10/10
I read this one over a year ago (yes, I have fallen massively behind on this blog). From what I recall, this was another solid and inspiring Maxwell book with the usual great quotes. He did a great job covering the topic of enduring to the end from several different angles that I hadn't considered before. Lets go ahead and put some quotes below:
"Thus enduring well is clearly an essential part of mortality's planned refining process. Refining requires heat. Refining also requires time. Furthermore, if whatever constitutes 'it' is to be endured well, refining also requires of its recipients a genuine and continuing confidence in the Refiner."
"It follows, then, that you and I cannot really expect to glide through life, coolly air-conditioned, while naively petitioning: 'Lord, give me experience but not grief, a deeper appreciation of happiness but not deeper sorrow, joy in comfort but not in pain, more capacity to overcome but not more opposition; and please do not let me ever feel perplexed while on thine errand. Then let me come quickly and dwell with thee and fully share thy joy.'"
"[G]rit thy teeth rather than grind them destructively."
"Without utilizing fixed principles, confused mortals will find things very hard to fix."
"Nowadays people are so much more easily offended, while being much less concerned about offending God."
"Decrease the belief in God, therefore, and behold the large increase in the numbers of those who wish to play at being God. Such societal supervisors may deny the existence of divine ways but they are very serious about imposing their own ways."
"He sees the end from the beginning. You and I, on the other hand, are in the muddled, mortal middle."
"The larger and more untamed a person's ego, the greater the likelihood of that person's being offended, especially upon tasting his portion of vinegar and gall or upon encountering irony, the hard crust on the bread of adversity. Understandably, protesting words may issue: 'Why me?' 'Why this?' 'Why now?' It is hoped, however, even if we utter such words momentarily, that we will not give way to inconsolability. From inconsolability it is a surprisingly short distance to bitterness."
"Each of us might well ask, 'In what ways am I shrinking or holding back?' Meek introspection may yield some bold insights. For example, we can tell much by what we have already willingly discarded along the pathway of discipleship. It is the only pathway where littering is permissible, even encouraged. In the early stages the debris left behind includes the grosser sins of commission. Later debris differs; the things being discarded are those that have caused the misuse or under use of our time and talent."
"Strange, isn't it, how those with the longest lists of new demands also have the shortest memories of past blessings?"
"The family circle, when finally completed in time for the world to come, may yet be larger than we may now imagine; late arrivals, after having paid a severe price and thus being finally qualified, may be more than a few."
