Author Archives: S.D. Sorensen

General Conference: a crash course in good guilt

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Dnews Sunday AM ConferenceFor any of my readers unfamiliar with the Mormon faith, we believe in a living prophet and twelve apostles.  Every 6 months, the membership of the church worldwide participates in General Conference, usually watching on TV by satellite as these prophets, seers and revelators teach us about the doctrine of Christ.  It’s kind of a modern-day Sermon on the Mount.  Anyway, it’s one of my favorite times of the year; a time of spiritual refueling and a re-commitment to things that I know are true and right.

I like to think that I’ve matured spiritually a little bit over the years.  I personally believe that one of the signs of spiritual maturity is to listen to talks and lessons and seek for ways to apply the principles to my own life instead of thinking things like, “I hope so-and-so is paying attention to this,” or “The such-and-such family should really hear this talk.”  I’ve finally determined that passing off a teaching to another is a wasted opportunity to better myself.  Having said that, I can totally understand Matt’s excitement to run home from the Priesthood session of Conference on Saturday night and say to me, “You’ll never guess what President Uctdorf said.  You’re going to die!”  I raised an eyebrow while he flipped through his notes.  “He said Don’t spend hours and hours creating a blog and neglecting your children.”

So I have decided to leave the church.

Just kidding.

This leads me to the concept of conference-induced guilt.  And like the title of my post says, it’s a good thing.  What I feel is not a Boy-you’re-making-a-lot-of-mistakes-and-you-are-a-failure feeling, but rather a humbling You-are-trying-but-you-can-do-better feeling.  And it’s good for me.  It motivates me, reminds me, encourages me.  It re-converts me.

So here is a list of things that I learned from General Conference this weekend.  Some are things that were specifically said.  Many are thoughts that came into my mind and heart as I listened.

  1. I’m thankful that there are living prophets on the earth.
  2. My children have been driving me crazy this past week, but I love them.  I need to make them a priority.  And besides teaching them, I need to pray for them and ask God to bless them to grow up righteous and obedient.
  3. I need to laugh more instead of getting bugged.
  4. The temple is important.  As the world gets crazier, the need for the peace of the temple will grow and grow.  Maybe I can eliminate something from my budget so that I can pay a regular babysitter and put temple attendance as a regular item on my calendar.
  5. I don’t even know what real adversity is.  My life, though sometimes emotionally challenging is a piece of cake compared to some of the great challenges other people have faced.  Instead of complaining about my bad days, I should be grateful for my abundant blessings and ease.
  6. I  need to be more worried about what God thinks than what anyone else thinks.
  7. The depth of Jesus Christ’s Atonement is awesome.  I am reminded that my small, occasional feelings of loneliness  can be swallowed up and comforted by a loving, completely understanding Savior.  (Elder Holland’s was my very favorite talk.)
  8. Satan is working hard to destroy things that are important.  When I get in a grumpy funk, I’m not the best companion in the world.  I need to be careful that I don’t let that kind of temptation/distraction be a detriment to my marriage. I’m sure Satan would love to see it fail.
  9. I can give a little more to my calling at church.  My Sundays should be spent in service to others.  Ask myself, “How can I bless people today?”  Perhaps I need to visit more of the children to show love to them.  I need to teach reverence and respect to the Primary children, starting with my own example.
  10. When someone is lost or stranded spiritually, we should reach out to them and not judge.

I’m sure that when I re-read the talks in the Ensign magazine, many other things will stand out to me and I will again desire to do better.  Is anyone interested in having an online Ensign Book Club?  We could schedule one talk a week to study from the most recent conference, and then have an in-post discussion about our favorite parts and insights– lessons we learn, things to work on, etc.  I’m not sure about all the details, but I would love to have a forum where we could study something together and report to each other about our insight.  Just a thought.

How was Conference for you?

The crown of limerick glory

Posted in Uncategorized by

crownAs I type this post I have flashbacks of the time I ran for student council in the 10th grade and was a total failure.  I think maybe a few friends and my English teacher voted for me.  Being elected or not elected is not a fun process because, unless you are a captain of self-esteem, it’s easy to tie victory or defeat to your self worth.  This of course is just a silly limerick contest, but I still don’t want anybody to take out a prescription because they didn’t do as well as they hoped.  And for the record, *I* loved all the limericks and that’s why I picked them!  🙂  (Don’t worry, Molly, we’ll do it again sometime.  If anyone has ideas for a great topic, let me know.)

Guess what?  We have TWO winners!!  They were only separated by one vote, so I decided the glory should be shared.  I know you think I’m lying just like you do when  your kids have a race or a contest or something and they ask, “Who won, Mom?” and you smile and say “It was a tie.” So to exonerate myself from any foul play, I have now released the results to your view if you want to click on the poll results and see for yourself.

And the winners are: Becca and The Queen!  Here are their respective limericks about the joy of going to church with small children:

We’re coming in five minutes too late,
in clothes that my children all hate.
They’re squirming and squawking,
the first speaker’s talking,
why must the front bench be my fate?

—

My twin girls climb all over the place;
Now my dress is undone to my waist.
I guess that’s why Bishop
Looks like he might throw up.
Wish this closing song had a quicker pace!

Congratulations.  I know that all your dreams of being published and inheriting international fame have all been surpassed by this monumental victory.  Send me your mailing address in an email (or facebook– yes I know both of them in real life, which only proves that I associate with people of the highest calibre) and your chocolate prize will be on its way.  They have also obtained a high-profile spot on my sidebar.   Angelina Jolie has nothing on you ladies.  Big lips and 10 children… hmpph! … amateur.

Update: Can anyone with WordPress knowledge please tell me how I can make the text in my sidebar actually have paragraphs instead of one huge lump of text? I’m guessing I just need the HTML equivelent of “return” on my keyboard to plug into my sidebar text widget. Help… over my head. (Thanks, Crystal!)

(And as a side note, as I’ve visited friend’s blogs, in some cases I’ve noticed that my blog in their sidebar has not updated itself for several days, so be sure that you have resubscribed to the new feed if you want to get the lastest and greatest from Diapers and Divinity.  I joke of course… my stuff is usually late, but rarely great, but it brings me joy to see you come anyway.)

And isn’t General Conference fantastic?  I’m loving it.  (See previous post if you need a packet to keep your kids’ attention.)

General Conference packet for children

Posted in Divinity by

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UPDATE:  For anyone coming to this post looking for a packet for the upcoming conference, you can click here for more current links.

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Here’s a link to a great resource for your children to work on while you watch General Conference this weekend:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13298891/2009-April-Conference-Packet

then click “More” > “Print”

(I had to sign up for account to download it because I had a little trouble printing.)  There are activities for both readers and non-readers.  Thanks to a friend for passing it along.

My blog friend Laurie also put up an excellent post with more resources.

Enjoy the weekend folks; it’s one of my favorite times of year.

p.s.  I know it would have been more helpful if I had posted this a few days ago.  Sorry.  What can I say?  Read my old post about never being on time.  And forgive.

Oh, the noise . . . the noise, noise noise, noise!

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by

droppedimage-copyThis entry was originally posted on August 19, 2008.  (I’m re-creating my lost archives.)

Has anyone ever noticed that by signing up for motherhood you inadvertently sign up for a lifetime of mind-boggling noise?  Clearly this is fine print I missed because I’m not sure I would have knowingly agreed to surrender all opportunities for peace and clarity of thought.  Oh man, last night at Wal-Mart my daughter screamed so loud that the whole store (I’m not kidding, the whole store) fell momentarily silent.  After a painfully long pause, a woman many aisles away cries out, “Well, I think we heard that alright.”  (Since it’s not the topic of this post, I will refrain from commenting on the kinds of feelings I had at a moment like this.  I’ll save that pitiful musing for another day, since I’m sure it will happen again.)

Anyway, how can SO much noise come out of such small packages?  I mean it’s like children are little atomic sound bombs that blow up with random frequency, leaving pain and destruction in their path.  And so, bedtime becomes the mecca of each day… the beloved treasure of the night.  I wish that I were better at using the quiet time to actually quiet my soul; I so need to be better at moments of worship when the silence finally comes.  I think that if I were more consistent at using this time for prayer, scripture study, and pondering, then I would do a better job of seeing the good in each day and have more strength to face the next morning. I’m curious; what works for you? (I know you’ll say it, but please don’t tell me to wake up before everyone else! It hurts just to think about it.)

UPDATE:  Since I published this post, I did find one way to help me with scripture study/devotional time.  After Natalie goes down for her nap, I sit at the kitchen table with the boys and set the timer for 30 minutes.  They can choose to read books or color pictures, but they know they need to be quiet because it’s “mommy’s scripture time.”  They do a pretty good job and I’m able to read and think a lot more than I expected I would, plus I love that they see me read my scriptures and know that it’s important to me.  Of course, like most of my great ideas, I struggle with consistency… but I’m trying.

(Saturday is last day  to vote for your favorite limerick.)

The Angry Mom sign

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by

So I’m suffering a little from post-vacation stress disorder.  The one where you come home and there aren’t doting relatives taking care of your children’s needs anymore, and as a result they have turned into little monsters, plus you are so angry that it’s snowing again that you could spit, and getting back into your old boring routine just bites.  Other than that though, things have really been alright.  Today was nuts, but despite the chaos, I feel good that I did manage to get a few things done.  I’ll share my greatest success in a minute (because it might just be something you could love too).  Anyway,  everytime for the last two days that I ask my children to do or not do something, I have recieved one of three responses:  1) They argue. “But, I just want to…”, 2) They whine.  “Nooooooo.  That’s not fair (each word becomes three syllables).”  or 3) They flat out disobey.  “Hmmph!”  (then proceeds to do what I just told them to stop).  So I’ve had enough of that.

When something does not make me happy, I make a sign.  Oh yeah?… Well, (scribble, scribble, grab tape, slap on wall) take that!” Here is what I made today, and affectionately call the “angry mom sign.”

angry-mom-sign

Like the angry eyes?  Whenever they started up, I just pointed to the kitchen wall and said, “Please read the angry mom sign!”  I don’t know if it worked or not, really, but it at least saved me from repeating the whole, “I am sick and tired…” speech.  It’s hard for me to count the number of times today I thought of this quote by Neal A. Maxwell:

“Like our faith, our patience is to be tried as well in order to be developed.”

And I am convinced that this is why Heavenly father saw fit to give me children.  I had totally unchallenged and undeveloped patience.  Except for particularly hard weeks on my mission in Argentina, or the year that I taught high school Spanish, my patience by and large had not been tested too much.  But then I became a mother.  And I think about my son’s kindergarten parent-teacher conference where Grant’s teacher told me “Continue to challenge him in these (such-and-such) areas,” and I can’t help but suspect that in my heavenly parent-teacher conferences, God is making similar plans for me– plans to challenge me in areas where I could stand to grow, even excel.  Especially in the area of patience.

So the good thing I got done today was making six pans of baked ziti for the monthly Make-ahead Meal Exchange I have at my house.  It’s awesome.  We get together and swap meals and walk away with 5 new dishes made by friends.  We eat a snack, share our recipes, and hang out and talk.  Let me know if this sounds remotely intriguing to you, and I’ll draft up a future post with all the details of how we make it work.

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite limerick.  I hid the results because I’m wicked and controlling like that, but there are several that are neck-to-neck for the lead.