Well, it finally happened. My General Conference Book “Club” has now dwindled down to me writing a Sunday post and, ahem, then writing the only comment on it. (This is the part where you say stuff like, “Oh, I’m so sorry, Stephanie. Your GCBC was the best idea that anyone ever had! The only reason I’m not participating right now is because my DVR is so full of good stuff, I prefer reading romance novels while I lay by the pool, Let’s face it, General Conference is so 16 weeks ago I have swine flu in my eyes and reading is really difficult right now.”) So, I think your best bet back into full health and a fullness of joy is to join the GCBC fun again.
This is one of my favorite lines from his talk:
“My purpose today is to assure you that our Heavenly Father and the Savior live and that They love all humanity. The very opportunity for us to face adversity and affliction is part of the evidence of Their infinite love. . . . It is clear that for us to have that gift [eternal life] and to be given that trust [endless posterity], we must be transformed through making righteous choices where that is hard to do.”
Anyway, even if you don’t decide to comment on the talk here (clearing throat and raising eyebrows), you should really read it. It’s a great message. I would love to hear your thoughts though. Have a great week.
Diapers and Divinity 
That was a most excellent guilt trip, er. . .I mean, loving reminder. No, a perfect chastisement. I needed it. I’m back.
What Stuck With Me
1. “The Savior could have known how to succor us simply by revelation, but He chose to learn by His own personal experience.” Wow! Did I never learn this? Did I sleep through previous talks/lessons on the Atonement. This hit me in a powerful way. I thought I understood that the Atonement was all about love, but this adds a dimension to it. Perfect love + perfect sacrifice. Beautiful.
2. “The Lord always suits the relief to the person in need to best strengthen and purify him or her. Often it will come in the inspiration to do what might seem especially hard for the person who needs help himself.”
I loved his examples of people in need blessing others in need. It was a chastisement to me. I’ve been letting myself use the excuse of being a busy, overwhelmed mother of young children to avoid helping other busy, overwhelmed mothers of young children. There are at least two right now I know of who have specific pressing needs. If not me, then who? If not now, then when?
3. This talk reminded me again of my favorite hymn–“How Firm a Foundation”
One of my favorite phrases is “As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.”
This very talk was what our Relief Society lesson was on today. First of all, I LOVE Elder Eyring. And I love this talk. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how when you are struggling and going through difficult things, one of the most difficult things is feeling alone. No one should have to feel alone when they are going through a difficult time. Even if there isn’t something physical that we can do to help, just letting others know we are there, we can listen, we are praying for them… they aren’t alone. I also try and remember that the Savior also knows what it feels like to be alone. When he completed the most magnificent service that anyone of us will ever receive, he did it one hundred percent on his own. No matter how alone we feel in our trials, He can relate.
PS. I had no idea the club existed. Does commenting make me a member? 🙂
Yep, you’re officially a full-fledged member now. 🙂
I read them, I just don’t have any super-duper insightful comments to share. I pretty much say, “I needed that reminder” or “I needed to hear that” when I read these talks. I’m kinda dumb that way. So I’m commenting to say that I do read them! You are not doing this as a solo exercise! I think what the bishop says about enrichment activities (and I have to remind myself of this often because for the most part Enrichment activities are ill-attended) applies to this too: if just one person benefits, then the activity is worth it.
This is what i just gave my talk on yesterday. I LOVE president Eyering. and I DID have swine flu in my eyes, and girls camp on the brain. SO I dogged you.
Here is what I have come to understand.
When we go through adversity – the Lord is putting us in a positsion to bless us. We have to be stripped of everything to recieve his fullness. One of the ways he does this, is by letting us deal with really hard things. This is a law that exsisted beofre he did. When he sat on the hill and watched his apostles struggling, he had to wait until they has been stripped down enough, that he could give them everything he wanted to give them. It is the law of concecration. We when have nothing – becasue the Lord has taken it, we then have access to his storehouse. Our abilities are greater becasue we have nothing – we have what he has. We have to become as a mustard seed, a littel child, an un profitable servant, and then we rely on his maerits to become more. That hurts, it does not feel good, and with our limited scope of how the Lord works – it is not fair. Just like when the Saints were asked to live the law of conceration they fought it, and did not want to. We fight the things we are given that llow the blessings from thatlaw to take effect in our lives.
That is why when ELder Eyerng says: The very opportunity for us to face adversity and affliction is part of the evidence of Their infinite love. . .
They love us enough to put us in a position where they can give us their fullness.
The concept if being nothing is used all throughout the scriptures. The savior’s birth – every prophet has allways been the on the lowest rank in social class.
Our RS lesson was on two talks yesterday, and this is the one the teacher omitted. Bummer. Because it’s awesome. And did you read my post on Saturday? About how my roots have atrophied because I haven’t tended them? That’s why I’ll be back. Commentary to follow, I promise.
Oh and also this is why every prophet ever born in the scriptures, came from a barren mother. Except the Savior. She was not barren, but she was a virgin. Thatis why it had to be a virgin birth.
Eyring is my favourite. For serious. I’ve never heard a talk of his that hasn’t rocked me to my core.
And I haven’t been commenting on these posts because I’m lazy and figure I have nothing profound to say anyway. =P
I’ve been reading most every week-just not always commenting. I’ll repent and do better.
This was a great talk and timely for me. I am grateful to have finally learned that adversity isn’t always a punishment, but instead an opportunity for growth and spiritual refinement. It reminds me of that quote, “That which we acheive too easily, we esteem too lightly.” If living the gospel and our experiences on earth were always easy, what would we learn and how much would we value our testimonies and our relationships with the Savior? It’s only when our spirits are tested that we can realize how much strength (through the Lord) we really have.
This was my favorite conference talk. President Eyring gave a very similar address at a BYU devotional. It was beautiful! Elder Maxwell talked about adversity: there were three reasons we face it: sins (our own or others), living in the natural world: death, sickness, and natural disasters, and finally to be chastened. It doesn’t really matter which it is, because if we turn to the Lord in each one of these cases it gives us an opportunity to become more like our Savior.
Kaylynn–thanks for reminding me about Elder Maxwell’s talk! I had forgotten those three points, and was so appreciative of the reminder. 🙂
Ok, Steph… you hit a cord here. I love this talk. it is by far my fav from this last conference – well maybe right along with Elder Holland, but really did her just explain it so purely, we are not yet what we need to be, if we were, we would not be here.
I also loved the story at the end about his past bishop and visiting. I have some older friends in my life (you can see several of them on my blog) and sometimes I think, “I really should go visit them”, like I will be doing some sort of service. But in reality I am the one who benefits. Anyway, just one I relate to well.
I really love this talk. I have read it at least 10 times and have a copy in my bag. But I will for sure read it again this week.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Ruth
i have been reading every week, intending to comment and then getting distracted by summer. But at least you’ve kept me reading.
Anyway I like the part of the talk where he said, “The Lord always suits the relief to the person in need to best strengthen and purify him or her. Often it will come in the inspiration to do what might seem especially hard for the person who needs help himself.” Sometimes we have to go down paths we’d rather not be on to get where we need to be. Also, it is hard to give a service that you feel you are in need of yourself. (Especially in marriage).
I also found it interesting that he pointed out that the Savior understands our suffering because he shared a part in it and then listed several examples where the person helping someone suffering had gone through (or was still going through) similar pain or sorrow. There is something powerfully healing knowing our suffering is understood by others.
I started thinking that often I am reluctant to help others in similar situations because I’m still trying to make my own way through and have yet to find the “answer.” Maybe the answer is to reach outside myself- instead of trying to lift myself out, try lifting another up.
Charlotte–I loved your comment, especially about how often I hesitate to reach out to others because I don’t have the “answer” yet. That is so true! Thanks for sharing.
Okay–I’m back. (I have two talks to catch up on? I think?…)
The thing that I will take away from this talk of Elder Eyring’s is this: serve. Serve when you think you’ve got it bad. Serve when things are good. Just SERVE. Don’t waste your time and effort complaining. I also found this to be profound because, in my current calling, we have been struggling with some of our young women and my stake young women’s president counseled me to set Personal Progress and class presidency meetings and the whole “program” aside and just have these girls SERVE. That, for me, was the message and heart of this talk, which will give me the courage to do what I need to do.
Thank you, Stephanie. Reading along and loving it!
Thanks for heeding my pathetic plea and returning to GCBC. 🙂 I missed you.
1. I love the concept he mentions of what is fair and our perception of injustice when we suffer. I needed to hear this because I far too often overestimate what I’m “due” and become disappointed when things don’t go as smoothly as I would like them to. When in reality, as he points out, we deserve nothing.
2. I just love this phrase: “we must be transformed through making righteous choices where that is hard to do.” The more I think about it, the more layers I find. Transformation is necessary, so hard choices are necessary. A righteous perspective is necessary. Those elements have to be present for the right kind of transformation to take place.
3. In this phrase, “That education can come only as we are subject to trials while serving God and others for Him,” I love the use of the word WHILE. Not trials, AND serve God and others. The trials come WHILE we do those things. I have a post already percolating in my brain and I want to add this thought into the mix because there’s a huge mothering application in there.
4. As someone who feels that my own trials are SUPER lame compared to the challenges of others, I often feel silly that I get so hung up on them. This phrase, “The Lord always suits the relief to the person in need to best strengthen and purify him or her,” reminded me that my trials and His help with them are uniquely mine and are meant to purify me in the ways I need most. I don’t really know what that means in the whole balance of mine compared to others, but my best guess is that it’s irrelevant. What IS relevant, is how I respond to the trials I have been given, and whether or not I allow myself to become pure through them.