I have listened to this talk given by Elder and Sister Holland several times. It's timeless and full of wisdom.
"As I look back at my life, and if I could live any part of it over again, I would do one thing differently—very differently: simplify! It seems to me that everything is better when it is simplified—our food, our clothing, our furnishings, and our schedules. What I regret most in my youth is that I didn’t see the simple beauty of the gospel; I made even the gospel too complex. I felt it was too overwhelming, too difficult, and sometimes even too mysterious. It seemed to me that even as a young adult I had to climb a mountain of righteousness, go through a fiery furnace of purification, and unravel every doctrinal controversy known to mankind if I were ever to be acceptable before God.""Needless to say, my thinking then was more than a little girl from southern Utah felt she could tackle. It was as someone once said: “The reason people do not join with you Christians is because you wear your religion like a headache, like a crown of thorns.” There is only one person who has had to bear that crown of thorns, and He did it so that we might live joyfully, abundantly, and peacefully—not despairingly. The gospel was never meant to be a mountain that little girl could not climb. He wanted her—and everyone else in the world—to always be filled with hope. He wants us to know that the gospel is beautifully simple and simply beautiful."
~Sister Holland
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland with Sister Patricia T. Holland
January 2023
