Answers in Gnereal Conference

This morning I listened to the talk on Christian Courage that Elder Robert D. Hales gave in the October session of Conference. I found it so helpful and reassuring, given that not even two full months after it was given the LDS church has come under heavy attack by many who feel hurt and angry at the church for its support and involvement in Prop 8. A great deal of hatred has been spewed out against the church by "news" commentators, there have been protest marches in front of and even vandalism to our temples, misleading commercials and representations of the church's purpose for supporting it (i.e. that hatred was our motivation), and even one instance of violent retaliation. I have asked myself--sitting there in classes, listening to fellow students talk about any who supported Prop 8 as hateful and homophobes--should I speak up and defend the church (knowing that it will only lead to bitter debates and hurtful accusations)? How am I to respond? It turns out that in this case the Lord already answered that question before I asked it or knew I WOULD ask it. Thus, for any who are feeling similarly conflicted, who don't know whether or not they should "fight back," I link to Elder Hales' talk and highly recommend reading it. It can also be found in November's General Conference issue of the Ensign.

Symbolism

I have been reading Alonzo Gaskill's book, The Lost Language of Symbolism. He goes through body parts, clothing, colors, numbers, etc. as symbols and their interpretation throughout the scriptures. It has enhanced my understanding and comprehension of the scriptures and the temple so much! There really is symbolism in absolutely everything we do in the temple, in the words we read in the scriptures, and in life around us in general. I highly recommend this book, it will really open your eyes to new interpretation.

An Interesting Thought About the Cosmos

It's not uncommon to meet religious people who view science with skepticism. President Eyering's father told him that we have nothing to fear from science. I believe that. I read an article that said if humans are around in 3 trillion years, the universe will have expanded so much by then that it will be impossible to see any other galaxies around us.
I know this isn't terribly important to our salvation, but imagine for a moment (or hypothesize with me), if you will, that God created this world via the Big Bang and the universe truly is expanding at an accelerated rate. Geological records say that man appeared 6-30 billion years after the earth first became solid rock.
That would mean that God placed us here at a certain time that would give us that ability. Perhaps it is even a narrow window of time of only a few billion years while that was still possible. And isn't it cool that we've been blessed with technology now to see the same things that Moses was able to see in his great vision recorded in the Pearl of Great Price? We can literally see more of God's creations than any generation previous, and they are beautiful. It's incredible. God is awesome!

The Wheels Keep Rolling

As I'm sure most of you did, our fast and testimony meeting had a central theme to it. A lot of us younger people have had President Hinckley as the prophet for over half of our lives, and he was in the First Presidency for almost all of it.
When I read the stories of the early Saints and what happened to Joseph Smith when he died, I'm grateful that I'm not in that situation today. We all have our favorite apostles that we enjoy listening to more than others (me, I'm partial to Pres. Packer) and the early Saints did, too. Some thought Brigham Young should lead, others Sidney Rigdon, and so forth, but when I look back to then and I look forward to the church's future, the spirit that touched the hearts of the Saints in those days is the same one that will touch my heart in confirmation of the next prophet. I'm grateful for that.
It was wonderful to have President Hinckley for as long as we did. What he did was amazing, and it was all the Lord's work, really, not Pres. Hinckley's. If it had been Pres. Monson or Pres. Haight for all these years, the same work would have been done, the only difference would have been the personality of the prophet. I'm excited to see what the Lord will do through the next prophet's leadership.
Oh yeah, and I'm glad we don't have to vote for who that will be.

Eternal Perspective

I have a hard time always keeping an eternal perspective. Of course I'm doing my best to stay focused on the Spirit and to make good choices daily, but sometimes I just get caught up in the "every day" and I don't think about the Lord or get into my "eternal perspective" until I open my scriptures at night. I have found that when I am going through a particular trial or hard time that I do I much better job staying focused on the Spirit or at least praying earnestly in my heart all day. It seems that when I pray for the constant companionship of the Spirit or to grow spiritually, the Lord throws out a trial to get me where I want to be. Now I'm not begging for a hard life and for a new trial every week, I just want to know how to have the Spirit always, even when times are good... I don't want to get sucked into the "every day" or sink into casual prayers. I just don't really know how to get there when life is already so demanding...

Raising Children

Hello everyone. I don't know what the rules/parameters are for posting, yet. So just let me know when I'm out of line, Whitney (or you can forward a big old list of "John Rules"). :)
Today I was listening to a talk that Brad Wilcox gave (he is a John Bytheway style LDS/motivational speaker that I first saw at EFY). His talk was on pornography and it being Satan's counterfeit of the sacred act of marital sex. In a brief digression, he said something that got me laughing, but also summed-up one of my big fears for raising daughters. He said, "Girls, quit putting your whole self-esteem in the hands of some 16 year-old boy who would rather be with a taco."
A lack of self-esteem/self worth was something that I noticed in far too many girls growing up, and even as I got older, too. So, I guess my question/concern is how to help my future daughters understand their worth and that they really are daughters of God. I feel like if I can just help them understand their worth and who they are, they won't have to struggle with eating disorders, or chastity, or half of the plagues that affect girls spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

The Little Testimony Builders

My daughter, Hallie, is just over a year old now. She can walk everywhere and seems to have an agenda of her own. She can't talk much yet, except for the occasional mama or dada. However, last week I picked her up to show her the picture of Christ we have hanging in our front room. She looked at it, pointed, and smiled. I told her, "Hallie, that's Jesus". Then, as clear as day, she pointed to him again and said, "that's Jesus!". Well, as you can imagine, the tears start to fill my eyes and I knew in that very moment that Hallie had been there, with Him, not too long ago.
Every day won't be filled with miracles like these, but I think there are miracles of their own kind that happen in our lives daily. Elder Eyring told us to look for the Lord's hand in our lives and we will begin to see His guiding hand more and more and it will help strengthen our testimonies. I know this is true, I have done it myself. What do you do to take notice of the Lord's hand in your life daily?