Sunday, October 5, 2008

Conference Rehash



Well, General Conference just finished. I've watched some of it live on TV, some of it on recorded DVR, and some of it on the radio as I've been cooking or in the car. I still have 1 1/2 sessions to watch, but I thought I'd mention a few of my favorite talks and see what others thought.

My favorite talk of the Saturday Morning session was by L. Tom Perry. He spoke about simplifying our lives, using Thoreau's Walden experience as his guide. I've always loved Thoreau and have had a quote by him from Walden ("Our lives are frittered away by detail: simplify, simplify") on my chat group signature for years. So it really hit home with me. It is good to be reminded of this idea of simplifying when I start longing for things, wanting to spend more money and stretch the budget tighter, specifically on a new house. Yes, I'd love to move. I'd love a new neighborhood and a better ward, I'd love a house with a garage, central air, and way more storage (pantry, linen closet, coat closet, broom closet, any closets!). But this talk really made me realize that I need to be grateful for what I have. The house I have is nice and big with enough rooms for all of us, a good (though cramped) kitchen, hot water whenever I turn the tap on, big green trees that shade my yard. And most importantly, I have a mortgage payment I can afford. We could afford a bigger house payment if my husband's paycheck stayed as it has been for the last year or two. But that isn't guaranteed, especially in today's economy. So there is real peace of mind in knowing that while we stay in this house, we never have to worry about paying the house payment.

I also liked the talk by Boyd K. Packer who spoke about how the Lord will stand with his people in hard times as he did for the early Saints. It's good to have reminders that the Lord is mindful of us, even us as individuals, and that he will be with us if we follow the commandments.

Like I said, I haven't finished all the sessions yet, but those were my favorites so far. Anyone else have a favorite talk?

If you aren't LDS and want to know what the heck I'm talking about , you can find out more about our church at lds.org

5 comments:

CaraDee said...

So as a first in my adult life, we watched Saturday's sessions in front of the tv. I felt proud that day. It helped also to have a 1000 piece puzzle to put together (all by my self) that I finished, just before the 2nd session sunday. yay me!

Christie said...

I'll admit that I didn't listen to the majority of anything, but I did love Pres Monson's talk on Sun morining (?) about finding happinnies in our lives right now. I think it hit home, because that is what I've been trying to do lately, and I felt like his talk really validated things.

Notme said...

Thanks to the DVR I havn't finished it all yet either. I think Im gonna need to do 1 talk increments. I enjoyed all the talks I did hear and I loved the Simplify one too

Chelsea said...

I thought Elder Nelson's talk on marriage was interesting given the upcoming vote on Prop 8 in California. I really enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf's talk and I thought his talk at the RS meeting was awesome too.

alex dumas said...

I love conference.

Just thought I'd say that.

Oh, and you might refer interested parties to Mormon.org...