Wasn’t last week’s general conference wonderful? I love the spirit it always brings into our home and appreciate the things we learn. One of our high councilmen made the comment last month that general conference gives us our marching orders for the next six months. If we’ll carefully listen and do what we’re told in the conference talks, we’ll enjoy tremendous blessings and spiritual growth.
I saw evidence of some of this spiritual growth in a very unexpected way.
My nine-year-old son is a skeptic. Anything you say to him, you have to prove. Unlike my daughter, who has limitless faith, my son needs concrete evidence and sometimes I worry about teaching him gospel principles that are most easily accepted by faith.
As his Cub Scout leader, I’m always on the lookout for badges, awards, etc. he can earn. Most of it we incorporate into our home schooling and that kid has a passel of belt loops, etc. I was looking at the requirements for the religious square knot and asked him if he would like to earn it. He said yes, and we started on it. But one of the requirements is that he teach a family home evening on Joseph Smith. He balked at that. “I’m so tired of hearing about Joseph Smith!” he said. “That’s all we talk about at church. I’ve heard the story over and over and over again, and I’m just bored. I’m not going to teach the lesson.”
I explained to him why it’s important that we understand what Joseph Smith did for us and gain a testimony of him as a prophet, but he was getting hung up on the repetition of the story rather than the importance of the story. His temper was a little irked and he wasn’t in a listening mood. I’ve been praying about it since then. I don’t care if he does or does not get the badge, but I want him to understand why Joseph Smith is such a key figure in our religion and to gain a testimony of him.
During Sunday’s afternoon session of general conference, it happened. I was very moved by President Packer’s address about the trials and persecution the early Saints had to endure. I had never heard that letter to the government all the way through before, and it was profoundly impacting to me. Apparently I wasn’t the only one. At the end of the talk, my son came to me and said, “Mom? I want to give that family home evening now.” He spent the rest of the afternoon drawing pictures of the First Vision and planning games and activities to go along with it. I’m so grateful the spirit of general conference touched him like that. I’m hoping he will start to rely a little more on his heart and a little less on concrete physical evidence.
The talks from general conference are now available for MP3 and can be downloaded here.
Related Blogs:
The First Vision – The Father and Son Appear to Joseph Smith
A Beautiful Family Home Evening
Click here to read more articles by Tristi Pinkston.