inspiration for your week

“Ambitious to Do Good”

President Gordon B. Hinckley

“….At the establishment of the Relief Society, when Emma H. Smith was elected president, she said that 'each member should be ambitious to do good.' That was the spirit then, and that is the spirit now. It must continue to be the guiding principle through all the generations that lie ahead—that 'each member should be ambitious to do good.'

"Who can gauge the miraculous effects upon the lives of millions of women whose knowledge has been increased, whose vision has been extended, whose lives have been broadened, and whose understanding of the things of God has been enriched by reason of countless lessons effectively taught and learned in meetings of the Relief Society?

"Who can measure the joy that has come into the lives of these women as they have mingled together, socializing in the atmosphere of the ward or branch, enriching the lives of one another through companionships that have been sweet and treasured?

"Who, even in the wildest stretch of imagination, can fathom the uncountable acts of charity that have been performed, the food that has been put on barren tables, the faith that has been nurtured in desperate hours of illness, the wounds that have been bound up, the pains that have been ameliorated by loving hands and quiet and reassuring words, the comfort that has been extended in times of death and consequent loneliness?

"Lucy Mack Smith, mother of the Prophet, in speaking to the sisters in Nauvoo, said, “We must cherish one another, watch over one another, comfort one another and gain instruction that we may all sit down in heaven together.” (Minutes, 24 Mar. 1842.)

"The history of the organization has shown that women of the Church have not had to wait to sit together in heaven to taste the sweet fruit of the kind of activities she described. They have experienced much of heaven on earth as in life they have cherished one another, comforted one another, and instructed one another….”