So hey! Time for a religious post! Yay!
I spent all of today watching General Conference. For those of you who may not know- I’m Mormon- and Conference is a semi-annual chance to hear from our leaders. Men and women who hold different responsibilities in the worldwide church (as opposed to our leaders at the local level) prepare and give talks, and do it to an audience of about 100,000…or wait…MILLIONS of people thanks the the internet and satellite. The talks are given for the benefit of members of the church and nonmembers alike. The Conference is actually held over two days- but I thought it’d be easier for me to devote one whole day to it rather than two (you know…what with the baby and all) and managed to watch it pretty much nonstop today in our living room (over the internet…with the laptop hooked up to the TV). Camper was good- ate and played and generally put up with being stuck in the house on a day when we’re usually at church- giving him ample opportunity to flirt with girls.
I usually look for something specific in Conference- one talk or one quote that will remind me why I do what I do. Why I give up what I give up, why my faith is so important to me. I don’t think I would have made it through the past year with all it’s heartbreak and WAITING and general harder-than-the-rest-of-my-life-so-far-edness without knowing that God loves me. That He loves my family. And that His timelines aren’t necessarily my timelines. I’ve been able to wait and have patience (sometimes) and trust because of the way I FEEL His love for me. That love is just as palpable to me as my husband’s love, or my parent’s love, or my brother or my son’s love. I don’t think that everyone can say that, I know it hasn’t always been that way for me. But to honestly feel like He knows what I’m going through and He is paying attention to my life, and it just helps.
What I loved about Conference today was one talk by Elder Uchtdorf (click to listen) that encouraged us to embrace what should be the defining characteristic of any Latter Day Saint- or any Christian- for that matter. “How do we become true disciples of Jesus Christ?” Obedience to the commandments, specifically:
Matthew 22:36-39
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
“Because Love is the Great commandment it ought to be at the center of all and everything we do in our own family, in our church callings, and in our livelihood.”
“Since the beginning of time love has been the source of both the highest bliss and the heaviest burdens. At the heart of misery from the days of Adam until today you will find the love of wrong things and at the heart of joy you will find the love of good things.”
And finally:
“Divine Love is the factor that transforms reluctant compliance with God’s commandments into blessed dedication and consecration.”
If you’re wondering how to become that kind of person, the kind that gives and serves and believes as if it is just a part of her, a person who lifts and inspires other people and who can weather a crisis with enduring faith and perspective, it’s through love. God’s love can transform us from people just doing what we do because we feel like we should do it to people who do what we do because it is a part of us. And we GET that love by serving the people around us. By trying to show them love until we feel it, or trying to show them love that we already feel. That’s my goal. And I’m probably going to be working on it for awhile.
