Found It!

I've been 'searching' for years for the source of a quote that has been stuck to my fridge for just as many years. I use quotes around 'searching' because, once I actually went online and really did it, I found the source within three minutes. Yeah. Sometimes I'm just lame. Anyway, it's a wonderful quote that my visiting teacher wrote down on a little sheet of paper, adding a colorful little border to make it attractive enough to post on a fridge or at least enough to make me feel too guilty to throw away immediately. Packrat that I am, there wasn't much danger in the latter, because I found the quote encouraging and inspiring during a time in my life when somedays I needed a little inspiration to keep moving forward. Raising kids is an incredible journey, but sometimes I got tired and found it easy to lose perspective.

The quote might actually have been from a lesson in Relief Society, or from some Stake Leadership meeting, come to think of it. My memory is just rotten. But I remember the quote. That may partly be because it was stuck on our refrigerator for about 15 years. I don't know if others noticed it, and most of the stuff magnetized there did change from time to time -- cartoon strips I thought were funny or pertinent, wedding invitations and wonderful family Christmas photos from the people I consider to be my family, whether or not we share blood ties. The things I loved went on the fridge, and I loved this quote, even if I didn't know who said it. I'm always embarrassed when I can't remember who said some great quote I want to quote. John always remembers, and if he can't remember who said it, he probably doesn't remember the quote. He's an encyclopedia when it comes to remembering great things taught at church, or in General Conference. He dislikes it when people quote something from the pulpit and don't know who they're quoting. Thus I have come to curse my bad memory more and more through the years. 

I've also become more conscientious about writing down things that inspire or edify me, and if I can't remember who said what, I go to lds.org and look it up. Usually. Sometimes I just whine and ask him who said it, and since he loves me a wicked lot (that was for you, Amber and Marie), he generally tells me. I was feeling responsible today, so I looked it up myself. I was thinking about my quote, and how I have missed reading it every day. Since the construction started in my kitchen nearly a year ago, my fridge doors have been disturbingly pristine and devoid of their usual decorations. I'm getting used to it, and now that the majority of the work (spelled m-e-s-s) is done, I will probably find a new home for quotes that I love and keep the fridge clean. 

Maybe I'll post them here. Add that to my list of reasons I like blogging . . . There is a remarkable family investigating the church right now, poised for baptism on the 10th of July. I'll write about them another day -- they deserve several posts all to themselves. Truly remarkable. In thinking about the perspective and dignity with which this couple has raised their children, it occurred to me that this sweet woman might enjoy my quote. My conscience would not allow me to write it up (with a colorful border, of course) and give it to her at her baptism in a couple of weeks without having the appropriate footer, including the name of Spencer W. Kimball, the prophet who spoke these words: 

“Among the real heroines in the world who will come into the Church are women who are more concerned with being righteous than with being selfish." 

There is more to the quote than would fit on that little piece of paper. I think it's important to include it here: "These real heroines have true humility, which places a higher value on integrity than on visibility. Remember, it is as wrong to do things just to be seen of women as it is to do things to be seen of men. Great women and men are always more anxious to serve than to have dominion. Thus it will be that female exemplars of the Church will be a significant force in both the numerical and spiritual growth of the Church in the last days” (“The Role of Righteous Women,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, pp. 103–4). It occurs to me now that this quote is from the Ensign edition published the month that John and I were married. Hmm. I'm glad I looked it up.