LDS General Conference Favorites

Wow! This is way late, but this General Conference was wonderful, I have to say. I got more out of it than I've gotten out of the past few. Probably because Neil took the girls to Moab with his family for the weekend, so I only had Rhett, and he napped for most of it. I could actually pay attention. I want to mention just a few of my favorite talks.

I loved Elder Bednar's talk on being more diligent and concerned at home, by sharing and showing love to our family, bearing our testimony, and being consistent in holding regular family home evening, family prayer and scripture study. Something my family needs to be better at doing.

I also loved Elder Oak's talk on God's love and his laws, and that God's love doesn't supersede his laws. Just because he loves us doesn't mean he's going to bend the rules in our situation if we're choosing to disobey his commandments. He likened God's love for those who disobey to a parent's love for a child who chooses to engage in self-destructive behavior. He still loves us, but his laws don't change because of that love. We're still responsible for our choices.

Another favorite was Bishop Burton's talk on the "-ity" virtues, like humility, civility, fidelity, responsibility, etc. These Christlike traits are being destroyed, and we need to be firmly fixed in teaching virtuous traits in the home by our example. He focused on Integrity. He quoted Pres. Faust and Pres. Monson in stating that most people will not commit desperate acts if they've been taught integrity and virtuous traits.

Jeffrey R. Holland warned of latter-day dangers that we are counseled how to avoid in the Book of Mormon. He bore the strongest, most emotional and heart-felt testimony of the Book of Mormon that I've ever heard, and his testimony is better watched than summarized, in my opinion. Watch it here (7 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_ac3tWeV3I

The last favorite talk that I'll mention (because really all of them applied to me in some way or another) was Elder Christofferson's talk on moral discipline (I'm very distantly related to him - my claim to fame). Everyone walks in the "image of his own god" (what "god" do we resemble?), and that we increasingly rely on laws to control behavior, instead of our own morals. He mentioned the housing market, and how people blame greedy companies offering risky mortgages which led to the economic decline. But really, people need to make their own moral judgements about what's lawful and what's ethical (like buying what we can afford vs. buying too much because we want). Moral discipline is learned at home. We need to focus on instilling faith in God. (I don't know if this is a direct quote:) "Perhaps our moral discipline will inspire others to do the same. At the least, it will help us."

What a great opportunity it was to sit at the "feet" of the prophet and apostles and be uplifted, taught, and edified as I strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ. I needed it, and now I have plenty to work on for at least the next six months.