Podcasts from Stake Womens Conference
A huge thank you to each of you for making Women's Conference a wonderful evening. As I've listened to the podcasts, I am additionally strengthened from the thoughts that YOU shared in the breakouts. I love the opportunity to come together, share our struggles and learn to build each other and help each other along our way. We love and appreciate the gifts, struggles, talents and life experiences that each of you bring to our Relief Society.
Following are the podcasts or summary of the different breakout sessions. Hopefully it will give you a chance to experience those topics you missed.
With love and gratitude for who you are, right now, AS YOU ARE,
Janae Fredericks
Lisa Lewis
Sarah Redford
Rebecca Lathen
Introduction-Janae Fredericks-Finding Your Center in Christ- Recorded After the Conference
https://drive.google.com/file/
Videos of the Pendulum Referred to:
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
Breakout Session I-
Karen Norris: Staying Centered on How the Savior Sees You-Primary Room
https://drive.google.com/file/
Lisa Lewis, Amy Johnson, Lynne Eldredge: Turning to the Lord when Life's Queries have you Questioning - LGBTQIA -Multipurpose Room
https://drive.google.com/file/
Sandy Sabey: Finding Your New Center when the Center of Your LIfe (Kids job, souse, or other) has changed -Relief Society Room
https://drive.google.com/file/
Mary Dyer: Christ-Centered Parenting-Where Love, Mercy, and Yes, Mistakes Abound -Chapel
Though not recorded, Mary shared some powerful and impactful messages about how to be centered in Christ in your parenting. Here are some thoughts that were shared:
The power of Wait and Stay: When children perplex us, instead of reacting (in that moment between being hearing/observing your child and responding)....Wait. It is in this moment of you choosing to wait (even "upon the Lord") that the Holy Ghost can become a part of your parental dialogue and understanding, whether he communicates with you or you are giving Him space to communicate to the heart of your child. In that small moment, wait and stay. Decide to see what it feels like to stay and not run away from the discomfort of fearing for your child, of fearing your imperfections or inability as a mother. This is the time to "lean not to your own understanding". "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." That is the moment where God can direct your path and, consequently, the path of your child.
The Lord knows your Child and Has them in His Hands For those who feel their mistakes are many and that they will linger through the years, take heart, listen to "Consider the Lilies", and remember all things are made perfect in Christ. He is aware of your child. He will care for them as he cares for the lilies.
Mistakes are part of the journey Additional comments and discussion centered aroune God's plan of mistakes. He intended us to learn and grow in this life, which meant we would make "mistakes". Yet we even discussed whether they should be called mistakes if it's an inteded part of the plan...maybe learning opportunities would be better! Picture a little child. We would never get down on a child who tried to walk and fell and then got back up again. We wouldn't even get mad if they fell and chose to crawl for a while. We don't say, "What a mess! What are you thinking?" when our child first experiments with feeding themselves. No, we encourage. We are excited for them. We let them get messy. We and our kids deserve and need that kind of love and mercy. It's OK to get dirty. It's ok to struggle. It's ok to not get it right. None of us as parents have done this before. We're not going to get it right the first time or even the second or third or more just as a child learning to walk doesn't get it the first time. But, if we lean on Christ and keep trying, being merciful with ourselves as we do, we will get there and he will strengthen our weaknesses in the meantime.
Consider why you get frustrated with your kids Is it embarrassment? Are you worried about what their behavior or choices will say about you? Is it fear? Worry about what they will become? Mary emphasized the need to realize that we are not responsible FOR our children's choices or behavior but rather are responsible TO them to teach, love, and support. This PDF was a great diagram teaching the differences and how you, as a parent, may feel depending on the parenting focus you take. It's telling and may take you back to the source of the struggle:
https://docs.google.com/
The purpose of parenting is to understand the Atonement A closing comment was made about what is the purpose of parenting? What's the divine purpose? Many of us may have been raised to believe that our purpose in life was to prove that we would pick God. That we would follow him and do what is right to prove that loyalty. That led to years of trying to do it all perfectly. But, this sister pointed out, she has learned that the real purpose of life is to learn how much we need the Savior and his loving, personal, Atonement. We aren't expected to do it right all the time. We're expected to need Him, to turn to HIm and to allow Him to be the Savior of our kids too, to help them know that He is there to help them through their struggles, "mistakes", learning opportunities. It's ok to be broken. If not, we wouldn't need the physician. We wouldn't need the Lord and without the Lord, the plan doesn't work.
Breakout Session II
Rebecca Knudsen: Calming the Chaos to Stay Centered In Christ
https://drive.google.com/file/
Still Experiment referred to: https://www.youtube.com/
Feeling Wheel Referred to: http://www.davidhodder.
Emily Ricks: Living in Hope when Life feels Hopeless
https://drive.google.com/open?
https://drive.google.com/file/
In addition, here are a few more resources that were referred to during some of the other broadcasts that you may find helpful:
Sandy Sabey: Finding Your New Center when the Center of Your LIfe (Kids, job, spouse, or other) has changed
Article she refers to: https://www.lds.org/study/
And, then her powerful metaphor on ice and faith, written by Leslie Vernick on her Christian Blog, "Relationship Truth Unfiltered: "My pastor once said if you have strong faith in weak ice and go running out in the middle of an icy pond with great faith that it will hold you, it won’t. Not because you don’t have enough faith, but because your faith is in a weak object.
However,
if you have weak faith in a strong object, it doesn’t matter how
tentatively you crawl out on a strong piece of ice, it will hold you. It
holds you up because it is a strong object, not because of your strong
faith.
We can walk that faith out – tentatively, haltingly, having weak faith but trusting a strong, capable God…”
As
we come to know our Savior we can trust Him and see Him as a strong
capable God who loves us because He knows us and loves us no matter what
has happened to us or how confused, sad, frustrated or weak we
are. When our center is in Him then we can weather the changes despite
our weaknesses. We can come to believe no matter how much our center
changes. Once He’s the center the ice will not break under our feet and
we will know what we can be."
Rebecca Knudsen: Calming the Chaos to Stay Centered In Christ
8 basic emotions and what they are trying to tell us:
https://docs.google.com/
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