Take Away Moments

I love Stake Conference. It is one of my favorite things that we do in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All of the local congregations gather together in one central church building for a few hours of teaching and lifting and strengthening. We talk of Christ and rejoice in Christ and teach of Christ. I'm unbelievably saddened by the recent article I read about a prominent leader from a different church who chose to call the church to which I belong a "cult" and made straight-faced claims that we are not Christians. Talk about someone who missed the boat.... But, I digress. What I really wanted to share were my two favorite take away moments from Stake Conference, both said by our Stake President.

First, in the evening session of conference on Saturday night (my all time favorite meeting in the entire Church) President Standage said "There is a teaching moment in EVERY verse of the scriptures." Perfect. Our children will learn even just one verse at a time.

Second, the mission president for our area asked President Standage why we've seen a drop off in the number of convert baptisms in this Stake as of late. In the past President Standage said he just did not know. But today he knew. He said we will have few convert baptisms if we cannot learn to take care of our own and we are not taking care of our own. Wow. Way to put us in our place. He made a frank plea for us to do much, much better in our home and visiting teaching efforts. Why is this so stinking hard at times? I'm on it though. It's on my mind and I will do better. No excuses. Children of God deserve a little more than what I've been willing to give, especially when it's been a while since they've been reminded of that great eternal heritage and worth.

Enough said.