Lighten Up! Quotes

“Only you know your circumstances, your energy level, the needs of your children, and the emotional demands of your other obligations. Be wise during intensive seasons of your life. Cherish your agency, and don’t give it away casually. Don’t compare yourself to others — nearly always this will make you despondent. Don’t accept somebody else’s interpretation of how you should be spending your time. Make the best decision you can and then evaluate it to see how it works.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!

“Be spiritually independent enough that your relationship with the Savior doesn't depend on your circumstances or on what other people say and do. Have the spiritual independence to be a Mormon--the best Mormon you can--in your own way. Not the bishop's way. Not the Relief Society president's way. Your way.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!

“If you're doing the best you can, that's good enough.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!

“Hooray for differences! Without them, there would be no harmony. In principles, great clarity. In practices, great charity.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!

“The good news of the gospel is that who we are is okay. Our best is good enough. The Savior came for us--just as we are.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!

“The commandment to work is imposed on us by our descent from Adam and Eve, but it is a blessing to us. Illness and adversity are not punishments for being alive; they are natural accompaniments of life. Our bodies are not vile and loathsome snares for our spirits, but the temples of our spirits. The daily activities of mixing orange juice, making telephone calls, supervising homework, and scrubbing the bathtub are not distractions from our spiritual lives. They are the vehicles through which we live our spiritual lives.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!

“I want us all to have real clarity about the principles of the gospel that unite us. I want us to understand to the marrow of our bones that Jesus is the Christ, that his atonement releases us from the bondage of sin and error, that the covenants we make are eternally honored by our Heavenly Father, and that the ordinances of the gospel exist to perfect us as individuals, to purify us as a community, and to prepare us as a people for the second coming of our Lord. I want those principles to lead us the way the pillar of fire by night led the children of Israel in the wilderness. I want them to dominate our mental landscapes as the pillar of the cloud towered over them by day. I want singleness of vision when it comes to principles.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!

“Sheer human decency and civility are two of the most important contributions to our community life that women of courage can make.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!

“Be spiritually independent enough that your relationship with the Savior doesn't depend on your circumstances or on what other people say and do.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!

“I never had a biological sister, yet the more closely I work with women in the Church, the more surely I know there is a spiritual sisterhood.”
― Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up! Finding Real Joy in Life