Quotes and Happenings from BYU Women’s Conference Day 2

Posted in Divinity, Uncategorized by

Day two is over and I’m ready for a good night’s sleep. There were some great classes and talks today and I learned a lot. I also met some really wonderful people. One of the highlights of my day was meeting Annie Henrie, the artist whose work is on the cover of my book, and being able to tell her how much I love her work and how honored I feel to have my work connected to hers. I’m pretty sure we’re BFFs now.  Here are the tweets from today’s lessons, again in reverse chronological order. (And you can still click on the links to see photos, etc.)

Tweets

  1. Amen! I bear my testimony that God LOVES His daughters. #holyghostsaysso #byuwc #finaltweet

  2. Blessing from Pres. Eyring: You will feel by the Spirit his appreciation for your faithful service as His friend. #byuwc

  3. Can I leave “a glorious spiritual heritage” like John Taylor did? Am I a defender of the prophet? #thoughtsinspiredbyEyring #byuwc

  4. The gift if the HolyGhost in action= the gift he gives all His friends who are offering sanctification. #Eyring #byuwc

  5. The Lord’s power is greater than all the forces that that oppose His faithful servants. #Eyring #byuwc

  6. The Lord protects, guides, and watches over those who are His trusted friends. #Eyring #byuwc

  7. The friend of God is one for whom the Savior died. #Eyring #bookofjohn #byuwc

  9. There are physical and spiritual dangers for us and those we love. We will need divine protection. #presEyring #byuwc

  10. Gathering at the feet of a living prophet, seer, revelator. Waiting to hear Pres. Eyring. #thegospelisrestored #byuwc pic.twitter.com/hy4ybSO3Hy    View photo

  11. Singing all the longest hymns we know while Pres. Eyring is stuck in traffic. #waitingontheLord #byuwc pic.twitter.com/W6Krv1W55H   View photo

  12. Just because I can’t do it today doesn’t mean I can’t do it someday. #carlahansen #byuwc

  13. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The 2nd best time to plant a tree is today. # chineseproverb # carlahansen #byuwc

  14. The Lord needs healthy servants. He needs us to run and not be weary. #carlahansen #byuwc

  15. Count your blessings, not your blemishes. #katiedavis #byuwc

  16. You are worth more than a number on a scale. Your weight is not what defines you. #katiedavis #byuwc

  17. If you have a relationship you want to improve, try taking them for a walk. #katiedavis #byuwc

  18. D&C 59:19 Food enlivens the soul. Food is not the enemy. #katiedavis #byuwc

  19. Men can learn. Men can be taught. They don’t learn from criticism. They learn from a constant, elevating vision. #brosandberg #byuwc

  20. Making love begins in the kitchen. (Do the dishes.) #sandbergs #byuwc

  21. When we nurture love and friendship and marriage, we create a safe haven and a secure base. #sandbergs #byuwc

  22. “Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion.” #eldernelson #sandbergs #byuwc

  23. When we love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, it’s manifest in the choices we make. #michelleking #byuwc

  24. In marriage, we have to avoid negativity just like we avoid pornography. #paraphrased #sandbergs #byuwc

  25. Charity is a state of becoming. It is a way of life that takes a lifetime to achieve. #michelleking #byuwc

  27. We become better and not bitter as we humble ourselves. #michelleking #byuwc

  28. “The most common problem in marriage is DRIFT. Life will do that to you if you are not intentional.” #sandbergs #byuwc

  29. “If you want something to last forever, you treat it different.” #elderhoward #sandbergs #byuwc

    NEXT WEEK, I’LL TRY TO TAKE THE TIME TO WRITE UP MY NOTES MORE THOROUGHLY AND SHARE THE MESSAGES FROM THE CLASSES I ATTENDED.  SO, HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND, BUT STAY TUNED….

     

 

Quotes and Happenings from BYU Women’s Conference Day 1

Posted in Uncategorized by

Whew. I’ve been women’s conferencing since I left my house at 7:15 this morning. I’m the good kind of tired. Before I sign off for the night, I wanted to share some of favorites from the day, courtesy of my Twitter account. Today is seriously the first day I’ve ever really used it for real– to “tweet” about something as it’s happening. Since I haven’t figured out how to cut and paste this in reverse, just note that the top of the list is the end of the day and the bottom of the list is the beginning of the day. Reverse chronological order. Got it?  I’ll be tweeting more tomorrow, but probably not quite as often because 1) I have my book signing for a couple hours in the morning, and 2) it was harder work than I thought it would be.  Behold my glorious Thursday:

(If you click on the links, it will take you to photos, etc.)

Tweets

  1. Hilary Weeks is the goods. Her love song “I Found Me” made me want to go home and kiss my husband on the lips. #byuwc #deseretbookconcert

     

  3. At Deseret Book concert with Sandra Turley singing “For Good” from Wicked #byuwc #deseretbook #wickedthemusical pic.twitter.com/xVd1CSCFFM

  4. When all these groups of women walk across campus, I think to myself, “THIS is God’s Army.” #weareallenlisted #byuwc pic.twitter.com/DRw8UegGbZ

  5. Because God loves us, He labors to make us loveable. #kevinworthen #byuwc

     

  6. Eternal love is so much a characteristic of what makes God God that the apostle Paul taught, “God IS love.” #kevinworthen #byuwc

     

  7. Sometimes when we are stretched by our children, we find that we are capable of doing more than we thought we could. #peggyworthen #byuwc

     

  8. Sometimes we don’t have time to fast and pray; sometimes we only have time to pray fast. #paraphrased #peggyworthen #byuwc

     

  9. Family is ordained of God. It is the most important unit in time and in eternity. #churchhandbook #peggyworthen #byuwc

     

  10. Beautiful piano/cello duet, “Lead kindly light.” Wish you could hear it. #ldshymns #byuwc

     

  11. A loving Heavenly Father listens to our prayers and inspires us what to do to reach a particular child. #sisCallister #pHicken #byuwc

     

  12. Keep in mind that children don’t need perfect mothers; children need human mothers that can manage their humanness #motherstylesbook #byuwc

     

  13. Teenagers speak another language. Like the brother of Jared, pray to the Lord to not confound their language. #juliegowans #byuwc

     

  14. One of the best ways to develop patterns of communication with our children is to build relationships with them. #juliegowans #byuwc

     

  15. If the Savior is my greatest champion, am I His? #AMtoone #byuwc

     

  16. Heavenly Father expects his daughters to use their influence to change the world, one individual and one family at a time. #AMtoone #byuwc

     

  17. Christ gives righteous women more lasting influence than women of the world, especially at the individual and family level. #AMtoone #byuwc

     

  18. Christ demonstrated deep familiarity with women’s lives. He appreciated them and ennobled them. #DMK #annemarietoone #byuwc

     

  19. Don’t measure your worth or your day by society’s standards. #cherylsavage #byuwc

     

  20. This is my stage and my season. I am a warrior. #cherylsavage #byuwc

     

  21. You can’t make children behave better by making them feel worse #heatherstephenson #byuwc

     

  22. “Grant me the patience to deal with my little blessings” #heatherstephenson #byuwc

     

  23. Sometimes your kids don’t need you in their face; they just need you by their side. #aprilmoody #byuwc

     

  24. When we live a righteous life, our presence becomes a powerful influence. #aprilmoody #byuwc

     

  25. I can control what my presence brings to my family.”If you want peace, yours is the responsibility to obtain it.” -McKay #aprilmoody #byuwc

     

  26. Who we are is more important than what we do. Our presence matters. #aprilmoody #byuwc

     

  27. Apparently there are alot of us who need a class about controlling our temper. 🙂 #byuwc pic.twitter.com/jAAxuOjIJ7

     

  28. Embrace and own the lives we are given. Find ways to make them useful. #elainemarshall #byuwc

     

  29. You cannot live your life in Gethsemane. Jesus was already there. #elainemarshall #byuwc

     

  30. The grace is already there; we might as well show up. #elainemarshall #byuwc

     

  31. Elaine S. Marshall: All we have to do is press forward with joy to have the only promise we really need: the Lord is with us. #byuwc

     

  32. I will be live-tweeting from BYU Women’s conference today. Feel free to follow along. It will almost be as good… http://fb.me/25moXRL6K 

     

  33. Sister Linda K Burton: The Lord will be with us even unto the end as we do our part as daughters in the kingdom. #byuwc

  34. Let’s get this party started. Loving crowds of good women. #byuwc pic.twitter.com/vYJQpM1TX0

     

    SEE YOU TOMORROW, FRIENDS.

Who’s coming?

Posted in Uncategorized by

banner

This week is Women’s Conference at BYU. It is two days of great classes, great speakers, and just an overall great opportunity to get away and feast on the word.

I think you should come. Click here to learn more about it.

If you’re not local or just can’t come, never fear! (“Never fear” makes me feel very superhero-ish.) I will be attending lots of great classes and I plan to blog about what I learn. You can go here to see posts I’ve written about women’s conference classes in the past. Also, this time around, I’m going to try to do something wild and crazy and use Twitter to send out some great quotes and fun experiences. I only created my Twitter account a few weeks ago and I don’t even really know how to use it well, but I’m going to try. My handle (which I think is Twitter-talk for username) is @SD_Sorensen and the hashtag (which is also Twitter-talk for something I totally don’t understand) for women’s conference is #byuwc. So there’s that. Over there ——-> (on my sidebar) there’s a place you can subscribe to follow my Twitter account if  you want to.

If you are going to Women’s Conference, I would love to meet you. I’ll be doing a book signing in the BYU Bookstore from 10:30-12:30 on Friday, so come by and say hello!  Since Mother’s Day is kind of the prime marketing time for my book I have several book signings scheduled over the next two weeks starting tomorrow.  Here’s a schedule in case you’d like to come visit or pick up books for gifts or whatever. If you do come, please introduce yourself.

UPCOMING BOOK SIGNING EVENTS for COVENANT MOTHERHOOD:
Wed. 5/1, 11-1, Lehi Costco
Fri. 5/3, 10:30-12:30, Women’s Conference, BYU Bookstore
Sat. 5/4, 2-5, Sandy Costco
Fri. 5/10, 5-7, Lindon Seagull Book
Sat. 5/11, 2-4, Redwood Road Seagull Book, SLC

After that, I’m going to lay in bed for a few days and let my children bring me chocolate bon bons on a silver platter. I’ll probably actually do lots of laundry and surf Facebook for hours with my eyes glazed over. Either way, I’ll recover.

So, in summary: Come. And if you can’t, stay tuned here on the blog or Twitter, and I’ll try to keep you posted. And if you can’t do that, then just send bon bons. I think that about covers it.

p.s. Special thanks to my husband who takes some time off every year so I can go to Women’s Conference. It’s my Mother’s Day gift. 🙂

Invigorating?

Posted in Books, Diapers, Divinity by
PrayerDraw1[image credit: Jenny Stevning]

Nick Galieti, who interviewed me about my book a while back (you can listen to that here), wrote me this morning to let me know that he had written an article about it in the Deseret News.

That was a fun surprise.

There were also a couple other surprises.

The title of the article was “LDS author Stephanie Dibb Sorensen invigorates motherhood with practical doctrine”. I love that he used the words motherhood and doctrine together because that’s really what I hope makes the book different. I tried hard to steer away from fluff and to just show through scripture and personal experiences how our daily mothering is really the doctrine of Jesus Christ in action. The word “invigorates” made me laugh a little because, although it’s a great word and it felt like a compliment, the idea that I “invigorate motherhood” just humors me. I spent several hours this week doing yard work. This made me feel old and sore. Ever since I got home from church today, I’ve been fantasizing about taking a nap. I fantasize about naps on most days. So I don’t consider myself a very invigorating specimen of motherhood, but I’m so glad Nick thinks I am. 🙂

The other surprise from the article was the discovery that I apparently speak out loud in very long run-on sentences. I should really learn to punctuate a little bit when I speak. I am a fast talker, especially when I’m nervous, but now I know that I also craft paragraph-sized sentences effortlessly.

Warning: subject change….

I’ve been blogging for a long time, and one thing I’ve learned is how thoughtful and smart my readers are. There are many times that your comments have encouraged me or helped to me to gain insight into circumstances and principles. Some of you may have read a recent post I wrote called “An open letter to two real moms.” Among lots of other run-on sentences, I whined a little about book signings and I shared a few lessons I learned from general conference, including this one:

President Packer testified of the power of mothers’ prayers. Sure that means prayers for our children, but I also think it means prayers when we need help being a parent. God will honor those prayers.

Well, this morning I got a comment on that post that is still in my moderation queue, and I’ve been thinking about it most of the day. I have a variety of ideas, but I’m not sure I know how to answer her. I decided that I’m going to open it up to you to help answer her question.

Where is the help, I need it now! I have been poring out prayers to heaven. They say we have this power as a mother to get help from heaven. Well, where is it. I need it, and have been asking for it for years.

I will allow her to remain anonymous and I will email her and let her know that many wise mothers will be sharing some thoughts with her. Be kind to her and answer as if she were your own daughter, because I think she could use a little “invigorating.” Just share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks, friends.