Steadfast and Immovable

Our beautiful Northern Pin Oak

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Young Womens session of the April 2003 conference.

The theme for this meeting was taken from the Mutual theme for the year, 2 Nephi 31:20, Ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.

I'll share some of my favorite quotes from each talk.

Susan W. Tanner:  

Speaking of Abraham, "He did not know the outcome of that test as we know it from a historical perspective. He was walking into the unknown. Still he was steadfast. He was living on promises that the Lord would bless him. Whatever nervousness he may have felt didn't deter him from pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ."

Isn't that how every life is? We can't see the outcome, only where we are now, hoping that the outcome will be what we want. That is why life takes trusting the Lord and following Him because of His omniscience. 

"But when you keep your covenants, you will learn to more fully love those to whom you are eternally bound. Then you will also be able to extend your love beyond that circle to others."

I want to explore the connection between keeping covenants and love. I'm not very good at loving others. I tolerate others, but don't feel unconditional love for most people. I know I have to do better in this area because while I think I'm keeping my covenants, I must not be in the right way, because I'm not experiencing this particular fruit.

Julie B. Beck: "My mother has stayed in the Savior's path with unshaken faith in Him (see 2 Nephi 31:19) all the days of her life. She wakes up every day looking forward to new adventures. For her, life is so interesting, and she still has so much to learn."

I know a little bit about Sister Beck's mother and the challenges she faced in life. Oh how I want to be more like her in her attitude! I often wonder what it would be like to be equally yoked in marriage and if that would make a difference in my spiritual and emotional strength. Too often I feel so beaten down and exhausted by the consequences of who I chose to marry and the draining struggles of our differences. 

Elaine B. Dalton: "Nephi not only had a vision of how to return to his heavenly home, but he also had a vision of what he wanted in his earthly home. The Savior will help you see and understand the vision He has for you."

My mission president told us that God's will for us could be achieved only with our full cooperation. Which I believe with all my soul. But after I'd been married for a decade I realized that now I was in a "love triangle" and it would take the cooperation of another to realize God's vision. That old unequally yoked business. But I keep working on myself so that I know I've done all I can.

President James E. Faust: "I can say without hesitation that you can have a 'perfect brightness of hope' for your future and endless joy if you 'press forward' as righteous daughters of God."

I hope he means it is never too late!

"A person who is humble is teachable."

That's what I strive to be.

"The character thus formed from self-discipline will rise with you in the Resurrection."

Good to know! It helps me keep going.

"Remember that you and the Church will be judged in part by your cleanliness and neatness in appearance."

In the Doctrine and Covenants section 42:40 is the phrase '. . . let all thy garments be plain, and their beauty the beauty of the work of thine own hands.' I believe that "plain" doesn't mean unadorned or dowdy, rather it means clear, unmistakable, obvious, as in it is plain that we are covenant people, followers of Jesus Christ. And when the fashions of the world are not compatible with our covenants, then we make our own clothing and set our own style and fashion. If we say to the world that we are virtuous followers of Jesus, but dress like the world, doesn't that make for confusion? We are called to be different from the world to attract those who are seeking purity, virtue, and relief from the evils of the world.

"Grace is a God-given virtue. It is a disposition to be kind and to do good. . . . Charm is attractiveness which comes from a feeling of personal dignity, an inner beauty that comes from a feeling of self-worth."

Too many times in my life I lack both grace and charm. Sad to admit. But I'm working on it.

"It may be that your most significant, everlasting achievements will be your righteous influence on others, that your divine feminine inner beauty and intuition will find expression in your quiet strength, gentleness, dignity, charm, graciousness, creativity, sensitivity, radiance, and spirituality. Enhance these sublime feminine gifts. They will make you appealing and even irresistible as you serve others as the handmaidens of God."

Still at age 66 (December 30), that's my goal. At my funeral I want to be remembered as a women like President Faust describes. I'd better to get work!

Follow the Instructions

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday morning session of the April 2003 conference.

"Every person experiences many challenges in this mortal life. Each has personal agency to make choices that affect his or her progress. Good choices bring promised blessings, and bad choices always bring undesired consequences."

Wisdom from Elder D. Rex Gerratt of the Seventy.

"As in times past, we receive instructions from the Lord's living prophet. . . . After receiving instructions, we need to be obedient and hearken to the counsel we receive. We need to listen to and follow our appointed leaders."

This was a short talk with a powerful message. 

Holy Place, Sacred Space

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday morning session of the April 2003 conference.

For years I've been saying that I want to write a book about teaching children reverence. In 2012 I wrote a blog post on that subject. I feel like the need for parental instruction has only gotten more acute as the years go by, and fewer parents understand how to teach their children to be and feel reverent. Well, I'll get to writing that book someday soon. In the meantime, I enjoyed the counsel from Elder Dennis B. Neuenschwander. "Our ability to seek, recognize, and reverence the holy above the profane, and the sacred above the secular, defines our spirituality."

Learning reverence for things holy and sacred begins in the home during the spiritual times such as prayer, Family Home Evening, visits from ministering brethren (I miss the Home Teaching visits), visits from missionaries, watching General Conference, and such. Whatever behavior is tolerated at home during these times will be displayed at church during similar activities.

Elder Neuenschwander reminds us:

Holy places have always been essential to the proper worship of God. For Latter-day Saints, such holy places include venues of historic significance, our homes, sacrament meetings, and temples. Much of what we reverence, and what we teach our children to reverence as holy and sacred, is reflected in these places. The faith and reverence associated with them and the respect we have for what transpires or has transpired in them make them holy. The importance of holy places and sacred space in our worship can hardly be overestimated.

When I talk to parents of young children I remind them that reverence is best learned at home with lots and lots of practice so that the behaviors become automatic when in serious, sacred and holy places and times. (Weddings, funerals, flag ceremonies, sacrament meetings, concerts, ballet performances, or other serious events.) Feeling the Spirit takes practice, and lots of it. Children learn by having sacred experiences at home, first learning the behaviors that invite the spirit and then the good feelings that come from receiving the spirit.

The words sacred and sacrifice come from the same root. One may not have the sacred without first sacrificing something for it. There can be no sacredness without personal sacrifice. Sacrifice sanctifies the sacred. . . . The establishment of our homes as holy places reflects the depths of sacrifice we are willing to make for them.

This talk was given a year and a half after the 9/11 attacks, during the war on terror when the world was in turmoil and people were fearful. There were many talks (always, it seems) that mentioned the perilous times. Elder Neuenschwander ended with this wonderful invitation:

In holy places and in sacred spaces we find spiritual refuge, renewal, hope, and peace. Are these not worth every necessary personal sacrifice? My brethren and sisters, may each of us revere and respect the holy and sacred in our lives. May we teach our children likewise. Let us all stand in holy and sacred places of spiritual peace. 

 

 

 

 

 

Poignant Pain

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood session of the April 2003 conference.

I have come to a greater understanding of why some women hate church on Mother's Day. It is painful to be at church on a day when the very thing you want and have been denied is celebrated. Of course, Mother's Day is on the calendar and well known ahead of time so a person can choose to make other plans for that day. I often get blindsided by Sacrament meeting talks by departing missionaries, returning missionaries, serving missionaries or parents reporting on their missionaries. It reminds me of my failures and missed blessings, all rather painful.

This particular Priesthood session was much the same, all about missionaries. When the talks were given my four boys were still young and I was still full of hope and faith that they would all serve and I would be surrounded by priesthood power. This time around was much more painful and poignant.

Elder Daryl H. Garn spoke of the example of a particular returned missionary. "Because of his example I began looking at my associates at school, including those on the basketball team, and realized that the people I most wanted to be like were those who had served missions." I have found that the youth in the rural Midwest miss out on those examples and associations because all the returned missionaries arrive, report their missions, and quickly leave again to go to school in the Utah/Idaho area. There were no examples, mentors or friends to guide or encourage our sons. I'm not sure what the answer is, but hopefully the FSY conferences will help. (We were too poor to send our children to EFY.)

Bishop H. David Burton said, "Our bishops serve as personal trainers and use their sacred priesthood keys to bless our lives." I thought, well, only if they don't work four hours away in another state and are home only on weekends. When our son needed a strong priesthood leader to guide him through the repentance process, all he got were a few texts each week, never face to face time exploring the scriptures or conference talks together, no time serving, working or playing together. Our son missed out on help at a critical time and never truly recovered. (And what seemed especially strange to us was that the branch president never spoke to us about what we could do to help our son, even when we asked.)

President James E. Faust spoke of staying out of The Devil's Throat. 

My dear young friends, there is another great truth that you young men must learn. It is that everything has a price. There is a price to pay for success, fulfillment, accomplishment, and joy. There are no freebies. If you don't pay the price that is needed for success, you will pay the price of failure.

I can't completely blame others for the failures in our family. We all have agency and made choices without seeing the long-term effects and consequences. These are painful lessons to learn. I wonder what I would say to the me of 2003 if I could go back in time. Or the me of 1980 when I was a freshly returned missionary. 

I take hope from President Thomas S. Monson's talk in which he said, ". . . I share the observation that the seeds of testimony frequently do not immediately take root and flower. Bread cast upon the water returns, at times, only after many days. But it does return." I have hope that someday my wandering sons will return to the teachings planted in their hearts in their childhood and youth by a loving mother.