Conference Briefs

Friday, I bet my daughter that before Conference was over, President Monson would tell a story about visiting widows.  

I just won.


A couple of thoughts (one of my goals is to keep these entries short, so that people will actually read them):

-- I have never been more attentive, or more inspired by a Priesthood session.  Wonderful talks, wonderful counsel.  And it was made all the better by being there with my younger son (though we missed Number One son, who's up in New York).

-- I've always struggled with President Monson's speaking style, but my kids are sitting in front of the teevee right now, paying rapt attention.  He reaches people.  I need to pay closer attention.

-- President Packer's talk was important, because it represents a refocusing of the Church's position on marriage.  Policies have not changed, but we've spent so much time focusing on who shouldn't marry (and President Packer did spend some time on that), that we've taken for granted that marriage is actually working the way it's supposed to.  Love your children.  Love your spouses.  Avoid things -- cruelty, inattention, pornography -- that undermine family unity.  

One of the enduring challenges of belief is that we are so careless in living the standards we espouse, that our lives are an ineffectual argument for those standards.  The more we draw our hearts to Christ and Christian standards, the more compelling our endorsement of Christian principles.

I've always liked GK Chesterton's response to Bertram Russell's complaint that Christianity had been tried in the scales of history, and found wanting. Christianity hasn't been tried and found wanting, Chesterton replied; it has been found difficult, and therefore not tried.

Anyway, I feel rejuvenated, and desirous to recommit myself to what I know is right.