Some thoughts I've had

We were recently asked to prepare a talk on what we learned from stake conference. Even though I wasn't one of the "lucky" ones called on to share my thoughts in church, I still wanted to share them.

I attended the Saturday evening session of stake conference. I was so glad I went. Even though my brain nearly exploded during the entire astronomy lesson as I dusted away cobwebs from my brain at the scientific words I learn back in high school. When I consider that the worlds God has made are endless, and we are endless, my brain blows a gasket. I am blown away by all of the images of planets, stars and galaxies that we know nothing about yet. I just can’t comprehend it.

When they showed the picture of the “pale blue dot”, or the Earth caught in a sunbeam from far away and talked about how everyone we have ever known or heard of, every war that was ever fought, every king or empire that ever was, happened on that pale blue dot, it blew my mind. I had never thought of it that way before. God created this earth we live on and call home and worlds WITHOUT number. When you step back and think about it, He really does have “the bigger picture.” There is nothing he doesn’t understand. Clearly, it is HIM we should put our trust in.

Our level of understanding doesn't compare at all to God's. We are not physically capable of understanding what He knows. He knows what is best for us. Sometimes it is hard to comprehend that. Sometimes when you are struggling, you think that if things would just go back to the way they used to be, everything would be fine again. But then the experiences you had or suffered through would not have happened and you would not have learned the things Heavenly Father knew you needed to learn and experience.

There are some things I have been struggling with for a while. I’ve prayed and prayed that things would get better. And they HAVE improved. But recently, I attended the temple and as I was sitting in the Celestial room I was about to say a prayer that things would get better. But sometimes the answer is not that things will get better. At that moment I had the words enter my mind to “be at peace with the way things are.” Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to improve our situation that we just don’t realize that it already is better, and we are stronger because of it.

I truly believe that everything I have been through in my life, and everyone I have known or who has influenced me, both good AND bad, has been for a reason. Because of it, I am who I am today. Every pain and heartache has made me stronger. I’m stronger because I know I can get through things even when they are hard. Even when it feels like no one else cares. There is one person that is always there for me and has experienced much worse than I can ever imagine. And His love carries me and has carried me through every struggle in my life. So often it is easy to get caught up in feeling sorry for myself. But I am so blessed. It is easy to think about what you don’t have or have lost, and not realize what you DO have! So often I take my family for granted. But I HAVE a family! I have a husband and 4 beautiful children who love me no matter what.

Another thing Brother Dart mentioned in his talk is that when the top astronomers that have studied these things longer than anyone were asked after they figure out these mysteries of the universe, what is next? Their response was “to figure out who we are, why we’re here and where we’re going.” Our primary children know those answers!

I was impressed as I watched my daughter Emily stand up on her chair in Stake Conference and sing with the other primary children “I know He lives!” “I know that my Savior loves ME!” She knows those things! Those fundamental questions of life! She has that security! It is so easy to take that for granted! I was impressed that I need to be teaching my children NOW. That is an amazing foundation to have, and we have to nurture that. So often we get caught up in doing things for ourselves; I can't wait to get the kids to bed to have time to myself. I sometimes lose sight of what is really important: my family. We really do have such a short time with our children while they are still young. When we look back on the time we had with our children, I’m just guessing, but we aren’t going to wish that while they were young, we had gotten them to bed just a little earlier, or updated one more facebook status, or read one more blog. We are going to wish we had taken the time to read to them, or listen to them when they actually were willing to let us listen, or talked to them about their concerns or hopes instead of telling them “I’m busy right now!” or to “wait just a minute!” We’re going to wish we had taught them a little more about what we know about God and about life, and the lessons we have learned in our lives so they don’t make the same mistakes we did, or shared with them the struggles we had and how we got through them, so that they can also know how to get through things.

I know that as we put our trust in God, knowing that He truly knows what is best for us and how to guide us, that we will be blessed, and he will provide a way for us.


I know that many of you who will read this are not of my faith. Please be respectful if you choose to comment.