Lesson 21: God Will Honor Those Who Honor Him – Scriptures and Quotes

Lesson 21: God Will Honor Those Who Honor Him – Scriptures and Quotes

Reading 1 – 1 Samuel 2:30

1 Samuel 1:27-28

1 Samuel 2:17

Reading 2 - President Spencer W. Kimball wrote:  "One would have thought that all the pleadings and warnings the Lord has made through his prophets over the centuries would induce a high general level of righteousness. Unfortunately this is not so. Apparently it is easier for man to sin than to live a life of righteousness; therefore, greater effort needs to be put forth to avoid evil and conform our lives to the elevating principles of the gospel." (Miracle of Forgiveness, p135)

Reading 3 - President Harold B. Lee said:  "In almost every incident where a young man has been converted to the Church by our boys in military service, he has told us that he was drawn to the Church because of the clean, pure life of some Latter-day Saint boy with whom he was associated. This is a day of demonstration when we as Latter-day Saints by our lives will preach more the gospel of truth than by all the words that we may conjure up." (CR, Oct. 1945, p49)

Reading 4 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell has written:  "The natural man is actually at cross purposes with God's plans. The natural man really has different ends, seeks different outcomes, marches to different drummers. If unrepentant, such become 'carnal and devilish, and the devil has power over them' (Mosiah 16:3)." (Men and Women of Christ, p8)  "Heavenly power can be accessed only by those who are Christlike; it is a power whose continued availability is maintained by meekness along with the other virtues." (Meek and Lowly, p85)

Reading 5 – 1 Samuel 2:22-25

1 Samuel 2:29

1 Samuel 3:13

Reading 6 – Brother Arthur M. Richardson wrote:  "Like most rebellious, wicked sons they refused to take counsel from their father. However, Eli's responsibility did not end with counseling his sons. He had a further responsibility to protect the people from their depredations. This he failed to do. Rather, he allowed them to continue in their priestly office taking advantage of the people physically, spiritually, and morally." (Improvement Era, Sep 1955)

Reading 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 121:41-44

Reading 7 - President Joseph F. Smith said: "Fathers, if you wish your children to be taught in the principles of the gospel, if you wish them to love the truth and understand it, if you wish them to be obedient to and united to you, love them! and prove to them that you do love them by your every word or act to them. For your own sake, for the love that should exist between you and your boys—however wayward they might be... when you speak or talk to them, do it not in anger, do it not harshly, in a condemning spirit. Speak to them kindly; get down and weep with them if necessary and get them to feel tenderly toward you. Use no lash and no violence... approach them with reason, with persuasion and love unfeigned.... You can't force your boys, nor your girls into heaven. [But] You may force them to hell, by using harsh means in the efforts to make them good, when you yourselves are not as good as you should be" (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 316-17).

1 Samuel 2:35

Reading 8 – 1 Samuel 3:1-10

Reading 9 – Elder Neal A. Maxwell has written: "There is an attitudinal and behavioral bridge that we need to build in order for us to draw closer to Him, and thus be ready to return Home - cum laude or summa cum laude - to receive of His loving fulness, we must want to do this more than we want to do anything else. Otherwise, even if we avoid wickedness, our journey will end in the suburbs, somewhere short of the City of God." (Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, p.4).

1 Samuel 8:1-6

1 Samuel 8:7-9

1 Samuel 8:19-20

Reading 10 – Then-Elder Spencer W. Kimball wrote: "Samuel called the people together and explained to them that the people of the Lord should be different, with higher standards. 'We want to be like other peoples' they demanded. We do not want to be different'... Not so different are we today! We want the glamour and frothiness of the world, not always realizing the penalties of our folly... Others... indulge in their social drinking—'we must have a king like unto other nations.' Styles are created by the vulgar and the money-mad and run from one extreme to the other to date our present wardrobes and create business for merchants. We cannot be different. We would rather die than be 'not up to date.' If the dress is knee length, we must go a little above the knee. If shorts are short we must have the shortest... If bathing suits are skimpy, we must have the skimpiest. We must have a king like unto other nations. The Lord has said that he will have a peculiar people but we do not wish to be peculiar.... If intimate fondling is the pattern of the crowd, we will fondle. We must have a king like unto other nations.... When oh when, will the Latter-day Saints stand firm on their own feet, establish their own standards, follow proper patterns and live their own glorious lives in accordance with Gospel inspired patterns...Certainly good times and happy lives and clean fun are not dependant upon the glamorous, the pompous, the extremes" (Elder Spencer W. Kimball, "Like All the Nations," Church News, 15 October 1960, 14).