Book # 18

To The Rescue

The Biography of Thomas S. Monson

By Heidi S. Swinton

This book is 529 pages long. 588 if you count the timeline, notes and index. And although it was interesting, informative and inspiring, it wasn't exactly a "page turner" that lured me away from gardening or made me want to stay up late at night. So it's been awhile.

I won't give you much of a history of President Monson, although I found it amazing how long and faithfully he has served in the church. He was a bishop at 22, counselor in the stake presidency at 28, mission president at 32, and ordained an apostle at 36. He became the prophet at age 80. Wow! It made me tired just reading about all that he has done in his life.

What I am going to share are the things that resonated with me and the quotes that impressed me the most.

1. "He (President Monson) likes funerals because he feels that they provide an ideal setting for teaching the truths of the gospel. He has said, 'Because our Savior died at Calvary, death has no hold upon any one of us...we laugh, we cry, we work, we play, we love, we live. And then we die. Death is our universal heritage. All must pass its portals. Death claims the aged, the weary and worn. It visits the youth in the bloom of hope and the glory of expectation. Nor are little children kept beyond its grasp.'

2.  (This is a quote from Elder Harold B. Lee as he counseled President Monson before he went to serve as mission president in Canada) "Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies....When you are on the Lord's errand, you are entitled to the Lord's help....Remember, God shapes the back to bear the burden placed upon it."

3.  "Remember that the mantle of leadership is not the cloak of comfort but rather the robe of responsibility."

4.  "No one can escape the influence of his own example....a mediocre teacher tells, a good teacher explains, a superior teacher demonstrates, but the great teachers inspire."

5.  He applied in his everyday work what he calls 'Wisdom's Seven Watchwords: vision, patience, balance, effort, understanding, courtesy, and love....Complaining is not thinking. Ridiculing is not reasoning. Accountability is not for the intentions but for the deed."

6.  (After telling a story of rescuing a widow who felt unwanted, unneeded and lost) "President Monson has taught that lesson many times. The names, faces and places change but his message is the same; 'Let us listen for the sound of sandaled feet. Let us reach out for the Carpenter's hand. Then we shall come to know Him. He may come to us as one unknown, without a name, as, by the lakeside, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words, "Follow thou me", and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings that they shall pass through in His fellowship, and ...they shall learn in their own experience who He is."

7.  (Talking about the publication of the Latter-day saint edition of the King James version of the Bible with its cross referencing to the standard works and the topical guide) "The advent of the computer was absolutely necessary before the Topical Guide could have been prepared."

8.  "The holy scriptures are for our children, to fill their eager minds with sacred truth. They are for youth, to prepare them for the challenges of a fast-moving world. They are for the sisters...to be scholars of the scriptures....They are for the bretheren of the priesthood, that each may qualify for the description given in the Book of Mormon to the sons of Mosiah; "They were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God."

9.  "Resolve to make room in your life for Jesus Christ. We have time for jogging, time for working, time for playing. Let us make time for Christ."

10.  "Contemplate the next twelve months. First we should resolve to be good listeners. And to whom should we listen? To the prophets of God, to the whisperings of our conscience, to the whisperings of the still small voice."

11.  President Monson is a loyal supporter of scouting. He quotes, "The greatest gift a man can give a boy is his willingness to share a part of his life with him."

12.  'Throughout our country, we have been screaming ever louder for more and more of the things we cannot take with us, and paying less and less attention to the real sources of the very happiness we seek. We have been measuring our fellowmen more by balance sheets and less by moral standards... We have become so concerned over the growth of our earning capacity that we have neglected the growth of our character. Perhaps this is indicative of the days in which we are living--days of compromise and diluting of principles, days when sin is labeled as error, when morality is relative and when materialism emphasizes the values of expediency and the shirking of responsibility."

13.  (Elder Neil L. Anderson, speaking of President Monson) "He has never asked Sister Monson to be anyone different than she is."

14.  "In 2009, online current affairs publication Slate.com ranked President Monson number one on its list of the eighty most powerful octogenarians in America. He was ranked ahead of Former US presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, former Secretary of State Henry Kissenger, and news personality Barbara Walters, among others. Slate.com reported, 'The top spot this year goes to 82-year-old Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the only person on the list to rule over millions of people as a prophet of God."

15.  "When God speaks and a man obeys, that man will always be right."

16.  "Decisions determine destiny"

17.  "Your decision to think right, choose right, and do right will rarely, if ever, be the easiest course to follow."

18.."You do not find the happy life--you make it."

19.  "Good habits...are the soul's muscles; the more you use them, the stronger they grow."

20.  "Life is like a candid camera; it does not wait for you to pose."

Until next time ;o)