Author Archives: S.D. Sorensen

Can’t sleep.

Posted in Diapers by

imagesIt’s four-something in the morning and I can’t sleep.  I’m also very tired.  I hate it when that happens.  I think it’s an unfortunate consequence of three things:  1.  My mind is too busy.  Ever since I got back from Women’s Conference my mind is full of things I want to do and work on and think about.  Basically, I want to save the world.  I’m wondering if I’ll have time for that.  2.  It’s raining outside.  Normally I love the sound of rain, but when it’s 4:00 a.m., I can’t seem to get past it.  3.  Apparently, my husband is having dreams that he is an acrobat in the circus.  There have been flips.

I am happy to report that despite all my traveling paranoia, I did not get swine flu on my trip.  It was a close call, though, since I was sure I had it many times.

Also, when after one day of walking  back and forth across a large campus several times, you feel like your legs will fall off,  it might be time to crank up your treadmill workout at the gym a little bit.

And is it weird that after spending a few days away from your children, even when surrounded by tens of thousands of women in a large arena, that your children seem louder than you ever remembered?

Aren’t you glad you dropped in on all this blog substance today?  I promise to come up with something more meaningful later.  I’m going to go crawl back into the Big Top now and try to give sleep another chance.

General Conference Book Club Week 4: Elder Snow

Posted in General Conference Book Club by

04_02_snow For week 4, I have selected the talk called “Get On with Our Lives” given in the Sunday morning session of conference by Elder Steven E. Snow.  He acknowledges that all of us struggle with change, and lays out some ways that we can prepare for it and progress through it when it comes.

>>Click here to read the talk “Get On with Our Lives” by Elder Steven E. Snow.<<

The GCBC pattern is:  Read.  Ponder.  Comment.  Then read everyone else’s great comments. 🙂 As in weeks past, just leave your comments here on this post.  The previous weeks’ posts will remain open indefinitely, so you can always return to catch up or revisit those great talks as well.

If this is your first visit to the General Conference Book Club, click here to learn more about it. You’re welcome to join us at any point along the way.

I just got into town and I had not yet thought through which talk to choose for this week (By the way, I learned so many great things at Women’s Conference and I can’t wait to share them with you.), so I resorted to a random number generator online to pick a talk.  This one came up.  Initially, I thought “nah, that’s not really what I had in mind,” and almost started over, but then I began to read through it.  I personally am not going through any big changes at the moment, but something stuck out to me that’s in line with a lesson I feel the Spirit has been teaching me lately.  I am learning how important our PROCESS of becoming is.  It might even be more important than the actual becoming.  I guess I’ll restrain myself and save all my input for the comments section after I’ve read more thoroughly.  Can’t wait to hear what you have to say.  Thanks so much to all of you that have been so enthusiastic about this GCBC; it’s been great for me.

(p.s.  Thanks also to those of you who commented on my Mormon Mommy Blogs guest post and made me feel so good. If you haven’t seen it  yet, hop over and check it out because I was pretty darn proud of it.  Pretend that sounded meek and humble.)

Shrink not from your duty

Posted in Divinity by

droppedimage2I don’t think my Sunday would have been any different if I had taken three pet monkeys to church instead of my own children.  That children’s song “Reverently, quietly…” was not inspired by my children– maybe for my children, but not by them.

After exchanging half-annoyed, half-shocked eye rolls with my husband several times across the pew, I was beginning to feel very discouraged.  I consciously had to reign in my angry feelings so that I could take the sacrament and not feel blasphemous about it.  I was overwhelmed by my children and my obvious failure to teach them correct behavior or at least to wrestle them into submission.  Sundays can often feel overwhelming anyway because in addition to my own offspring, I have other church responsibilities in which I feel equally as inadequate.  So in one of those almost-going-to-have-tears-well-up-in-my-eyes kind of moments, the last speaker said “Amen” and we began to sing the closing hymn.  I quote two of the four verses:

Shrink not from your duty, however unpleasant,

But follow the Savior, your pattern and friend.

Our little afflictions, tho painful at present,

Ere long, with the righteous, in glory will end.


Be fixed in your purpose, for Satan will try you;

The weight of your calling he perfectly knows.

Your path may be thorny, but Jesus is nigh you;

His arm is sufficient, tho demons oppose.

I won’t go into my interpretation of demons at that moment, but it’s sufficient to say that the hymn became a poignant, personal message from my Heavenly Father.  I literally felt His encouragement and sensed that my shame was unnecessary.  I felt His love and knew I was not alone.  If it’s true for me, it must be true for all moms, even you.

I think I’ll pull up this post again next Sunday morning to help me remember that.

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(This entry was originally posted on August 24, 2008.  I’m trying to recreate my lost archives.  And I’m still out of town, but I just scheduled this one to post in my absence.)

Deep theological thoughts on motherhood

Posted in Divinity by

superstock_1538r-4019I had a light-bulb moment the other day. You know how in the talk we’re studying this week for General Conference Book Club, there’s a quote from Joseph Smith about how revelation can come into our minds as “pure intelligence flowing into you”? It was one of those kind of moments. Pretend you’re interested.

I had recently finished writing a guest post for Mormon Mommy Blogs. (I believe it’s posting on the 30th– that’s this Thursday, but I’ll be out of town and won’t have internet access to point you all that direction, so GO there and make a comment so I don’t look like the guest blogger who shouldn’t have been.)

Anyway, I wrote a post about “Diapers and Divinity,” which obviously is the title of my blog, but it was mainly an attempt to explain my philosophy on motherhood in general, and the motivating principles for which I try to use this blog as a medium. So the thoughts were still fresh in my mind and I kept thinking and kept thinking about how majestic motherhood really is. I felt convinced that the simple things we do as mothers are really, really important, but I still felt like I was unable to articulate why. Moms are often caught up in (and discouraged by) the dreary details of motherhood, but surely there must be a deeper purpose in it than we see . . . or don’t see. And then the thoughts came.

Everything we do is meant to point us to Christ. All of those mundane things we do— the dishes, the diaper changing, the laundry, the booger-removal from walls and bedding, 🙂 all of it— are symbols of some part of the Savior’s atoning mission. Stick with me here, I’m trying to make sense. I’ve always liked this scripture in Moses 6:62-63:

62 And now, behold, I say unto you: This is the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the meridian of time.

63 And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.
Everything. That thought took me a little deeper and I began to recognize that all those ordinary tasks fall into categories of what Jesus Christ did/does for us:
  1. He takes dirty things and makes them clean. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18) Think about it: laundry, dishes, bathing, cleaning toilets, all fall into this category. Even changing a diaper becomes a poignant symbol when you think of it as taking a soiled child and making him clean, something the Savior does for us.
  2. He turns contention, pain, sorrow, and hunger into peace, healing, comfort and nourishment. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28), “Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh” (Luke 6:21). This could be a job description for mothers. We nurse wounds. We wipe away tears. We restore peace. We feed people.
  3. He turns chaos into order. “I created these things; yea, in the beginning . . . And the earth was without form, and void; . . . And I, God, saw everything that I had made, and, behold, all things which I had made were very good” (Moses 2: 1-2, 31). As mothers, we create the world of our home. Our homemaking and housekeeping efforts take matter unorganized and turn it into home: a place of learning and existing as a family. We are creators.

l30Isn’t that amazing? Maybe some of you are thinking “Duh, I knew that,” but to me it was an entirely new and enlightening concept– a revelation that I participate in the Savior’s work when I do my simple mom stuff. It’s a struggle, but it’s supposed to be hard; the Atonement was not easy for Him either. But seeing those symbols for what they are and what they can point me to has made a big difference for me. So, like my little sidebar introduction says, join me in getting back to mothering with a renewed sense of purpose. That purpose— divine motherhood— is very, very cool.

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I’m headed to Women’s Conference at BYU for the rest of the week, so I’ll be pretty quiet on the Internet front. I’m going to post my GCBC comments tonight, so please keep that conversation going all week. The new talk will still go up on Sunday. I’m hoping to learn lots of cool stuff and come back and share it with you. Say a prayer for Matt’s four days as a single parent. (But don’t pray too much– I want it to be hard enough that my shoes seem unfillable. :))

True confessions of a 6-year-old mind. Beware.

Posted in Diapers by

ezpicknsYou know how some kids pick their nose and eat their boogers?  (I’m afraid Natalie might be one of those kids.)  Not Grant!  No way.  Never in a million years would he do that because it’s disgusting.  Instead, Grant likes to wipe his boogers on furniture, car windows, carpet… whatever’s handy.

I recently discovered that the side of his bed looks like this:

dscf2022No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.  It really IS that gross.  So now, his bed has been equipped with this:

dscf2023And if that isn’t bad enough, there have been other totally unacceptable infractions of the no-booger-wiping rule.  The lastest was so dire that I did what any good mother would do and forced my child to make a public, internet-based confession.

Did you see all that heartfelt remorse?  The sorrow?  The wailing?  Um, yeah.  Well, Clark and Natalie were jealous about Grant’s debut on the big screen, so the climbing, whining and button-pushing resulted in this:

I know, I know, you are SO impressed.  Feel free to send an Academy Award, or Xanax, whichever seems more appropriate.