Loving God More Than We Love the World

Tara is always great at bringing hand outs and physical objects that help beautify and enhance the lesson. She is the best substitute!!! She printed quotes from the manual lesson on colored cardstock and made them into airplanes before the lesson and flew them out to us to read at the right moments in the lesson. Luckily no one lost an eye; it definitely brought a smile to my face! She passed out copies of President Lorenzo Snow's quote that she based the lesson on:  

"We have got to reach... a higher plane: we have got to love God more than we love the world."

We got some Air Head candy to help remind us to reach high :)

She also brought her black tap shoes. She told a story about when she was in dance as a little girl and wanted so badly to join the dance company and get the tan tap shoes that the pretty dance company girls had. She said "I wanted them so bad,” so she went with her parents to find out about the company, and found out that she'd be required to dance on Sunday. “My heart sank… My parents told me I could make my own decision; that I had been baptized and was old enough." As bad as she wanted those shoes, she chose not to try out for a company because keeping the Sabbath day holy was more important to her. Even though she couldn't have the tan shoes that she desired for so long, she was grateful for her black shoes and knew she could be happy with and love her black shoes- she could dance just as good in the black ones as she could in the tan ones.

Tara was such a good example of not loving beauty, prestige and popularity more than she loves God. I love that she said she could be happy with what she had, and knowing that she has chosen God (I think this is the perfect scripture to go along with the story).

Even when we don't have what we want, we can still be happy. Tara had a quote written on the board, "Love what you have and you'll have more to love."

Talking about how to reach high and love God, one sister shared how she and her husband weren't doing bad things, but that they weren't doing the little things, the right things to invite the spirit into their lives. Finally they got around to going to the temple and she felt such a spirit there that she never wants to do anything that could compromise having that spirit, the blessings of the temple, in her life. She said she is better able to help others when she has the spirit herself in her life.

Sister Ellie Jensen helped me take notes on the lesson and write this post. She wrote:

My story is similar to sister Bond's (the previous comment) in the fact that my husband and I recently sat down to reexamine our lives and what we need to do better at in order to be happier. We had noticed a decrease in the spirit throughout our days and didn't know what we were doing wrong. We came to the conclusion that we weren't really doing anything wrong, we just weren't doing very many "good" things. We discussed the power spiritually inviting media/literature has on us and decided together to watch/read at least one spiritual thing in efforts to feel the spirit throughout the day. Some of the things we have found influential have been- watching BYU devotionals on the BYU channel, listening to church music, reading/watching inspirational stories on the internet, & watching Mormon messages on LDS.org. We haven't been perfect at doing this, but on the days we have watched/read/listened to one of these things, we have felt an immense difference in our day. We are happier with each other, we feel more desire to serve others, we remember our importance as children of God, and we have clearer perspectives on where we should spend our time. I  I have a testimony that our lives will be filled with happiness, inspiration, and love when we fill our lives with spiritually inviting media/literature. It's such an easy way to feel the spirit, and IT WORKS! I challenge you sisters to start doing this. I know you will be blessed! -Elli Jensen

A few good questions to ask yourself are: When was the last time you went to the temple? What did you feel there? What is keeping you from going more often? Goal: plan your next visit or make the changes you need to in your life to be prepared and ready for visiting the temple.

Throughout her lesson, Tara emphasized that God loves us SO much! More than we will ever comprehend in this life! He knows our potential as His children, He believes in us, and has promised us eternal life if we obey him. 

Tara pointed out that we are GOOD people! Following, she asked, "How do we preserve ourselves as "good" people? (answers from sisters below)

-Do the little things, like going to the temple. Jeanette Bond shared her testimony about the salient   influence   this can have on our lives. Going to the temple brings you back to what truly matters most. 

- Keep our covenants

- Feed His sheep

-Love ourselves & others as much as God loves us!

-Invite the spirit into our lives every day!

-Continually reexamine our priorities. Communicate with God about them.

-Be grateful for what you have  

I am inspired every week that I come to our Relief Society Sunday meeting. Thank you to all the sisters who come. Thank you for your comments, for your presence. I love you! -Katie Sadovskis

Stake Conference Part 2 - Brother and Sister White

The theme of October 27th conference was Moroni 10:32:

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."

The first two speakers were stake members brother and sister White.
Brother White talked about how a command from the Lord to deny ourselves of ungodliness and be perfected can be intimidating. He sees this as becoming a little better every day.

He also reminded us of the New Testament story of the rich man, who when Christ told him that to gain eternal life he should sell all he had and give it to the poor, left Christ sorrowing. Let's remember that this man claimed to be keeping the basic commandments, but when it came time to give up something he loved, he was not willing to let go of his riches in order to follow Christ's will for him. Brother White asked us what we might be holding on to and/or let get in the way of following the Lord's will for us. If we were in the rich man's position, what would be holding us back?

Brother White then told us about how he had planned to go to medical school and was really set upon this plan. Things worked out such, that he began to question if medical school was really the path he ought to pursue. He was taking a statistics course and an opportunity to do research with a professor came up. After working some time with the professor, he invited brother White to join the masters program, which started in a month, even though he had not taken the general prerequisites. Brother White said that it was very difficult to change his career path  as he was afraid to reject his plans for medical school, and he had really set his heart upon this career path,  but he felt that statistics might be the Lord's plan for him. In time he did change his path from medical school to the statistics master's program. He says he is not sure how it will turn out, or what his career will be, but that it feels good knowing that he is following the Lord's will for him. He is glad that he did not let his own plans get in the way of following the Saviour.

Sister White brought another perspective to the meeting when it was her turn to address us. She is pregnant and has been working on using the power of words to have a positive outlook on the birthing process. She decided to do the same with our theme verse of scripture, and re-worded it to put a positive spin on denying ourselves of ungodliness. She thinks of denying ourselves of all ungodliness in the words embracing all godliness, which means to embrace who we truly are - children of God. As children of God in the beginning we were pure and innocent. How do we return to this innocence and embrace all godliness? She likened this unto learning to play an instrument, for example, the trumpet. To master a new instrument like this you must practice, learn from one who has mastered the skill, and follow the established music theory of notes and rhythms. It will take effort and time to master the playing of the instrument, just as it does to improve ourselves and embrace godliness after the pattern that our master teacher, Christ displayed during His mortal life.

She pointed out one example Christ showed us - that serving is embracing godliness. What easier way to serve than to visit those we are assigned to at least once a month? Serving shows that we love God and Christ and want to be like them.

I thought that this couple did a great job and were very sincere in all that they said. I enjoyed listening to them. Hopefully after reading this post you have something to think over for the week. What can you do to embrace all godliness and give up that which keeps you from the Lord?

My next post will feature some of the comments and ideas of the next two speakers in conference, who proceeded our stake presidency's talks.