Working on ears to hear

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week was our current General Conference, so I'm taking a break from the past to write about that, and will be back to October 1998 next week!

Hooray for Conference! It was great this year in spite of me falling asleep even more often than usual. I also kept track of what ties were worn (color, pattern, etc.) and am ready to give you that data anytime you ask for it!

Here is a smattering of thoughts gathered from my (not very good) notes…

• I always like President Eyring's talks, but I usually don't fully understand them until I've read them. This time I only realized near the end that his emphasis was not just about overcoming opposition, but how to encourage others against opposition. Seems very relevant to parenting, so I'm looking forward to re-reading this one.

• I didn't hear all of Sister Tracy Browning's talk because I was…I can't remember, changing a diaper or something. But I really liked what I heard. I liked her voice too—you know how some people just have a voice that commands attention? Hers did. I loved the questions she told us we could ask ourselves, things like "What motivates my outward actions and practices? What or who are my observances pointing me toward?" She talked about how the Law of Moses was supposed to point to Christ, but later the Jews changed their focus so the symbols didn't mean "Christ" anymore, but were ends in themselves. I had never considered how we might do that same thing today if we aren't allowing all our church habits and practices to point us toward the Savior. "We need to see our lives through him to help us see more of him."

• I liked the memorable story Sister Craig told about her brothers tricking her little sister into thinking the family had moved and left her behind. Well, I don't know if I liked it—it seems too sad when you think about how the trick WORKED, and the poor little girl believed them and was crying in despair in her closet! But I liked the application and was relieved that the sister didn't seem to hold a grudge. :) I loved the idea that sometimes, all we have to do is reach out and open the door—do one simple faith-filled action to let God's love come flooding in. I've seen that happen with small actions in my own life.

• Sam's friend (they worked together for years) Sister Kristin Yee also had a powerful, riveting speaking style. He said it was interesting to see her speaking so seriously, because she has such a sunny, happy, kind personality when you speak to her in person. She chose a serious topic to speak on, and her strength and hard-won experience showed. I love the scriptures she quoted—beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, love for hate, gentleness for abrasiveness, kindness for contention. We read some of those words in Isaiah today and they were more meaningful to me after hearing her talk.

• Two of my boys went to FSY this year and had just about the exact experience Elder Steven J. Lund described. I thought it was a good idea to talk about how to deal with "real life" after coming down from a spiritual high. That's something that's really hard for me! I always dread the days after General Conference for that reason. Elder Holland gave a conference talk about it a few years ago too, I think. (Yep! Right here.)

• I liked Elder Mark D. Eddy talking about all the things "laying hold upon the Word of God" can do for us, and then making the connection that the Word of God is also Jesus Himself. It makes me understand the phrase "try the virtue of the word of God" in a new way!

• I was moved by Elder Isaac Morrison's talk, but I didn't understand and am still disturbed by the story about his 18-month old son drowning. I can't process it. It seems TOO sad and TOO hard to have a child die because of a prompting you ignored. I can hardly stand to think about it.

• I always like Elder Holland, and I thought the image he used of "the Savior's arms stretched wide open and then nailed there" was powerful. He also used the scripture about "I will not offer to my Lord God that which costs me nothing," which was mentioned by someone else during this conference too (can't remember who).

• Another phrase used twice in Conference: "Holy habits and righteous routines." I tried to find out if that was from an Elder Maxwell talk or something, but all I found was this: https://www.ensign.edu/devotionals/president-cecil-o-samuelson

• I learned from Elder Uchtdorf's talk that "the Strength of Youth" is not (only?) a set of characteristics the youth collectively possess, but a person. Jesus Christ himself is our strength! I have thoughts about the new FSOY pamphlet, but they are only half-formed and should wait for another time.

• Elder Bednar's talk was dense and thought-provoking, as usual. I have never thought much about the parable of the marriage feast, except that sometimes I jokingly say, if we have lots of leftovers or fewer people than expected at a party, "Go call in people from the highways and hedges!" But I'm not sure I've ever heard a talk hit so heavily on the "he who hath ears to hear, let him hear" theme, as if there was a whole world of things he wasn't saying but only hinting at. Very intriguing. I'm excited to read his talk again and study that parable more deeply! I thought it was significant how carefully and repeatedly he highlighted the need to accept and wear the wedding garment, and how choosing to reject it was an act of outright rebellion against the king's mercy and generosity.

• I liked it in Elder Christoffersen's talk when he said something like this: "Excessive focus on comfort and a sense of our personal needs can often decrease our sense of belonging. Belonging comes as we reach out and serve, not just as we sit and wait to feel it." I've noticed this even at something as simple as a Relief Society activity. If I sit there doing nothing, I inevitably feel intimidated and shy. But if I try to reach out and be friendly to others, I leave feeling uplifted and filled.

I was also interested in his story about the lady who felt sad because her friends, instead of just listening and sympathizing with her normal day-to-day difficulties, always urged her to run away from those difficulties. I wonder if that happens a lot? I am lucky to have friends who are good sympathizers but who also value marriage and families and will gently encourage me (through example) in enduring my trials well! I was talking to a friend recently who has been through incredibly hard things in the past few years. She was telling me how it was absolutely unhelpful to her (though true!) to think "I'm taking care of everyone else and no one is taking care of me!" It wasn't that she didn't need sympathy and love and help, but for her, looking outward and focusing on serving others is what got her through the hardest times. It's hard to know how to encourage others in that direction, since obviously, telling someone in the midst of trials to "forget yourself and go to work" (ahem, President Hinckley's dad) could easily seem rude or insensitive! But I hope the people closest to me would feel able to remind me of exactly that, if I needed it.

• I felt comforted by Elder Andersen's promise that God will not abandon the relationship once we've made covenants with him. I worry so much about my children and other loved ones that may not keep their covenants, or seem to have a waning desire to invite God into their lives. But most of them have at one time made covenants, baptismal covenants at least, with God, and I like to think of Him clinging to that covenant relationship even when they don't, and never giving up on them!

• I love the reminder to "flood the earth with the Book of Mormon." In Abe's mission (and maybe everywhere?) they've had a shortage of Book of Mormons and haven't been able to order new ones to give out. He and his companion were carefully conserving their dwindling stash and not giving them out to "just anyone," which was maybe fine but still made me sad to think about. You can still easily get copies of the Book of Mormon at Deseret Book, so a few weeks ago I sent Abe a big box of them just so he could give them out more freely! It makes me happy to think about them "flooding the earth"! (And I suppose I should not offload all the responsibility onto him, but try to give some out myself when I can, too!)

• Oh yes, I had forgotten about Elder Renlund's talk! It was good. It was Malachi's favorite, he told me, because it was just such a different way of conceptualizing personal revelation. I liked the runway analogy and thinking of the Holy Ghost as an air-traffic controller telling us where to go!

• I remember liking a lot of things Elder Soares said in his talk, but my notes are terrible. Surely he did not actually say "one flesh, dimension of unity, walk together"? I guess I can kind of find the sense behind "as women and men work together, we will enjoy unity—promise: hearts knit together in unity, find more joy." He quoted lots of passages from the Family Proclamation which our family has been memorizing (for a lonnnng time), and it was fun to see the children perk up and smile whenever he said one of them.

And that's it! I don't know if I detected any overarching themes this time, except just general "advice for living in the last days" which feels like exactly what we need. It will be good to read over these talks and talk them over with friends for the next six months!