We watched conference from the couch on Saturday morning.
That’s when the Prophet, President Nelson, announced that next year we would be embracing a home centered, church supported curriculum. Our worship at church on sunday would decrease down to two hours. There is also a new program to help us study as a family at home.
I’m certain that I am the only one who heard the news and hid my head under a blanket to cry.
When I first heard the possibility of this happening a few months ago, I was a little surprised and a little sad. I like three hour church a lot.
I tried to prepare myself for the change, but hearing it spoken over the pulpit stirred up a lot of feelings for me. It probably didn’t help that I wasn’t feeling well at the time from that stomach bug that spread through our family. And that I am in the midst of some trauma named cancer. So change in general seemed overwhelming! But then add in the fact that our family is made up of teenagers to baby to special needs and I felt so overwhelmed by the thought of adding one more “program” into our family life right now. How in the world would we do this?? Especially with Perry. The structure of church at the church building and teachers other than his parents is so good for him. I felt so overwhelmed by this particular change. And I thought “oh great, one more hour for me to yell at the kids.”
I took some time to process. I prayed. And slowly I came around to the fact that good can come from it. I can trust our prophet and his leaders. Our family can use the time to serve more, to minister to families and friends, to invite people over for dinner, to have more time for our one-on-one meetings with our kids. This can be a good thing if we are deliberate about our time, pray to Heavenly Father for guidance and help, and trust in this inspired program. We will be ok.
For the Saturday afternoon session, Kyler, Kacin, and Layla all went to friends houses to watch. Brinna napped. Perry played. And Eric and I found ourselves with a rare experience of watching conference just us two.
That evening I went with a friend to the women’s session of conference. There was a sense of comfort being back in my old stake center. Our dear prophet issued another inspired challenge to the women of the church. He encouraged us to go on a 10 day social and negative media fast, read the Book of Mormon by the end of year, regularly worship in the temple, and increase our participation in relief society.
I needed some processing time again to think about how I can try this challenge in the best way for me at this time of my life.
I first thought and prayed about media. It’s been on my mind lately anyways. I came up with a plan that worked for me and would help me make a lasting change. I weaned myself off of facebook. I put limits on when I would use Instagram. I thought about how to replace my bad habits with good ones. I wrote down some guidelines and my plan. And I am trying to live by it. I already feel a difference in my life. I am not perfect at my plan, but the small changes are making a big difference. And I feel like I can continue to make small gradual changes and that will be the best for me.
I have been reading the Book of Mormon already so my plan is to be a little more diligent to make sure that I finish from where I am by the end of the year. And if I can keep going and start again, I will.
I still need to come up with a good temple and RS plan for myself. I just need to take some time to really think about how to increase my participation right now with cancer fighting and my family as my greatest priorities. I’m glad that I can pray to Heavenly Father and He will help me know what I should do right now. I just need to ask.
We listened to the Sunday sessions of conference while we packed up our Airbnb and hit the road for wanatchee. We are so grateful for the chance to hear from prophets, apostles, and church leaders every six months and to get the chance to study their words.
This was the first time in almost ten years that we did not get conference pajamas. My kids remembered. But they were kind about it. Cancer, travel, and a stomach bug kind of put that tradition on hold this year. If I can get my act together I will do belated pajamas before Christmas. Or we may just wait until next year.
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