General Conference Thoughts

Last Thursday I was finally able to go to my first Enrichment Meeting in years. In the past I've had La Leche League meetings that conflicted with the time. One day it dawned on me that as the leader I could change the time we met...so I did! That was months ago though and it seems like life quickly filled up my Thursday night with other commitments.

This one was on how to get our children interested in watching General Conference, or at least quietly occupied in the same room while it's running. There were so many great ideas presented that it made me realize that I need to be way more proactive to create teaching opportunities at home. This has been on my mind lately.

With only one day to really work on something I took a few ideas from those presented and worked out something for the girls. I bought them each a Conference Journal which would only come out during conferences. I photocopied pictures of the General Authorities, Seventies and Auxillary Presidencies along with some clip-art pictures of common themes. Their job was going to be to find who is speaking, cut out their picture and glue into their journal, write the person's name and listen for a keyword on what they're speaking about then glue in the corresponding picture or draw one of their own.  Friday night I told them they would find a special conference basket in their room the next morning that would hold treats and activities. It was like Christmas or Easter...okay, maybe not quite the same but they were pretty excited.

Can I just start by saying I love that I have girls? This kept their attention for 3 of the 4 sessions (the fourth was at a Thanksgiving bash with the cousin so they were excused to play). Sure there were lost scissors, stressful moments of not being able to find a picture and misplaced glue sticks (most of them ending up being in Evelyn's dress-up dress she choose to wear for the occasion that had about 50 layers of crinoline that hid things very well...she often just had to stand up and the missing item would fall from her dress). It was hard for them to listen for the topic of the talks but most of the time it's hard for me to sum up a conference talk in one word. It was funny when Rene and I couldn't even agree on the "correct" topic.

Rene and I also got new conference journals. So often we just write notes on whatever paper is lying around (if we even take notes) and they're lost as soon as they're written.

What a fantastic conference. There are so many talks I want to listen to again. What really resonated with me was how hard it is for youth these days. They're going to need very strong testimonies and self-confidence and knowledge of who they really are and recognition of their true potential to navigate the coming years. Makes me want to keep them small forever and never let them go. But it also reiterated what I've been feeling lately...I really need to increase the teaching moments I create in our home to strengthen their testimonies and capture those that come naturally. It's not enough to just go to church once a week. They need to be learning at home.

The questions is how to fit it in between the cleaning and cooking and swimming and cleaning and activities and friends and cleaning and homework and music lessons and baby and cleaning and dog and renovations and family and cleaning. We've been pretty good at holding Family Home Evenings every Monday but many times they are a story read from a Friend and a quick discussion over ice cream before sending them off to bed. Morning scripture study is often me screaming at them to hurry up getting ready for school so we can sit down to read a verse or two before sending them out the door to their bus, Rene already long gone to work. Prayers are often repetitive catch phrases with little thought.

It all goes back to proactive parenting. Creating opportunities to learn instead of waiting for them to show up (which usually get missed as life rushes on). Talking about things that are important at the dinner table. Doing things together as a family. Being examples of lives of service. At some point I'm going to have to stop thinking about this and put something into action. It's pretty easy to physically take care of these precious spirits but to help them grow spiritually is a completely different story.