Tag Archives: faith

General Conference Book Club Week 7: Elder Zeballos

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This week we’ll spend a little time “Attempting the Impossible” and hopefully realizing that we truly have access to blessings we sometimes might feel are out of our reach.  This talk was given by Elder Jorge F. Zeballos during the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference.  I think it kind of slipped under the radar for me when I watched conference, but it caught my eye today as I was flipping through the Ensign.

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“From a purely human point of view, at first [the commandment to become perfect] seems to be an impossible task. However, it begins to appear possible upon understanding that in order to achieve it, we are not alone. The most marvelous and powerful helps for which a human being may seek are always available.”

“Eternal life is to live with our Father and with our families forevermore. Should not this promise be the greatest incentive to do the best within our reach?”

I’ve been learning a lot of lessons lately about how a “purely human point of view” just doesn’t cut it as far as seeing things how they really are.  Learning to see our circumstances, the course of our lives, and even ourselves the way the Lord sees them all is quite liberating.  I’m curious to hear what you find in this talk that helps you see the impossible through different eyes.

You can read the talk here, or watch it here, or listen to it here.  It is also on page 33 of the conference edition of the Ensign.  If you’re dropping by the GCBC for the first time, you can learn how it works here.

Reality bites.

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by

I woke up this morning with a headache. I ate Frankenberry cereal (that I bought for Halloween, but my children had already ripped into it by the time I got out of bed) and Aleve for breakfast today. [Hangs head in shame.]

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I keep wandering around my house in a fog. It looks like Toys R Us threw up on my playroom floor.  Mount Kill-me-now-jaro is piled high in my laundry room, and two beds in this house were peed in last night (luckily, neither was mine).

Natalie asked me for a sippy cup, so I found one, along with the one clean lid that was accessible. Does anyone else have a 3:1 ratio of sippy cups to lids? I paced back and forth in the kitchen looking for the milk I know someone opened this morning and then said, “Oh, it’s still on the dining room table,” to which Natalie quickly replied,

“Silly mommy. You are a disaster.”

Yes, yes I am. Bless your bright, perceptive and evil little heart. But you know what? If God can take matter unorganized and make worlds without number, then I’m going to have faith that He can help me make something productive out of this day. Mark my words, I will go to bed tonight patting myself on the back for a job well done.

A three-course post

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by

Chris Dimino Keyboard Eat Arkansas

Appetizer:

I really think that someone who understands life as a mother of small children should invent a “stink detector.”  Lately, my days have been riddled with phantom odors that I can neither find nor identify.  It’s making me crazy.  If there were some kind of contraption with a raunch radar that could beep when you’re closer and closer and give you some kind of bacterial analysis and tell you what’s causing the smell, THAT is what I would call making the world a better place.

(Now wasn’t that appetizing?)

Main course:

Matt and I went out on a date last weekend and played this free “game” at Borders.  We had 12 minutes to go find a few books that the other person would just love, then we met up, showed each other our books, sat on a couch and perused them.  One of the books Matt picked for me was “Mother Teresa, in her own words.”  Anyway, I read almost the entire book while Matt flipped through tomes about Chinese characters, the founding fathers, and Native American historical sites.  She had so many great things to say, that Mother Teresa, but one that really jumped out at me was this (paraphrased, because I didn’t actually buy the book):

“God doesn’t expect us to be successful.  He expects us to be faithful.”

I’ve been thinking about that for days, and how true I think it really is.  God can be successful with or without our help; he’s omnipotent for heaven’s sake (no pun intended)!  He only needs our faith, our devotion, our heart.  Then He can work out our salvation.  It made me reflect on how much I’m always trying to “accomplish,” when really I should just be increasing and acting upon my faith in Him.  It was a quite liberating moment of enlightenment that ties in nicely to all the thoughts I’ve had recently (and we’ve discussed here in the comments and beyond).

And there was one other thing, too.  Mother Teresa worked with lepers and poor people tirelessly.  One person commented to her that they wouldn’t touch a leper “for a million dollars,” to which she replied (paraphrased again), “I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars either.  I wouldn’t do if for two million dollars.  But I would do it for the love of God.”  How cool is that?  It made me think of how so many women today opt out of motherhood because they wouldn’t make all that hard sacrifice even if someone paid them to do it.  I’m no Mother Teresa, but I have to agree that I do the hard things I do because of the love of God… the love I feel for Him, and the love I feel from Him when I do what he asks of me.

Dessert:

Behold, a little Clark video we made to share with grandparents.  Please do not tell me what a stellar mother I am, or how I’m doing a great job and all that other nice stuff you might be compelled to say (and that grandmothers are obligated to say), but you really should see this because it is SO sweet.  Also, don’t be distracted by the sound of a dropping toilet lid in the background.

This is seriously just a simple case of great kid.  (His idea, his testimony, his conviction.)

General Conference Book Club Week 23: Elder Pino

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02_07_pinoElder Rafael E. Pino gave a talk at the Saturday afternoon session of conference entitled “Faith in Adversity.”  Don’t you think it’s interesting that so many talks at the last conference focused on adversity?  I wonder if there is an increase in adversity?  Or a decrease in our resolve to resist it?  Or a general misunderstanding of the purpose of adversity?  Or a lot more on the way?  Or all of the above?

Whatever the case, I’m sure it’s no accident that the Lord chose to speak to His people quite extensively about adversity.  As I skimmed this talk, this is the phrase (where he quotes President Hunter) that stood out to me as a testimony of my need for patience and an eternal perspective:

“If our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong.”

Only one talk left.  And then we get the blessing of starting again.

(Click here for a description of the General Conference Book Club.)

General Conference Book Club Week 22: Elder Pearson

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02_06_pearsWell, blog book club friends, we only have two more weeks left.  Then the following week will be the General Relief Society Broadcast followed by General Conference Weekend again. I’m quite proud (or “pleased,” as my mother would say) that we’ve been able to study almost all of the talks from the last conference.  It’s not often that I set a goal and stick with it for this long.  Cyber high fives.

This particular talk, “Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” by Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Quorum of the Seventy, was given during the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference.  I skimmed over it today, and this phrase caught my eye:

“Challenging times require greater spiritual power.”

That concept has been on my mind lately:  the whole idea that what used to be good enough is no longer enough– we have to try harder to be better.  I’m looking forward to reading more about it.

(Are you wondering what General Conference Book Club is?  Click here to figure it out.  Then join us!)