I feel so much love through General Conference. We are so blessed to have such a loving God. I wish everybody knew that and could feel His love as I do. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the truest happiness available to us. If you want the best for yourself and your family (why wouldn’t you??), then you will want to know the Lord through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Conference reassures me of this love and happiness. Sidney walked in the house today during President Nelson’s talk. She was there to grab some clothes for work. I chatted with her for a second and just happened to mention how much I love conference. She responded, “I can tell.” What a response!! That is my goal in life; that I live in a way that she and all of my kids and everyone else in my life can tell that I love the Lord and His gospel. She said when she walked in I was all smiles and she could tell that I was really enjoying conference. That’s a win that she can see where happiness comes from for me. There may come a day when she might need to find it for herself. Hopefully she will remember where I find it.
Here are some thoughts from conference:
Trust the Lord. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5) This is something I’ve been pondering and working on daily. This message was a reminder for me personally. With faith and trust, I can move my mountains. I believe that 100%. I have already seen that in my life in many ways. Even when the Lord doesn’t remove the burden from you, He lightens the load to make it manageable, like for Alma and his people in the Book of Mormon. I should pray for help in having more faith, and I should not minimize the faith that I already have. I went golfing with my dad the other day. Usually I don’t really claim to be a very good golfer. Sure, I can hit a decent shot every now and then, but by my standards I don’t consider myself a good golfer. The other day, however, as I watched a group of women play ahead of us, I realized that I shouldn’t cut myself short; that I am a heck of a lot better than I give myself credit usually. This applies to faith and my studies, too. I need to not dismiss the work that I have done to get myself to where I am spiritually. I have put in a lot of time and effort and study into learning the gospel, and like I used to teach the girls I coached, I should trust the work and time that I have put in. That said, that same idea goes for my personal life. I have realized that I need to take measures to protect myself and who I have worked to become. I have worked hard to be where I am in my life in many ways and have made a lot of sacrifices for it. I can’t just set that aside and dismiss it for anybody. I need to protect it and insist someone rise to match it and respect it.
Set aside pride. It is so easy to get caught up in the material world. I need to stay focused on eternal matters and not those of the world. I need to always care more about what God thinks than what anybody else thinks.
Get rid of old debris. That was an interesting thought to me. Debris is stuff that is just laying around cluttering space. It seems there is no more room in our lives to be able to afford to have debris lying about taking up our attention and space. The Lord is so orderly and efficient. He is hastening the work and dumping the old debris is one more step towards that.
Know the end from the beginning. Having an eternal perspective will help guide our choices and decisions now towards that end goal.
I try to approach conference with a question in mind or something I’ve been pondering. I did that again this time. I didn’t know exactly what my question was but I had a general thought in mind. Sometimes I think I know things, and then later I doubt. It’s a cycle. My mind vs my the knowing with my heart. This time I was looking for reassurance and right at the end of the morning conference somebody randomly contacted me claiming he felt inspired to reach out. I’m not sure what to make of this. It could easily be looked at as an answer, but I don’t always trust that for some reason. Sometimes life is messy enough that I can’t always tell when Satan is interfering and trying to distract me from what I know OR if the Lord is reaching out His hand with a tender mercy. I’m not sure why I haven’t figured out how to tell the difference yet at all times in my life, but I haven’t. Weird. . .
Again, I love conference so much! I love the General Authorities and the hard work and sacrifices they have put in to making sure the love of the Lord is extended throughout all of the world to His children.
Forever grateful!
