So, originally I thought I would be using this blog to showcase my art, photography and crafts, but I wanted to share some messages I heard at church the last two days. But first, I'll let you know a little bit about why we met the last couple days.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The church is organized across the world in the same way Christ's church was organized when He was on the earth, so I am a member of the Hamilton Ward (so I go to a building every Sunday to meet with people in my area) which is in the Cincinnati North Stake. In the Hamilton Ward, we have a Bishop with two counselors and then each organization has a leader and two counselors within our Ward. The Cincinnati North Stake is lead by a stake president and his two counselors. The church then moves up in line to the Area Seventy (which I am in the North America East area, I believe) then to the Quorum of the Seventy Apostles, then the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (like the original twelve apostles to Christ) then the General Presidency which includes the prophet of the church (Thomas S. Monson is the current prophet) and his two counselors. If you're interested, you can learn more about all these men here: https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/what-are-prophets?lang=eng.
Twice a year, the General Authorities (which includes the Prophet, Twelve Apostles and the Quorum of the Seventy) prepare to speak to all the church members in the world, which is called General Conference. The conference is broadcast in many different languages and many different ways. They stand in front of 40,000 people in Temple Square in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah which you could attend, but it is also streamed through lds.org and at every church building across the world. You can also watch it on the BYU channel on TV, or through the radio if you're in the Utah area. The General Authorities sometimes give more addresses and broadcasts throughout the year and in the church magazine, but typically General Conference is the only time you get to see them and hear them. Well, as a member of the Cincinnati North Stake, I had the honor and privilege of hearing and meeting one of the Lord's current Apostles this weekend as he met with us to call a new stake president. Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke to the adults on Saturday night at the local Stake Center which happens to be in West Chester. I was absolutely overjoyed to have the opportunity to be in this man's presence and feel of his spirit. There were a few local leaders that spoke before him and they were all short and sweet testimonies, but very meaningful ones. I neglected to write their names and I'm quite awful at remembering names, but here are a few things I learned and took from their words.
The first message that really came across to me was actually my Bishop's talk. He said something that really inspired me, which was to "be an above average LDS family." He told of a story of two men who were hunting. One man shot his arrow five feet to the left of the deer and the other man shot his arrow five feet to the right of the deer. The men turned to each other and gave each other a big high-five saying, "Well, on average, we hit the deer dead on!" and in reality, they went home with nothing to show for it. So, in my life, I don't want to settle for mediocrity and the average family. I want to strive to teach my future children better than any other mother and support my husband in every calling better than any other wife. I want to serve my fellowmen every time I get a chance. I want to be the best woman I can be and strive to be above average, because average is just not good enough for me. My standards are too high to settle for mediocrity.
It was also said that we need to be taking the commandments seriously. We need to focus daily on the things we've been commanded to do and promised to do. No matter how simple and monotonous the commandments may seem, we need to take them seriously. As told in the story of Moses, the people were commanded to look at the serpent in order to be saved and although many looked and were saved, there were still so many that said "That seems too simple, so it must not be true." It was "too easy" and they perished in unbelief. Although we are commanded to do different things now then they were, there are still so many easy things that we can do on a daily basis that we sometimes take for granted as members of the church. We call them the "Primary answers" because every child in the church could recite them right away without hesitation. If you were to ask a child how we can feel closer to our Savior, they would say "Pray, read your Scriptures, have Family Home Evening and go to church every Sunday." The sister who gave this address said that when she asked her daughter, she had said "have REAL Family Home Evening." As newlyweds, I think we have a lot to learn about this. I always feel like it would be so much easier to have FHE if we had kids, but I'm starting to see that it's not just to teach kids about the gospel, but to help each other grow closer to Christ and become more like him. I've seen my testimony grow tremendously through sharing my testimony to my Sunday school kids (four 6 year olds) during our lessons, but I often find myself having such a hard time sharing my testimony with my husband and even my brothers and sisters. The other day, I was reading from a book written by Sherri Dew (a very well know member of the church and author) and I read something that really hit me. She said something along the lines of this: maybe our life on earth is not so much about become a better person or learning to be a better you, but it's about becoming more of the person you've always been. So, when we were in heaven before we came to earth, we were spirit children of our Heavenly Father who created us and loves us more than we will ever know. We chose to follow His plan and come to earth to be tested and there's not a whole lot more that we know beyond those basics. We don't know the person we were before we came to earth because of the veil that was placed in our path to truly test our faithfulness, but if we were chosen for this specific time in the last days I can only imagine the kind of person I was before I went through the veil of forgetfulness to come to the earth. But, when I tried to share this with my brothers and husband, they just sort of didn't say much and I was so excited to have read that and I just wanted so badly to share it and I couldn't get it out right. I guess our family has always been very close, but not very personal or spiritual, which bothers me. I want to be able to sit around a table someday and just talk about the gospel with my kids openly and discuss their concerns and questions about anything. I want them to take the gospel seriously and the commandments as well.
Another speaker talked about the Savior being like a shepherd watching over his sheep and going out to find the one lost sheep. No matter how insignificant that one sheep may seem, Christ cares enough to leave the rest of the herd to save that one soul and so should we. We need to be constantly looking for the "one." And by looking for the one person who is lost or just needs a helping hand, we will be blessed tremendously for going out of our way to be of assistance. We should be selfless and caring like our Savior and spend our lives searching for one person to make a difference for in their life. Just like the story about the man who went along the beach every night and picked up each and every starfish off the shore to throw it back in the ocean. A man asked him what he was doing and the man replied " If I don't throw these starfish back into the water, they'll die overnight." When the passerby looked down the beach and told him he couldn't possibly make a difference with so many starfish, the man laughed, reached down to pick yet another starfish up, tossed it into the water and said, "It made a difference to that one." This is a great challenge to me to do my best to search and pray and find those who need me to uplift them and be of assistance to me. It's my duty, and as my husband would say, "It's a big duty!"
The next point that really stood out to me was that we need to be different. Whenever I meet new people, they typically always realize there's something about me that's not like anyone else. I'm different. I have to be different. There's no way for me to be successful in returning to my Heavenly Father and living in His presence if I am not different. As one of our church leaders said, "I'm a mormon. I live it and I love it." I can't settle for any less and let me tell you, I absolutely LOVE it! I look around me and see all the blessings I've received and all the wonderful things I have to look forward to and I just can't imagine not being different. I wouldn't be as happy as I am if it weren't for my weird-ness! There's no other way for me than to be different and because of this, I am promised to be blessed. It is an amazing feeling of courage and strength that I get from that statement.
Well, this post is getting much longer than I expected and my family is waiting on me to come to eat dinner with them, but I'd like to continue this conversation and tell you more about my experience at Stake Conference. So, thanks for reading thus far! And let me know about your thoughts by commenting below or email me with questions. I'd love to hear what you have to say!
-Christina
Twice a year, the General Authorities (which includes the Prophet, Twelve Apostles and the Quorum of the Seventy) prepare to speak to all the church members in the world, which is called General Conference. The conference is broadcast in many different languages and many different ways. They stand in front of 40,000 people in Temple Square in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah which you could attend, but it is also streamed through lds.org and at every church building across the world. You can also watch it on the BYU channel on TV, or through the radio if you're in the Utah area. The General Authorities sometimes give more addresses and broadcasts throughout the year and in the church magazine, but typically General Conference is the only time you get to see them and hear them. Well, as a member of the Cincinnati North Stake, I had the honor and privilege of hearing and meeting one of the Lord's current Apostles this weekend as he met with us to call a new stake president. Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke to the adults on Saturday night at the local Stake Center which happens to be in West Chester. I was absolutely overjoyed to have the opportunity to be in this man's presence and feel of his spirit. There were a few local leaders that spoke before him and they were all short and sweet testimonies, but very meaningful ones. I neglected to write their names and I'm quite awful at remembering names, but here are a few things I learned and took from their words.
