What I learned from President Hinckley

I'm going to just keep posting until I feel like I've made up for lost time. It might mean a dozen posts in one day, but at least you'll have something to read.

I've read a lot of tributes to President Hinckley over the last couple of weeks, and heard a lot of testimonies about him. People everywhere want to share how he touched their lives. I haven't really talked to anyone about my feelings about President Hinckley, so I figure it's my turn to share.

Women should be loved and supported. We could all see it in the way he treated his wife, Marjorie, but we all felt it every time he spoke to us. He knew we were choice daughters of our Heavenly Father, and he tried to always remind us of that.

Work is good for everyone. Any man in his late 90's should be home in his slippers, eating chocolate cake with milk and doing the crossword puzzle. Not President Hinckley. He was traveling all over the world, dedicating temples, meeting saints, and spreading the message of the gospel. Whenever I get a little tired of working, I just think of him and the tireless work in which he found so much joy, and I know I can do more.

We can all try a little harder. I have those days where it just seems hard to go on, to be nice to people, to finish what I've started. President Hinckley was always encouraging and had so much faith in the members - he knew what we were capable of, and never hesitated to encourage us to get there.

Temples and families matter. I think when you live near a temple, as I always have, it's easy to take it for granted. I take my family for granted too. Each time I heard President Hinckley talk about families, or the importance of temples, I felt a renewed sense of gratitude and respect for those blessings in my life.

We all need to have a sense of humor. Wow, what a difficult thing for me to do - be happy. President Hinckley found so much joy in everything, and I so appreciated that reminder from him every so often.

President Hinckley, you will be missed.