There is something about a man in a suit holding a baby girl in a sweet little dress that just makes me happy.
So, twice a year members of the Mormon church (that is us) listen to our leaders all weekend long (8 hours worth). It is a big deal. We look forward to it and love it. In our family we go to the church to listen and with three kids it is no simple practice. We enter the chapel with boxes of supplies and blankets and snacks. After a few years of doing this every six months are kids are pretty use to it though and spend most of the time coloring or putting together floor puzzles. Evan and I do our best to listen and I can truthfully say I always leave feeling a distinct warmth of the spirit inside. It feels good to be gathered and listening to prophets and apostles.
So lately I am rereading a great book about finance called "The Automatic Millionaire" by David Bach. It has some pretty simple but effective tips on paying yourself first and saving up for retirement...blah blah, and what does this have to do with General Conference.
Anyway...as I was reading this week something caught my attention and really struck me. After setting up the basic principles of finance that this author wanted his readers to put into practice, he had a section titled "Taking Action". In this section he made the simple statement, "Inspiration unused is merely entertainment. To get new results, you need to take new actions." That thought really stayed with me this week as we prepared for Conference.
As wonderful as it is to sit and hear uplifting talks about increasing spirituality and nearing ourselves to Christ, if the feelings felt don't lead to new actions all we have done is entertained ourselves all weekend. What we learned has to be used. New results in our lives require us to take "new actions". I'm thankful that the spirit drew my attention to this idea this week and I hope to work more diligently from today forward to set goals and make changes based on what I have felt in our church meetings.
If anyone has not listened to a Mormon Conference and would like to, you can access them here:
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch?cid=HPFR100413105&lang=eng
"To get new results, you need to take new actions..." What a brilliant quotation! Thank you for sharing. It really meshes well with what we learned this weekend during Conference. It was so uplifting and a spiritual feast. I am so grateful that we are strong in the Gospel and have these amazing opportunities to be taught by our leaders and especially the Spirit.
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