~General Conference~

A few weeks ago we had General Conference. I love conference. Here are a couple of reasons:

* I get to sleep in......
If you know me at all, you know that I am not a morning person AT ALL!! Our church normally starts at 9:00 so Sunday is no different than school days for me. Conference starts at 10:00!! Yay!!

* I get to stay in my jammies.....
That goes along with the first one!

* I get to hang out with my family......
I love having my family home. It is such a comforting feeling to me. Besides they are so funny!






See!?!

* I get to eat lots of yummy food......
Around here conference is is kind of like the Super Bowl! I always make lots of different food and snacks and we eat to our hearts content!



* We get lots of coloring pages and "games" to play....
I always print out lots of different activities for the "kids" (I guess I kind of join in too) to do. I think I like them alot better than they do. Usually there are coloring pages that are "Color by Topic". When you hear one of the apostles talking about a certain topic you get to color those ones. Then there is always Conference bingo/black out and then the word of the day. We pick a word like "Faith" if one of the apostles says that word and you are the first one to repeat it then you get a treat!! The kids really get into this one!!

* I get to listen to our Prophet!!.....
For me this one is my favorite part! I love hearing the prophets voice in our home. The spirit that it brings always amazes me.

I love all of General Conference!! Our homes should be a place filled with the spirit of God. A place where we as a family feel a closer bond, where love dominates over any other feeling. Where our children need to feel a sense of belonging, comfort, acceptance and peace. And although I strive for all of these things every day, when we have General Conference, all of those feelings are so strong and the spirit is amazing.

What a wonderful blessing be able to live in a time were we can have the prophets come into our home and teach us in an environment where we are susceptible to them. Where we are emotionally prepared to hear from the servants of the Lord and know that the messages that are giving are to help you grow and become more like Him.

There were a lot of really good messages but the one that stood out the most to me was the one given by Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy titles What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be? You can read the entire message HERE but here are a few thing that he said that stood out to me.

"The Savior posed the question in a far more profound way, making it a vital doctrinal question for each of us: “What manner of men [and women] ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am” (3 Nephi 27:27; emphasis added). The first-person present tense of the verb be is I Am. He invites us to take upon us His name and His nature.
To become as He is, we must also do the things He did: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do”
To be and to do are inseparable. As interdependent doctrines they reinforce and promote each other. Faith inspires one to pray, for example, and prayer in turn strengthens one’s faith.
Be without do really isn’t being—it is self-deception, believing oneself to be good merely because one’s intentions are good. Do without be—hypocrisy—portrays a false image to others, while be without do portrays a false image to oneself.
Many of us create to do lists to remind us of things we want to accomplish. But people rarely have to be lists. Why? To do’s are activities or events that can be checked off the list when done. To be, however, is never done. You can’t earn checkmarks with to be’s. I can take my wife out for a lovely evening this Friday, which is a to do. But being a good husband is not an event; it needs to be part of my nature—my character, or who I am. Or as a parent, when can I check a child off my list as done? We are never done being good parents. And to be good parents, one of the most important things we can teach our children is how to be more like the Savior.Christlike to be’s cannot be seen, but they are the motivating force behind what we do, which can be seen.
The most important way to teach to be is to be the kind of parents to our children that our Father in Heaven is to us. He is the one perfect parent, and He has shared with us His parenting manual—the scriptures.

It as such a good message and stood out so much to me. It made me realize that a lot of the time my Do and Be are not on the same level. I love when something like that stands out to me. I want to Do and Be who the Lord wants me to Be! That is what I want most of all. But I get so caught up on my everyday same old same old life that a lot of the time I forget what the real reason I am here is. And it is so good to be reminded and to be able to feel the spirit telling me to work a little bit harder! I am so grateful for these inspired men and women who are led by the spirit of the Lord to teach the things that we need to hear. What a blessing Conference is in our lives if we only act (DO/BE) upon the promptings given to us!