I didn't grow up having to watch conference on Saturdays. A session on Sunday was the accepted minimum.
My mom usually watched Saturday sessions while folding clothes. Just hearing the Mormon Tab choir blaring from the t.v. turned to an unusually high volume, bugged me. Little did I know my future mother in law was belting it out in the alto section at the time. A guilty feeling penetrated our home on Saturday mornings. We knew we should be watching. We knew it was important. We knew mom wanted us to be in there with her. But she didn't want to force it. She wanted it to come to us on our own. She was a convert and I think felt that because she didn't grow up having to watch it, it wasn't fair to force us to. Perhaps hoping that the "light of Christ" would eventually draw us in to listen.
And where was Dad? At work. At his second job. Little did I know, he most likely had conference tuned in on his patrol car radio.
But in my mind, and I'll take liberty to include my siblings, conference weekend was a welcomed holiday from church. A break. A vacation. A bummer it only came twice a year.
So I've carried this guilty-negative association with Conference for a long time.
When I got married it started to change. When I had kids it changed even more.
Now I really need the counsel.
This Saturday and Sunday......
Makayla traced my face with a pen cap and gave me a back rub for the duration of 3 General Conference speakers. That's about 45 min. Cayden gave me another 7 for a bet about homework that I won with him and another 5 for making him hot chocolate.
Makayla said it was payback for all the times in the morning I've tickled her back to wake her up for school or have helped her with homework. Primarily geometry. I am a pretty lousy math tutor.
She is learning to speak Teen, luckily not as well as some other teens, and I still speak Momincharge. Fortunately we speak the same language most of the time.
The talks were great. As always, great messages. Randy, quoting someone else, said that following a great talk there are three things you should do:
1 - recognize what you are doing that is right and KEEP DOING IT.
2 - recognize what you should stop doing and STOP.
3 - recognize what you should start doing and START.
So we will keep having lots of special treats like bowls of m & m's, cream puffs, licorice, cookies, and big delicious Pancake House breakfasts etc. We will keep conference bingo, coloring pictures of apostles, lots of Friend magazines to fill in and cut up, church coloring pages etc. Keep back tickling in the mix. I need to stop staying up late at night so I am not tired during the day. I need to start keeping a journal of my feelings and thoughts about conference talks. So I am starting.
