Notes from talk #1
--She told a story of when she was 5 years old and was being silly during a family prayer one night. She was making faces at her brother and not being reverent, so after the prayer her father gave her a fatherly talking to and let her know that her behavior was unacceptable. She said she knew then as a little 5 year old that she hated having her father be disappointed in her and that she made a choice to try hard not to disappoint him again. She likened this to us not wanting to disappoint Heavenly Father, so we go to him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit promising to do better next time. (I don't know about you, but I wasn't having epiphanies when I was 5!)
--Developing Christ-like attributes is a painful process because we are surrendering our will to God and allowing Him to shape us, but the more we do this the more humble we become and the more we desire to change. (I know this and want to be Christ-like, but I don't like pain.)
--We should pour out our hearts to the Lord in prayer and watch and listen for His guidance in our lives. (I tend to pour when I'm emotionally overloaded, scared or really grateful but the in-between times are perhaps more casual than they should be.)
--We have everything to learn about ourselves and the Lord. (Do you ever wonder who you are without all your Earthly accomplishments and attributes? Who are you at your core?)
--We need to partake of the Atonement. (Why do we forget this gift so often?)
Notes from talk #2
--We should learn from all the prophets and people from the scriptures, they wrote their personal histories and learned from what they wrote. (We've been told to write our histories forever, there's a reason for that.)
--We should make conclusions based on our personal histories. What are our important observations? Where do we see God holding our hand? (How great would it be to have a meeting with yourself to document some of the wisdom you've gained thus far in your life?)
These two thoughts from his talk rocked my world a bit. I feel like the daily blogging I've done these past 3 years is my personal history and that I have a good record of my daily life, my spiritual life, my ups and my downs but I'm not sure that I'm very good at taking these posts to the next level and recognizing the life lessons I've learned and how I've changed because of them. It's definitely something to think about.
The crazy thing about this day at church is that these notes were just a smidgen of the oozing goodness I felt today. Primary made me cry (in a good way) when a 5 year old boy gave the sweetest talk (all by himself) about his grandfather's best Christmas and why. I was a blubbering mess and was conducting so everyone had to see my face leak.
--She told a story of when she was 5 years old and was being silly during a family prayer one night. She was making faces at her brother and not being reverent, so after the prayer her father gave her a fatherly talking to and let her know that her behavior was unacceptable. She said she knew then as a little 5 year old that she hated having her father be disappointed in her and that she made a choice to try hard not to disappoint him again. She likened this to us not wanting to disappoint Heavenly Father, so we go to him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit promising to do better next time. (I don't know about you, but I wasn't having epiphanies when I was 5!)
--Developing Christ-like attributes is a painful process because we are surrendering our will to God and allowing Him to shape us, but the more we do this the more humble we become and the more we desire to change. (I know this and want to be Christ-like, but I don't like pain.)
--We should pour out our hearts to the Lord in prayer and watch and listen for His guidance in our lives. (I tend to pour when I'm emotionally overloaded, scared or really grateful but the in-between times are perhaps more casual than they should be.)
--We have everything to learn about ourselves and the Lord. (Do you ever wonder who you are without all your Earthly accomplishments and attributes? Who are you at your core?)
--We need to partake of the Atonement. (Why do we forget this gift so often?)
Notes from talk #2
--We should learn from all the prophets and people from the scriptures, they wrote their personal histories and learned from what they wrote. (We've been told to write our histories forever, there's a reason for that.)
--We should make conclusions based on our personal histories. What are our important observations? Where do we see God holding our hand? (How great would it be to have a meeting with yourself to document some of the wisdom you've gained thus far in your life?)
These two thoughts from his talk rocked my world a bit. I feel like the daily blogging I've done these past 3 years is my personal history and that I have a good record of my daily life, my spiritual life, my ups and my downs but I'm not sure that I'm very good at taking these posts to the next level and recognizing the life lessons I've learned and how I've changed because of them. It's definitely something to think about.
The crazy thing about this day at church is that these notes were just a smidgen of the oozing goodness I felt today. Primary made me cry (in a good way) when a 5 year old boy gave the sweetest talk (all by himself) about his grandfather's best Christmas and why. I was a blubbering mess and was conducting so everyone had to see my face leak.
**Were you wise in your early 20s?
Do you admire people who are spiritually strong?
Have you written a personal history?
Have you documented your life lessons?
Do you carry tiny packs of tissues at church?**
Do you admire people who are spiritually strong?
Have you written a personal history?
Have you documented your life lessons?
Do you carry tiny packs of tissues at church?**
17 comments:
I hope to someday be wise... definitely not in my early twenties...
I have tried to document some of the important things. Most of it is from hindsight... I wish I would be better about writing them in the moment.
Do you carry tiny packs of tissues at church? Yes... and I use them every week.
I am not sure I am interested in growth... I think I am but then when I see the sacrifice that goes with it I know the reason for my mediocrity. This was made clear again in Relief Society today...
I love how you take notes like this every Sunday!
love that you share your sundays with us.. sounds like a good one.. I always have kleenex at church..
our church was cancelled.. we got snow last night.. so it was fun to read your insights!
Those are great talks. I have the same problem as you though - I write my history, but don't review it often. Hmmm....
These do sound like great talks. I wish I was wise -- I just keep waiting for that part of adulthood to kick in. So far, nope.
It was my week off from Primary today, and I really missed it. RS was surprisingly wretched today, I don't know what the deal was. And during the lesson, someone got up to kill a scorpion that was walking toward the teacher. Scorpions at church?? I couldn't believe it. I'll be glad to be back in Primary next week.
This past year, whenever I went to my parents(a lot), I would attend church with them. Week after week I felt my mother was calling the ministers and asking them to talk about "this or that", something that was going on in my life. (She wasn't.) Honestly, I felt like he was talking and at the end of each sentence he would say, Ann. And, week after week I was unable to sing due to leakage of the eyes. If I cried I would expose myself, if I exposed myself...what would happen next. I found out that I just got more connected with God and myself. Ouch! Not the easiest thing to do or talk about.
I am so envious of Jill and others who really are connected and just know. 20 years old, I think I was dancing on bars, (joke) but I wasn't wearing the same shoes as the couple described.
I have now bought stock in Kleenex...my bank account has never been better and neither has my heart.
Jill, thank you for your Sunday thoughts. You provide me with questions that I fail to ask myself.
i think i was wiser when i was 20 than i am now. does that make any sense at all? i think i had more faith- i wasn't as jaded and i wasn't as hardened by life disappointments. wow- that was seriously depressing. sorry.
my only personal history consists of journals kept prior to getting married and now a blog. but i erased my old one, so now i only have the last 6 months. ?!
ah, life lessons. it seems i'm constantly relearning them- it must be that i should write them down.
no tissue packs at church. good idea, though...
I do admire strong people and feel like I have to much to learn from them.
I'm like Amie and document hindsight. While it's still valued, in the moment seems it would be more sincere and accurate.
I love your Sunday thoughts and wonder if I'll have Sundays like that one day. As of now, I'm pretty stuck corralling kids and keeping them reverent. It will come one day, right?
I'm so glad you share your ephinanies!
Today I didn't get one thing out of Sacrament meeting. My kids were acting crazy and I was so uncomfortable with the pregnancy that my mind was just all over. I kept thinking to myself...I'll go home and read Jill's Sunday thoughts and then I'll be back on track. You never disappoint. It is truly courageous to share your thoughts and incites with the world and I thank you. I think that you have really started something special with the way you blog, and your testimony has been accounted for and is touching many!
I like to think I was . . . :)
I do admire spiritually strong people and am drawn to them.
I have written a personal history. In fact my newsletter this week discussed that. I'll send it to you.
I do document life's lessons in my journal. I wish I had them neatly in a "small plates" type of format, but they're scattered in amongst my large plates.
This was really interesting. I wish I was at your ward yesterday!
I don't think I was wise in my early 20s. I'm still seeking for wisdom, it's a lifelong goal. But I think that my life experiences are teaching and refining me in ways that I never would have sought out on my own, no one likes pain.
I totally admire people who are spiritually strong, and like Jane said, I am drawn to them.
I have not written a personal history, but I want to start working on that.
I love the idea of reviewing what we have documented and taking it to the next level. Perhaps it will be easier to do when we get our blogs in book form?
And you thought you weren't a crier...
What a great sunday you had!
I love this post it has made me think... really think. I am documenting my life on my blog- or so I thought, I really need to add more.
Also- I gave birth to 5 children in my 20's --- oh my--- I never thought of it that way before!? I guess that's the answer to your- were you wise question!
thank you jill for continuing to inspire me to stretch & be a little better :)
oh missy....that is a awesome picture...who is it? well, I can't even claim that I am caught up in your blog, all I could do is look at all your pictures, and read a couple posts, this is just crazy...being out of a routine, and then with a routine having to mess it up, because of the flu....jorvik alexei and moi and kind of alf have been under the weather...today was track day to walk 4 miles but the only walking I am doing is in the house, it is rainning pretty bad....oh well, talk to you soon.
lv.
missy
I ditto Jen and Jill's comments regarding my wisdom...granted, I'm not quite 30 but my "early" 20s seem a long time ago and I do think sometimes that I had a better outlook on life then.
I seek out people who are spiritually strong.
I have always loved to journal and scrapbook and now blog...I probably need to take it to the next level as well and start to glean actual lessons from all that personal history!
Tissues at church--I rarely cry in public but during the cold weather I should carry them for the kids' noses :)
As always, I love and appreciate your Sunday thoughts.
typo! "Jen's and Jane's comments" is what I should have written :)
I hope that you write this cute couple a note and tell them just this! What a gift that would be for them to receive!
I carry tissues everywhere. I cry far too often - even at silly things. A good cry at church because of the spirit and making the 'connection' in your own life is a blessing indeed.
This is what I love about blogging - that personal history. I need to try to document more of the feelings of my heart. I wonder if I would damage people when they read my inner most feelings - but today I realized that I would have loved to have read something that my Mom wrote when she was in the trenches of raising children. - thanks for the thought....
I totally admire those that are spiritually strong - I think that is something to totally admire and strive for.
Post a Comment