Since being called as an apostle, I have loved hearing President Uchtdorf speak. Every time he speaks, there is something that resonates with me, and he has quickly become one of my “favorites” to listen to during General Conference. I especially love when he speaks to the women of the church in the General Relief Society Meeting like he did this past Saturday. I sat at home and watched conference on BYUtv not wanting to get dressed and go to the chapel, and I’m so grateful that I did not miss his talk.
It seems that he has a way of understanding what the women of the church are going through. He speaks often of things that we get frustrated with, or things that we might be struggling with and I think that he must have been raised by a mother that taught him how to understand women, or else he has just been a very attentive husband and has learned a lot from his wife. Whatever the case, I’m thankful for his inspiration this past Saturday, because he gave a talk that I definitely needed to hear.
He used an example of the forget me not flower with its five petals and encouraged the women of the church to “forget not” the following five things:
Forget not to be patient with yourself
Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice
Forget not to be happy now
Forget not the “why” of the gospel
Forget not that the Lord loves you
What woman does not need to be reminded of these things? I know that the first one really resonated with me. So often I feel like I’m not quite achieving everything I should be achieving as a mother especially. But, I have to understand that the Lord does not expect me to be perfect. And, I loved the reminder about being happy right now. I have blogged before about how sometimes it is so hard to enjoy the day to day when you are a parent of small children, and just be in the moment, but it is something that we should all try hard to do. After all, every stage of life passes quickly even if it doesn’t seem to in the moment.
I can’t wait for General Conference coming up because I need to be spiritually fed just like the next person. I’m grateful to have a living prophet and other church leaders who are inspired to share with us what the Lord would have us know. And, I think the key to remembering why President Uchtdorf’s talk resonated with so many people is because it is a message from the Lord, that was inspired. And, the Lord does loves us and know us better than we know ourselves.
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