each of us does need is family, friends, employers, and brothers and sisters who support us, who have the patience to teach us, who believe in us, and who believe we’re trying to do the best we can, in spite of our weaknesses.

Whatever happened to giving each other the benefit of the doubt? Whatever happened to hoping that another person would succeed or achieve? Whatever happened to rooting for each other?

Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet.

Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped.

Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us.

Charity is expecting the best of each other.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton, “The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword,” April 1992 General Conference.
Published in Ensign, May 1992, pp. 18-21.
The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword

The thought that rescued Alma, when he acted upon it, is this: Restoring what you cannot restore, healing the wound you cannot heal, fixing that which you broke and you cannot fix is the very purpose of the atonement of Christ. When your desire is firm and you are willing to pay the ‘uttermost farthing,’ the law of restitution is suspended. Your obligation is transferred to the Lord. He will settle your accounts.

Boyd K. Packer
“The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness”

When you reach up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air, power from Jesus Christ will be yours. When the Savior knows you truly want to reach up to Him — when He can feel that the greatest desire of your heart is to draw His power into your life — you will be led by the Holy Ghost to know exactly what you should do.

President Russell M. Nelson
“Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives”

We must believe that there is a purpose running through the stern, forbidding process. What men have needed most of all in suffering is not to know the explanation, but to know that there is an explanation. Religious faith alone gives confidence that human tragedy is not the meaningless sport of physical forces, making our life what Voltaire called “a bad joke.”

How can I believe that my existence and my purpose are not a cruel joke unless I am begotten by a spiritual life that will sustain my strength and crown my effort? To believe that man’s soul is a foundling, laid on the doorstep of a merely physical universe—crying in vain for any father who begot him or any mother who conceived him—is to make our highest life a liar. Underneath everything… let me start again.
Underneath our experience, there must be meaning. Meaning weaves through all of our experience and ties it together—to make it purposeful and ultimately triumphant, rather than random and meaningless.

Harry Emerson Fosdick
The Meaning of Faith (New York: Association Press, 1918), Chapter 4 –
The Venture of Faith.
Available free online at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40482

 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world. For he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

Nephi 26:24

 All of God’s faculties, all of his inclinations are poised and bent on blessing at the slightest provocation. Oh, how God loves to be merciful and bless his children! Perhaps that is his greatest joy. It is the inherent quality that drives him with tireless vigilance to save his children.

  p. 313, Tad R. Callister (2000). Infinite Atonement. Deseret Book
 

 Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of thee. Thou only knowest what I need. Thou lovest me better than I know how to love myself.
O Father, give thy child that which he himself knows not how to ask. I dare not ask either for crosses or consolations. I simply present myself before thee. I open my heart to thee, Behold my needs, which I know not myself, See and do according to thy tender mercy, Smite or heal, depress me or raise me up, I adore all thy purposes without knowing them, I am silent, I offer myself in sacrifice, I yield myself to thee.
I would have no other desire than to accomplish thy will. Teach me to pray, pray thyself in me, amen.

François Fénelon

 on the occasion of my hundred and first birthday, I wish to share two truths, lessons that I believe contribute to lasting happiness and peace. First, each of us has inherent worth and dignity.
I believe we are all children of a loving heavenly Father. But no matter your religion or spirituality, recognizing the underlying truth beneath this belief that we all deserve dignity is liberating. It brings emotional, mental, and spiritual equilibrium. The more you embrace it, the more your anxiety and fear about the future will decrease.
Life can be terrifying. I have watched many, especially young people. Struggle with anxiety about whether they belong or have value, but a heart that knows it is loved and remains focused on its purpose, beats with steadiness, confidence and hope no matter what is happening or not happening in life.

 Second, love your neighbor and treat them with compassion and respect.
A century of experience has taught me this with certainty, anger, never persuades, hostility never heals, and contention never leads to lasting solutions. Too much of today’s public discourse, especially online, fosters enmity instead of empathy. Imagine how different our world could be if more of us were peacemakers building bridges of understanding rather than walls of prejudice, especially with those who might see the world differently than we do.
I’ve seen bitter divisions soften who neighbors choose to listen to one another. With respect rather than suspicion. Even small acts like reaching out across the lines of faith, culture, or politics can open doors to healing. There is power in affording others, the human dignity that all of God’s children deserve earth.

 This work begins at home and you just gave us a good example, didn’t At a time when loneliness and isolation are rising around the world, families. Though never perfect, remain one of life’s strongest sources of stability and meaning.
My own experience has taught me that fidelity, forgiveness, and faithfulness within families yield deep enduring peace. Strong families help us extend kindness outward reinforcing communities and societies as well.

 my faith teaches me that over two millennia ago, Jesus Christ preached these same laws of happiness to love God and to love your neighbor.
After 101 years, I can say that these are not abstract theological ideas. They are practical wisdom. They are what have sustained me through loss and triumph. Uncertainty, peace, war, and healing. if we embrace these eternal truths, honoring our own worth, treating others with dignity and nurturing our families, our lives and our world will be steadier and more joyful.
That is my birthday wish for all of us.

President Russell M. Nelson
Russell M. Nelson: We All Deserve Dignity and Respect | TIME

“Repentance is God’s ever-accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. Repentance isn’t His backup plan in the event we might fail. Repentance is His plan, knowing that we will. This is the gospel of repentance. And as President Russell M. Nelson has observed, it will be ‘a lifetime curriculum.’ In this lifetime curriculum of repentance, the sacrament is the Lord’s designated way of providing continual access to His forgiveness. If we partake with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, He proffers us weekly pardon as we progress from failure to failure along the covenant path.”

Elder Lynn G. Robbins

Next time you’re in line at the market, or pumping gas, or in the workplace, notice the people around you and the quick conclusions you’re tempted to draw. Catch yourself judging unfairly and rewind the tape. Instead, see this person as a child of God who is loved and hoped for. Know that a Patriarchal Blessing awaits this person. Realize they cheered in the Pre‑mortal World when they heard the Plan of Happiness. Ask a silent prayer to see if your path was meant to cross theirs today, to help them and bring them the truth.

Joni Hilton

If you don’t like someone, the way he holds his spoon will make you furious; if you do like him, he can turn his plate over into your lap and you won’t mind.

 Irving Becker