General Conference

Is it me or is General Conference getting BETTER and BETTER.  Ok, I do think it is me.  As I prepare myself more for the words of God I learn so much more.  Thanks to President Uchtdorf's message about preparing for Conference.  Thanks to friends, Kerri! and Andrea!, for giving me great ideas of how to make it fun and enjoyable for my kids to watch and participate in conference.  And thanks to the example of my in-laws, Deckers! of a yummy breakfast in the mornings.  Not only did my kids look forward to General Conference, but I was excited and ready as well!  I looked at the pile of laundry and dirty dishes, and they had nothing compared to the words of God spoken to ME.

So what did I take away from General Conference?  My new goals to work on and master are:

1)Pray more fervently

2)Read my scriptures, the Book of Mormon, and Ensign articles more frequently

3)Use my time wisely!  I was reading in the April 2011 Ensign Elder D. Todd Christofferson's message, "To Always Remember HIM"  where it says,

    "We should first put in place the things that make it possible to always remember Him--frequent prayer and scripture study, thoughtful study of apostolic teachings, weekly preparation to partake of the sacrament worthily, Sunday worship, and recording and remembering what the Spirit and experience teach us about discipleship...
   Once we make adequate time and means for these matters in centering our lives in Christ, we can begin to add other responsibilities and things of value, such as education and family responsibilities.  In this way the essential will not be crowded out of our lives by the merely good, and things of lesser value will take a lower priority or fall away altogether."

After the talk and reading this article it hit me.  Yes, I always KNEW I should put Christ first and family next.  But I still always made sure the kids had breakfast, and maybe the dishes done, laundry started, etc. etc. and would maybe remember to stop and read my Scriptures.  Now, I wake up and first thing I do is PRAY and READ MY SCRIPTURES.  Yes, the kids did ask for breakfast.  But once they were told that mommy needed time to pray and read scriptures, and when I came out of my room I would help them and be a better, nicer mommy, they were fine with it.  They now know to leave me alone because I am putting prayer and scripture study very FIRST in my day.  (My one exception is a hungry baby who needs to nurse, but right after it is my time as baby plays on the floor).

This was hard to change my thinking on, but actually very easy to implement.  And talking it over with Kent he supported me with my change, saying that he felt it was important for our kids to see that I put Christ very first in my day.

So those are my new goals.