Family Home Evening Minutes

Today's family home evening was built around a psalm quoted by President Monson during his talk in the Priesthood Session. Daddy magically brought the prophet right into our home before the boys' very eyes so they could see him speaking and hear what he said:

"Cease from anger, and forsake wrath."

Ok, so there wasn't any magic. Daddy just played a clip from that session from the internet. But the boys did get to hear the prophet saying it.

Daddy then explained what these words mean. He talked about what makes us angry and what kinds of things we do when we're angry. Yell, throw things, push someone, for example. Are those good things to do? Charlie didn't think so. Then he told Charlie we need to think of things we can do instead when we feel angry so we aren't mean to others, and asked Charlie this question:

"Let's say Johnny took your toy away from you and it made you feel angry. What could you do to cease from anger, to stop being angry?"

Charlie's answer was prompt: "Smile!?"

Simple, immensely difficult, but brilliant, don't you think?

General Conference--October 2009

I loved it.

Go here to watch.

I also loved "Come Thou Fount of Ev'ry Blessing" from this morning's Tabernacle Choir broadcast. Johnny sat on my lap and listened so attentively. I cried. One of my favorite hymns and a magnificent arrangement.

No matter where I am in my life when it's conference time, I always enjoy the "you can do more, you can do better, you will become something great" feeling I get from watching conference. And I always have this yearning to make that feeling last as long as possible. It's the few hours, days, weeks right after conference that I feel the most ready to seize the moment and make some changes.

So why not wake up and do something more?

Alive and Well

No, this blog is not dead. It has been in a coma for several months, but it's not dead.