Try a little harder to be a little better...

I almost feel like today has been a General Conference kind of day. I set my DVR to record KSL’s coverage of President Hinckley’s funeral. There was an hour long biography and then another show, ‘A Faith for all Seasons’. Both were excellent and paid a superb and beautiful tribute to a truly amazing man.

There have been countless tributes to this remarkable man all over the web – I am going to link to some of my favorites at the end of this post but first I want to share a few of my own thoughts about President Hinckley and the impression he left on my life.

First and foremost, he reminds me of my own grandfather. Grandpa Hill was a character and always left you with a smile. President Hinckley was no exception. This picture is one of many that capture his big grin and you know that it is was accompanied with a ‘grandpa-like’ chuckle.

He led by example. While his messages usually contained a few funny anecdotes his messages were clear and straight forward. He did not mince words and he lived his life in such a way that there was nothing hypocritical about what he said.

He was and still is a prophet of God and no matter where I am in my own life with regards to my own testimony I know this. I know that the guidance and counsel he gave us was what our Father in Heaven wanted us to know. I tried to follow his counsel and know that there were great blessings that followed when I did. I took the challenge to read the Book of Mormon within a couple of month period to heart and felt my testimony of this great book strengthen.

This past week I put the picture of him I have in my home right by my T.V. as a reminder of the example of a life lived that I should aspire to. As a result, I found that my T.V. viewing choices changed – it makes you think twice about what you watch when you have the prophet staring back at you.

I have been blessed to be alive while President Gordon B. Hinckley was the prophet here on earth.

Following are links to some of the beautiful tributes my fellow bloggers have posted this week:

Kristi at Everthing is pink

Jill at Creativity, Musings and Such

Michelle at Chez Moi

Marta at Marta Writes
Emily at Kikuchi Korner
Heather at {Unwrapped}