Bruce C. Hafen Quotes & Sayings

Properly understood, then, the scriptures counsel us to be virtuous not because romantic love is bad, but precisely because romantic love is so good. It is not only good; it is pure, precious, even sacred and holy. — Bruce C. Hafen

This earth is not our home. We are away at school, trying to master the lessons of "the great plan of happiness" so we can return home and know what it means to be there. Over and over the Lord tells us why the plan is worth our sacrifice - and His. Eve called it "the joy of our redemption." Jacob called it "that happiness which is prepared for the saints." Of necessity, the plan is full of thorns and tears - His and ours. But because He and we are so totally in this together, our being "at one" with Him in overcoming all opposition will itself bring us "incomprehensible joy." — Bruce C. Hafen

While no other success of ours can compensate for our failures within or outside our homes, there is a success that can compensate when we cannot, after we conscientiously do all we can. That success is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which can mend what for us is beyond repair. — Bruce C. Hafen

The deep hurt is the mirror image of the deep joy that still awaits you. — Bruce C. Hafen

Equal partnerships are not made in heaven-they are made on earth, one choice at a time, one conversation at a time, one threshold crossing at a time. — Bruce C. Hafen

Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can learn from our experience without being condemned by our experience. — Bruce C. Hafen

We can have eternal life if we want it, but only if there is nothing else we want more. — Bruce C. Hafen

If you have problems in your life, don't assume there is something wrong with you. — Bruce C. Hafen

Each of us will taste the bitter ashes of life, from sin and neglect to sorrow and disappointment. But the atonement of Christ can lift us up in beauty from our ashes on the wings of a sure promise of immortality and eternal life. He will thus lift us up, not only at the end of life, but in each day of our lives. — Bruce C. Hafen

The Savior asks us to repent not just to repay him for paying our debt to justice, but also to induce us to undergo the personal development that will purify our very nature. The 'natural man' will remain an enemy to God forever - even after paying for his own sins - unless he also 'becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord.' (Mosiah 3:19.) — Bruce C. Hafen

Life is a school, a place for us to learn and grow. We, like Adam and Eve, experience 'growing pains' through the sorrow and contamination of a lone and dreary world. These experiences may include sin, but they also include mistakes, disappointments, and the undeserved pain of adversity. The blessed news of the gospel is that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can purify all the uncleanness and sweeten all the bitterness we taste. — Bruce C. Hafen

You must realize that the true desire to express affection can be motivated by things other than true love ... In short, one might simply say: save your kisses
you might need them someday. And when anyof you
men and women
are given entrance to the heart of a trusting young friend, you stand on holy ground. In such a place you must be honest with yourself
and with your friend
about love and the expression of it's symbols. — Bruce C. Hafen

Marriage is by nature a covenant, Not just a private contract one may cancel at will.. — Bruce C. Hafen

In the long run, our most deeply held desires will govern our choices, one by one and day by day, until our lives finally add up to what we have really wanted most
for good or otherwise. We can indeed have eternal life, if we really want it, so long as we don't want something else more. — Bruce C. Hafen

The Savior desires to save us from our inadequacies as well as our sins. Inadequacy is not the same as being sinful - we have far more control over the choice to sin than we may have over our innate capacity ... A sense of falling short or falling down is not only natural but essential to the mortal experience. Still, after all we can do, the Atonement can fill that which is empty, straighten our bent parts, and make strong that which is weak. — Bruce C. Hafen

Joy is not an alternative to opposition; it is part of a compound that includes opposition. — Bruce C. Hafen