sunday’s top ten

Apr 3, 2011

Today’s sessions were power packed and I have much to ponder. I can’t wait to go back and read Lynn Robbins talk on being being more important than doing. It goes in right in line with my thoughts of yesteryear about human doings vs. human beings. I loved Elder Holland’s talk, loved the story of Hugh B. Brown, loved Elder Bednar’s words and analogies. Such great stuff to teach my heart how to listen to Christ and become more like Him.

Here are my favorite thoughts from today.

1. Do we demand or wait for our own road to Damascus experiences before becoming full disciples of our Lord?

2. By being the answer to someone’s prayer we often find the answer to our own.

3. Preach the gospel at all times, in necessary, use words.

4. No, you won’t be the same (after your trial), you will be stronger – you will be awesome!

5. The only way to see the view is to make the climb.

6. Revelation can be like a light switch or like the sunrise.

7. Temples are more than stone and mortar. They are filled with faith and fasting. They are built of trials and testimonies. They are sanctified by sacrifice and service.

8. The Church Welfare System is not merely an interesting footnote in the history of the church – it defines us as a people.

9. Marriage is the ideal setting to overcome selfishness.

10. Heavenly Father wants us to experience ultimate joy.

11. The God of the Bible traffics in life and death, not in niceness.

12. I am the gardener. I know what I want you to become.

13. Is it possible I need this child as much as this child needs me?

14. “To be” is never done. It needs to part of my nature, not checked off.

15. Be the kind of parents to our children that our Heavenly Father is to us.

16. The church is not a fast-food outlet. You can’t always have it your way.

17. One way or the other, the Lord will have His voice heard.

Seventeen…couldn’t stop at ten!

This conference, I fell in love with the idea of being a standard-bearer. My head is swimming with thoughts of Joan of Arc, Ensign Peak, and Isaiah all rolled up into one. I want to develop it into a theme for our homeschool for the next little while…being a standard-bearer for the Lord and other standard bearers throughout history.

I loved the focus on the atonement of Christ being active in our lives. He is our Savior. He is our Redeemer. He is our Comforter. And yet, for many of us…me included, it is so hard to give our hearts to Him, to trust that the process is worth it, to know that it will work for us and not just for others, to humble ourselves completely and admit that we cannot be good enough or work hard enough or be anything enough to save ourselves and to put the time in to let Him save us instead. It is the great challenge of this life and our whole purpose for being here…why is it so hard? Its like when we have a list of errands to run and we waste our time doing the non-essentials on the list first before getting to work on the top-priority items. Learning to trust God, give our hearts, sins, and pains to Him, and becoming like Him is the whole point, but many of us spend our lives on other pursuits and put off the process (and the joy) of coming unto Him completely.