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GCBC Week 3: “Personal Revelation and Testimony” by Sister Barbara Thompson

16 Oct

In April 2011, Sister Julie Beck said, “The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life.”  This is a theme that Sister Barbara Thompson builds upon in her talk.

Personal Revelation and Testimony by Sister Barbara Thompson

I really enjoyed going back and reading her talk; I found it deeper than I had remembered it.  I liked her emphasis that revelation can come in many different ways and really depends upon our willingness to recieve it and live worthy of it.  I also loved this important reminder after the story about the WWII sister whose “testimony kept [her]“:

“Because we have a strong testimony doesn’t mean it will always remain that way. We must nourish and strengthen it in order that it will have sufficient power to sustain us.”

What are your thoughts after studying this talk?  Please share your insights in the comments.

To anyone who is checking out GCBC for the first time, the goal is to read one General Conference talk a week and discuss it together as an on-line “book club.”  If you want more information about how it works, go here.  And then join us.

[image credit]

 
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Posted by on October 16, 2011 in General Conference Book Club

 

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GCBC Week 22: “Testimony” by Elder Cecil O. Samuelson Jr.

28 Aug

I’ve seen a recent surge lately of friends and acquaintances struggling a little bit in their testimony.  We all do sometimes, on some level, and our less-than-perfect obedience is evidence of that.  Sometimes failure to consistently keep a commandment is a good indicator that our testimony of that particular doctrine is a little unstable.  Anyway, I’ve seen people asking a lot of questions lately that bloom from doubt.  Questions are great things, because they give us an opportunity to learn if we address them in the right way.  I think some main ingredients in that right way are faith in God’s ability and willingness to answer our questions, and then putting forth the work it requires to seek those answers.  It’s a really important step in gaining confidence in our own understanding of God’s doctrine and His plans for us.

“Testimony” by Elder Cecil O. Samuelson Jr.

Elder Samuelson tackles some of the basic tactics and attitudes that are an important part of a God-sanctioned search for testimony.  This is one of my favorite parts:  “Everyone who is willing to pay the price—meaning keeping the commandments—may have a testimony. “  I love this because it coincides so well with Alma’s admonition (in Alma 32) to “experiment upon the word” and also what the Savior himself said when people questioned his teachings, “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17).  Obedience with a heart willing to learn is one of the greatest testimony builders of all.  Anyway, he makes a lot of great points — 10 of them to be exact — that were a great review for me.

What stands out to you as you study this talk?  What could this talk help you to do or see differently?  Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Posted by on August 28, 2011 in General Conference Book Club

 

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GCBC Week 22: Tell Me the Stories of Jesus

19 Sep

General Conference Book Club Week 22:


Today was kind of a rough day at our house– one of those days where you wonder whether or not your children are going to turn out alright after all.  There were tears and time-outs and lots and lots of reminders of rules and expectations.  It was not easy to do scripture time tonight, and bedtime was a welcome relief.  As I read “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” by Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, I felt so reassured of the lasting impact our instruction can and will have on our children.

“If a child is not listening, don’t despair. Time and truth are on your side. At the right moment, your words will return as if from heaven itself. Your testimony will never leave your children.

As you reverently speak about the Savior—in the car, on the bus, at the dinner table, as you kneel in prayer, during scripture study, or in late-night conversations—the Spirit of the Lord will accompany your words.

As you do your best, the testimony of Jesus will gently distill upon your children’s hearts.”

Share in the comments what you love and learn as you study this talk.

Go here to find the media versions of the talk (audio, video, mp3, etc.).  If this is your first visit to the General Conference Book Club,  click here to learn more about it.

 
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Posted by on September 19, 2010 in General Conference Book Club

 

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My defining moment. No, really.

22 Mar

Just the other day, my blog got featured as the best of “hot off the press” on the homepage of WordPress.com.  I have no idea how it happened, but it created an insane influx of traffic to Diapers and Divinity.  By 8:00 a.m., I had well over 500 hits, and finished out the day at unprecedented numbers.  I felt temporarily famous, and it was pretty cool.  Most of the feedback was positive, but at 11:00 a.m., I received this comment in my Inbox.  I’m assuming the writer had perused the blog and my profile and such.  (I edited out one phrase for the sake of decency.)

So you ended up being just a mother.

Just another mother, like a chimp, a cow, an elephant, a whale, just another mother, like an insect, or an octopus, or a worm.  Just another mother.

Your kids will not thank you, your husband will not like you, your own mother will pity you for making her own same mistake.

Just another mother.

For a moment of frenzy, of uterine voracity, irrational and irreversible, you destroyed your body, your beauty, and your own intellect.

Parental-brain-atrophy-syndrome, where your brain biologically adjusts to the need of your infants, descending at their own subhuman level, with just one dimension, food, or perhaps two dimensions, food and feces. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2010 in Diapers, Divinity

 

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General Conference Book Club Week 14: Elder Holland

03 Jan

I figure we should start off the new year with this rock-star talk from General Conference.  Do you remember back in the 80s when Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave that famous testimony of the living Savior just days before he died?  Well, this talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ranks right up there as an incredibly powerful testimony; you can’t watch it and not be moved.  The talk is called “Safety for the Soul,” wherein he boldly declares the truth of the Book of Mormon as the word of God.  The talk was given during the Sunday morning session of the October 2009 General Conference.

Just read it.  Or even better, watch it or listen to it.  I’ll let the conviction speak for itself.

(And just in case you randomly landed here by Googling something like “Is the Book of Mormon really true?,” the links in this post take you to a testimony by a living apostle answering the claims by some that the book is a fraud.  I add my own witness to his that yes, the Book of Mormon really is true.  I encourage you to listen to Elder Holland’s talk, and read the Book of Mormon for yourself.  I’m confident that God himself will reveal its truth to you.)

“I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world . . . that the Book of Mormon is true.”

“I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this latter-day work—and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these, our times—until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies.”

———–

Thanks to those of you that have faithfully read and even commented as part of our Book Club.  If some of you are just joining us as part of a New Year’s Resolution, welcome!  (You’ll find details about GCBC here.)  And a warm welcome back to other friends who are rejoining us.

 
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Posted by on January 3, 2010 in General Conference Book Club

 

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