This is a good book with some great reminders about God's love and goodness, even in the midst of trials and afflictions. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"I acknowledge the goodness of God. Nothing I have written or accomplished is of any value without Him (p. x)."
"While lying in the ICU, he ached to comfort his young family... Tressie insisted that Tim try to eat, but nothing would stay down. Finally, she asked him if anything sounded appetizing. 'The only thing that comes to mind is banana bread,' Tim responded. 'But you don't even like banana bread.'... Tressie then informed Tim that she had a fresh loaf of banana bread back in Joshua's room at the children's hospital. One of the sisters from the local ward had just delivered it. She told Tressie that she had received an impression that morning to bake banana bread... he had tasted the reassurance and love of his Father in Heaven that he so desperately needed... He didn't know how things were going to work out, but he knew the Lord would never forsake him, and that gave him the determination to move forward, trusting in the Lord (p. 3)."
"I don't believe that people change because of things they see or hear alone; they ultimately change because of things they feel (p. 5)."
"During hard times, we ask each other, 'Do we need sympathy, solutions, or support?' (p. 5)"
"You are not alone. Your difficulties and pains are real. There are many who have gone before whose experiences can help us feel less isolated as we each take our turns passing through our own furnaces of affliction (p. 6)."
"Submit to the Lord and trust Him, especially when heaven feels distant (p. 6)."
"The Lord has helped me in the past; where is His steady, guiding hand now (p. 6)?"
"She could not find any words to say to comfort this dear mother. She just put her arms around Carole and they cried together. Carole, in a moment of profound honesty, simply said, 'I don't understand' (p. 7)."
"God could have prevented either untimely death, but He didn't. The Burnetts didn't know all of the answers, but they knew the Lord (p. 8)!"
"'Heavenly Fathe, bless my daddy, and if you need him more than us, you can have him. We want him, but Thy will be done. And please help us not to be mad at you' (p. 8)."
"The Lord has given us many answers and revealed true principles to guide us on the strait and narrow way that leads to eternal life and a fullness of joy in this life and the next... Know and feel how much you are loved and how close the Lord really is (p. 9)."
"The Lord had finally given her an answer. It was different from what she had anticipated, and it was given in a way she had not expected (p. 10)."
"It was one thing for her parents and teachers to share lessons about God, but it was an entirely different matter for her to be taught directly by Him (p. 11)."
"Heaven is closer than it feels (p. 11)."
"Jesus' presence does not guarantee a smooth ride through our sea of life, but heaven is never distant as long as we are in the same boat with the almighty Son of God (p. 13)."
"Many of us assume that diligent discipleship will guarantee a life of ease and minimal difficulties. The reality is that progression in the gospel, by design, is messy and muddy, riddled with storms of varying intensities (p. 13)."
"'If our lives and our faith are centered upon Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right' (Howard W. Hunter, p. 14)."
"There is no mention of anyone asking Jesus how He was feeling that day. People brought their needs and desires to Him, and He met their needs without drawing any attention to His own... Is it possible that Heavenly Father sent the multitudes to Jesus that day as part of a healing and consoling process?... perhaps He was never more connected to heaven than when He was surrounded by hungry crowds, ministering to their needs (p. 14)."
"Read the scriptures, learn about other people, and look for patterns of the Lord's guiding hand in their lives, thus making it easier to find that same divine mercy and grace in our own struggles (p. 17)."
"Nephi had great blessings, but he also had seen great afflictions (p. 18)."
"'Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?' (Henry B. Eyring, p. 18)"
"Even when we seek and find His merciful hand, we are not guaranteed that our problems or concerns will instantly resolve. We do, however, gain a certain level of comfort knowing that the Lord is watching us and is fully aware of our situation (p. 19)."
"The way God will judge us in the future is largely determined by how we judge Him in the present (p. 22)."
"The Lord's love is easy to feel when everything is flowing smoothly in our lives. His commandments are easy to follow when we are basking in heavenly light. Discipleship gets more difficult, however, when clouds of opposition, rejection, temptation, or loss eclipse that warm light (p. 23)."
"No mortal escapes the realities of this undulation, with its cheery heights interspersed with equally dreadful depths (p. 24)."
"The Lord will call us many times to leave our comfort zones and enter wildernesses where we will be stretched beyond our current capacity (p. 25)."
"It is in the wilderness that he realizes he can't survive on his own (p. 26)."
"Did the Lord send Lehi's family into the wilderness to help them get somewhere, or to help them become something?... Consider how easy it would have been for God to instantaneously transport all the people and the brass plates across the ocean to the promised land. This would have bypassed the wilderness wanderings, backtracks, ship-building, and perilous ocean voyage. God could have given Lehi's group less adversity along the way (p. 27)."
"God could make everything flow smoothly for us, but He doesn't (p. 28)."
"Rather than dwelling on the difficulties of his life... Nephi shifted his focus... How much would Nephi have known about the goodness of God if his life had always been comfortable and predictable (p. 29)?"
"We saw the merciful hand of a loving Father in Heaven reminding us that we were not forsaken (p. 31)."
"Like Lehi in his dream, when we press forward, especially when the road ahead is dark and uncertain, we learn to trust in the Lord to guide us, we recognize His hand through the selfless service of others, and we become an extension of heaven when He helps us lift those around us on the path (p. 32)."
"'Do you have the faith not to be healed?' (David A. Bednar, p. 36)"
"Healing is not a result of desire, faith, and prayers alone (p. 36)."
"As we press forward through all the troughs and peaks of life, we will eventually arrive at that great day when we too will fall at His feet and partake of His sweet fruit (p. 38)."
"Through this miracle, Peter gained much-needed strength and experience as the Lord's instrument (p. 39)."
"God is not bound by time like we are (p. 40)."
"The Lord demonstrated that He is more interested in shaping us than He is in providing us a pain-free life of instant solutions to our problems (p. 42)."
"What a difference a day can make in following the Lord's direction (p. 43)!"
"God's prophets never guarantee a path of ease, but they always instill confidence in the Lord's promises--hence the need to stay current with the Lord's will for us today (p. 44)."
"As important as obedience and sacrifice are, our motivation is also critically important (p. 51)."
"The key is to continually monitor the intentions of our heart throughout the process and pray for help so our obedience will be consecrated for the welfare of our soul (p. 51)."
"When God's cosmic clock collides with our earthly wristwatch, we must trust that as our all-knowing Father, He can teach us to recognize and follow His guiding hands in both (p. 53)!"
"God's perfect timing is demonstrated in every interaction He has with His children (p. 54)."
"The Lord knew Enoch's limitations, but he also knew Enoch's capacity (p. 54)."
"God does not send us on errands alone. Rather, He invites us to walk with Him (p. 55)."
"We must submit to God as a child submits to his or her parents (p. 55)."
"The Lord's thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways His ways, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts (p. 56)."
"God's eternal goal is not great customer service; it is our eternal welfare (p. 57)."
"We stretch. We reach. We plead. We cling to hope. But most of all, we hold fast to the belief that God has our best interest in mind, even though we may not understand. We simply accept the fact that our perspective is greatly limited, while His is limitless and eternal (p. 58)."
"We love that for which we sacrifice; the greater the sacrifice, the greater the potential for love (p. 64)."
"It is understandable that God would often withhold many answers to our questions until we have the needed context to comprehend the truth (p. 65)."
"God gives us the very thing we fought for--freedom to think, feel, and act 'according to the dictates of our own conscience' (P. 66)."
"'You need time to meditate and ponder, to think, to wonder at the great plan of happiness that the Lord has outlined for His children' (Gordon B. Hinckley, p. 66)."
"Problems arise... when we use the combined wisdom of the world as a replacement for God when seeking answers to questions with eternal consequences (p. 68)."
"We plant these seeds in our hearts... if they are good, they will... swell within our hearts, enlarge our souls, enlighten our understanding, [be] delicious to us (p. 71)."
"We don't go to church to celebrate our perfection; we go to celebrate Christ's perfection and to plead for His help (p. 73)."
"Sometimes the answer to one question illuminates our path for one more step (p. 74)."
"Proceed in faith... It is easier for God to direct our path when we are moving forward than when we are sitting around, waiting for Him to tell us what to do (p. 77)."
"Heaven feels increasingly distant when we refuse to pay the price for gaining knowledge and peace (p. 83)."
"The Savior's mercy and grace extend to all of life's struggles, not just sin (p. 87)."
"The whole point of a covenant is that we combine all our resources and efforts with the Savior's (p. 99)."
"Upward progression and positive change were never intended to be accomplished alone or in isolation from the Savior's redeeming grace (p. 102)."
"An eternal perspective is essential (p. 104)."
"The Lord assures us that He loved our loved ones long before He brought them into our lives, and He will help us work with them, even if they have lost all hope (p. 104)."
"There was never a time with greater righteousness across the world (p. 107)."
"Sheep get lost because they have a propensity to put their heads down, start eating, and wander away (p. 113)."
"God is not to blame when people make decisions that are unwise or that put them in harm's way (p. 117)."
"The Lord is not limited by our past abuses, neglect, and scars (p. 121)."
"Without humility, life-enhancing lessons are less likely to sink in and become part of us (p. 121)."
"Grafting is a way for a husbandman to bring new opportunities for potential fruit to a tree (p. 122)."
"No matter how small or insignificant our efforts may seem, as we strive to draw near to Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, we will come to better understand Their perfection (p. 124)."
"Heavenly Father did not delegate prayer to Jesus Christ. Ponder the significance of being not only invited but commanded to talk to the God of the universe (p. 126)."
"We sometimes hear silence as the answer to our prayers not because the Lord trusts us and wants us to use our agency, but perhaps because we lack real intent to act if we were to receive an answer (p. 130)."
"When heaven feels distant today, we can either wait for the Lord to come to us or we can actively seek Him (p. 133)."
"The Lord magnifies us and our resources when we appropriately sacrifice a little of the very thing we lack (p. 140)."
"Another essential connection with heaven is through the Lord's chosen servants (p. 142)."
"The Lord may not take away all our burdens, but He will walk our painful roads with us, in life or in death. Mortality's outcomes alone are not a good measure of God's care, concern, and power of deliverance (p. 144)."
"God is not merely seeking to get us into heaven; He is seeking to get heaven into us! (p. 151)"