"Obedience always involves self-discipline." -President Kimball

I have been praying for help to be more valiant, and my prayer was answered last night at a fireside when I was thumbing through my scriptures. Deep in the heart of my Topical Guide was this quote! It was exactly what I needed. It was empowering to me because it reminded me that I'm in the driver's seat.

"Self-control, self-mastery, can be substituted for the dominion of sin, and the sinner can move by his own agency toward God rather than under the control of sin toward Satan...What is needed is self-discipline. Can we imagine the angels or the gods not being in control of themselves in any particular? The question is of course ludicrous. Equally ridiculous is the idea that any of us can rise to the eternal heights without disciplining ourselves and being disciplined by the circumstances of life...Obedience always involves self-discipline. So does repentance, which is the way to annul the effects of a previous lack of obedience in one's life. The dividends from both obedience and repentance amply repay the effort." -President Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness

Also, I had a few other great insights this weekend and I don't want to lose them!

-I got to go to the temple this weekend and I was reminded that I need to focus all my efforts on building His kingdom. If I'm not building His kingdom, I'm building my own, and it will all come to naught. I know that His kingdom will only get bigger!

-In church yesterday an idea stood out to me: as we remember Him always, we will have His Spirit to be with us. So, maybe that means that the things we do that bring the Spirit are a form of remembering Him.

-The wise man and the foolish man: one built his house upon the Rock, the other did not. I like to think that both of them had a blueprint for how to build a strong home, but only one followed through. It made me think of the counsel I receive today: do I just hear it, or do I apply it?