Obedience

Thirty seconds before the start of my Relief Society lesson I broke into a cold sweat as I realized I had left all my notes on my computer at home. I forgot to print them off. AHHHHH!

I guess the lesson went as well as I could have hoped for and maybe it was the lesson I was supposed to give since it went in a totally different direction than I was going to go with it.

So I'll share some quotes on obedience that I never got to use since there are some good ones.

As God has designed our happiness and the happiness of all His creatures, He never has, He never will institute an ordinance or give a commandment to His people that is not calculated in its nature to promote that happiness which He has designed.
-–Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 256

Often we hear: Nobody can tell me what clothes to wear, what I shall eat or drink. No one can outline my Sabbaths, appropriate my earnings, nor in any way limit my personal freedoms! I do as I please! I give no blind obedience! . . . When men obey commands of a creator, it is not blind obedience. How different is the cowering of a subject to his totalitarian monarch and the dignified, willing obedience one gives to his God. The dictator is ambitious, selfish, and has ulterior motives. God's every command is righteous, every directive purposeful, and all for the good of the governed. The first may be blind obedience, but the latter is certainly faith obedience
--Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, October 1954

There are three degrees of glory in our obedience: telestial is obedience out of obligation; but begrudgingly; terrestial is obedience out of duty, but willingly; celestial is obedience out of love of God and man. You delight in obeying all truth that you know because you love God, the father of all truth.

--D. Kelly Ogden, 8 Mighty Changes God Wants for You Before You Get to Heaven

Faith is a gift of God bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness. It is always given when righteousness is present, and the greater the measure of obedience to God's laws the greater will be the endowment of faith.

--Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1966

When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.

--Ezra Taft Benson, quoted by Donald Stahele in Ensign, May 1998

“If there are any of us who lack faith in this work it is because we have not kept the commandments of God. If there are any who do not know that this is the work of our Father, it is because they have not done their duty. I know as I know that I live that this is the Lord’s work and that knowledge comes as a result of keeping his commandments” --George Albert Smith, Conference Report, October 1915