Back In My Place

It was stake conference for us this weekend and our turn to have a visiting authority. There has been a little buzz around Middleton this week that the direction had been not to have any prepared assignments for any of the sessions. I don't know how things like that get started or circulate so quickly, but it's always a cause for mild concern as you know it means the meetings will be open for spiritual spontaneity. The rumors were only partially true as there were short remarks prepared by our stake president and mission president on Saturday and then the visiting Seventy and his wife spoke and the remaining hour was filled by members being chosen out of the audience to answer gospel questions, then members chosen out of the leadership on the stand to expound on the same question and the General Authority doing follow-up on each question. The members who were put on the spot reacted with great humility and thus gave powerful insights. I will admit that our visiting Authority was a different kind of leader than I usually expect for a member of the seventy--very casual with his vocabulary and demeanor, and a little brusque. It took me off guard and I have to sadly admit that I was a bit disappointed. The adult sessions are always more intimate, which usually lends to a more comfortable atmosphere, but I usually find that engaging. For some reason I was feeling a little edgy on Saturday--sometimes I just feel punchy without being able to attach any reason and I was then.  I did feel the Spirit there in abundance but there was just this occasional internal grating for me, whenever the General Authority addressed us.

This morning, Sunday, I rose early so I'd have time to ponder  and mentally prepare to receive personal revelation during this conference session. I was already aware of the personality difference of the visiting authority, so I tried to acclimate myself to that as well, and the change in me was incredible.  As the meeting started there were some inspiring remarks by some leaders and some converts; there were some impressive testimonies by a few youth who were called out of the audience and given a topic as they passed to the pulpit and given a 10 minute time slot to fill. Unnerving and beautiful. And then Elder Webb and his wife took the remainder of the meeting and I was spiritually riveted. His demeanor hadn't changed--it didn't need to--but mine had, and what the night before had seemed to me as casualness and even calousness now appeared as a humaness that was profoundly relative and the messages sank deep into my heart and my testimony of weak things becoming strong in the Lord was once again strengthened, as it always is when I am able to briefly overcome my natural man tendencies.  I love literary eloquence. It is natural to be inspired by the words of Winston Churchill, who spent excruciating time preparing words, but it is profound, with unscripted, unsophisticated words to be seared by the Spirit and not by the speech or the speaker.  A quote from Pride and Prejudice sometimes seems appropriate for me. "My, but you are a snob!" Yes, and the Lord continually find ways to lovingly put me back in my place.

This is a big week. Caucuses are on Tuesday. Eden's High School performance of Oklahoma, which has been a time consuming commitment for her is scheduled for it's 3 big performances Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. In the midst of all that commotion Lily and Sophia will both turn eight and are in high party planning mode--two days strong, since this is the first year they have had a friend party. 

It is a tradition in our family to get a nice set of scriptures as the gift for your eighth birthday, so Fred and I  went on an excursion to Deseret Book this past week. We picked out scriptures and covers and waited to have them embossed without batting an eye, but when we got back those personalized copies and walked out of Deseret Book with two quads for such little girls, it was a little unnerving. It has all come so quickly.  Their baptism's are coming soon on March 24--the day before Jordan's 21st birthday.  It is strange to realize that a lot of these milestones are probably last's in our parenting sphere. What a final, reflective kind of feeling.

Mikayla and two of her roommates auditioned and made it into ICover, which is a campus-wide concert of student bands. She is so excited. What fun opportunities college life extends and she is balancing it all beautifully, which is an incredible accomplishment in and of itself. 

Quote of the week:  "A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled. Those who laugh at this folly are, after all, no more than mere spectators of life." --Ryunoske Ahutagawa