Saturday, November 20, 2010

Thankful for time outs!

I had my own time out this weekend...at the Salt Palace with 4000 other women .  It was fabulous; filled with  thought provoking talks and music at Time out for Women.

 I  really enjoyed Virginia Hinkley Pearce's thoughts on what makes a succesful life, and how to measure it.  She used the Succesful missionary paragraphs in Preach My gospel...pg. 10-11 for this.  She suggests we replace missionary with mother, or woman or parent and  "people" with children.  I came right home and did this, and was greatly comforted with how my parenting, children and family are measuring up.

It was also good to hear from Heidi Swinton about her recent book on the life of our prophet, Thomas S. Monson.  Her stories about how this came about, and Pres. Monson as a little boy were priceless.  I can't wait to read this book now.

Brad Wilcox  shared  about his book, "The Continuous Atonement."  I read this book last spring and was inspired by it. I like the part about Grace..and.."after all we can do."  He breaks this apart, tackling each word and what it really means or how it applies to our life.  It's fascinating and helpful.
The "we" is really the important part....I always put that  we as ....you, me, my children...all of the people on earth.  But the "we" is really  Christ and me.   I like this "we."  We are unstoppable.  We make a great team!

I also liked his thoughts about heaven.  He talked about his nephew who was really in trouble spiritually and with the law.  He ended up in and out of prison many times.  But as a teen ager...when his parents were trying to "save" him, Brad suggested that they send him to EFY.  "It can change lives."    The family scraped the money together and sent him.  The kid called his mom after the first day and demanded to be taken home. He just didn't "fit" and felt so uncomfortable being there.    Bro. Wilcox related this to heaven and God's presence.  Yes, we will all be resurrected and "make it," but will we want to stay there?  Will we fit and be comfortable?  The goal of this life is to prepare ourselves so we can not just go to heaven, but want to stay  there.

Women's conference was excellent.  I am thankful for this time I spent with Wanee, Tami, Jill, Jane, Cyrrena, Bonnie and Trisha.

2 comments:

Jill said...

This was the best thing for all of us. Lessons learned that's for sure!

Lesley said...

Out of 4000 women there... I'm so glad I got to see you :-)