Often my children play “rock, paper, scissors” to resolve disputes among themselves. It’s an arbitrary mediator that I resort to whenever I have to “choose” someone for a certain task or privilege, etc. because they can’t moan about it not being fair (as much).
A little while back, I overheard Grant and Clark “problem solving” in the hallway:
“Ready? . . . Rock . . . paper . . . God!”
Apparently they changed the stakes a little. Hmm, I wonder who won.
You think I’m a little early, but I know what I’m doing. I’d like to share a little strategy with you. Every year for Mother’s Day, I buy myself a plane ticket and a ticket to Women’s Conference at BYU. It’s two days of refueling, encouragement, escape, and girl power. I just say, “For Mother’s Day, I want to go to Women’s Conference.” And Matt, relieved that he doesn’t have to think of or buy any gift on his own, heartily consents. (Plus I come back a better person.)
So, this is an invitation. Come join the fun. Let me know if you’ll be there and maybe we can coordinate our own bloggy-friends luncheon or dinner. Click on the banner for more information.
And Happy Mother’s Day.
I wrote a post about a month ago declaring my rediscovered loved for reading and asking for your recommendations. Since I have the coolest little group of readers ever, your response was phenomenal. So, here’s my report.
Since then, I finished reading:
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, which I liked more than I thought I would, but would have appreciated a less detailed description of some things, one in particular.
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. I 90% loved this book, but it makes me feel yucky inside when people swear at children, and the narrative voice felt forced to me. I loved the overall character development and the historical setting.
Mother Teresa: A Complete Authorized Biography by Kathryn Spink, which I actually still haven’t quite finished and I’m not sure I will. M.T. did and said so many amazing things, but the book is very slow moving and spends way too much time on her organizations and their administrative details. I find myself scanning to find more about her and the details of her daily life.
I went to the library and checked out these books, which are currently on my nightstand: Continue reading
“What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, Whether by mine own voice, or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:38)
Easter is a time of new beginnings, a symbol of renewal. What better than General Conference to help us shake off the “old self,” invigorate us with the Spirit, and begin us on a path of spiritual rebirth?
With that, a new round of the General Conference Book Club begins. Next week, we’ll begin studying one talk from this conference. For this week, leave in the comments below some of your favorite highlights from this conference. Favorite talk? A stand-out quote? Most memorable moments? Share what you loved and learned.
For those who are new to the General Conference Book Club (GCBC), we’d love to have you join us in our study and discussion. Here’s how it works:
The goal is to read one General Conference talk a week and discuss it together as an on-line “book club.”
(If you’re not familiar with General Conference or the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, go here and here and here for more information.)
A new talk will be posted each Sunday.
You don’t have to do anything to “join” the club– You can just visit the Sunday post at any time during the week and share thoughts, findings, favorite quotes, applications, even questions from the talk of the week. Personally, I think it would be a good idea to subscribe to comments from the post so that we can read each other’s insights and have a “real book club” conversation. (There are two ways to do this: 1. Below the actual talk post, click on Comments RSS below the “Actions” list to subscribe to an RSS feed for comments, or 2. click the little box under the “Submit Comment” button so that comments are emailed to you.) Or of course, you can just check back often to see what folks are saying.
My own plan is to try and use the talk as a guide for my personal scripture study throughout the week. First I’ll read the talk all the way through, then look up and read all the scripture references he quoted, and then break the talk down into segments to study them carefully and try to find other related scriptures that help me understand it better. Feel free to share any ideas of how you plan to study or apply the talks we read. (You’re allowed to do this however you want. You can simply have a goal to read the talk before the week is over, and that’s good, too.)
Here’s a little button you can put on your own blog if you’d like to. Feel free to invite friends (the real kind and bloggy kind as well) to participate. The more the merrier. You can link it directly to this page or to the host page at https://diapersanddivinity.com/gcbc since it has all the instructions for the Book Club challenge.
And try to comment when you’ve read each article, even something as simple as “I did it.” Then we have a certain motivation/accountability to each other to meet our goal of reading all the talks from the previous General Conference. The objective is to read the words of the living prophets and learn from them. Our book club community is for sharing and encouraging, but please don’t feel pressure that you have to come around and make profound insights or write eloquent summaries. Just show up and be counted!
The late Elder Theodore M. Burton of the Seventy said:
“Couples interested only in themselves don’t communicate. Lack of communication then becomes a major stumbling block in developing true love.” (Ensign, May 1979, p. 73.)
And this is why I have spent the last 20 minutes looking for my husband’s secret stash of Cadbury eggs. Come on, honey, show me the love.
p.s. In the search, I did manage to find some Nerds leftover from last Easter. And for the record, yes, Nerds can go stale.
Diapers and Divinity 