18 September 2011

Choose to Become

"All things are possible to him that believeth."
-Mark 9:23

We become what we want to become by consistently being what we want to become each day.
-Elder Richard G. Scott

I attended my first Time Out for Women with my mom and youngest sister.

Over the summer I had been revisiting parenting books by Richard and Linda Eyre and following their daughter Shawni's blog in an effort to find some ideas. Our family would be going through a minor change with Kiersten entering junior high in the fall and I knew I needed to tweak how we did a few things around the house. One day I read a blog entry about Time Out for Women and looked into it.

I immediately fell in love with the theme for the conference "Choose to Become." In fact one of my most favorite talks is by Dallin H. Oaks titled, "The Challenge to Become." I decided to go and really wanted to attend an event where the Eyres would be presenting, and that is initially what drew me to Time Out. 

However, it was really the other presenters and music that inspired me the most. I guess I've always been a little concerned about my preoccupation with "doing" and not becoming. Just take a look at my blog title :) There is always that to-do list, but what am I becoming in the midst of it all is really the question.

We were challenged to find ONE thing about ourselves, just one (and that was rather difficult), that we would like to change, something to push us in becoming the woman the Lord intended us to be all along.

As I thought about this, my patriarchal blessing kept coming to my mind. The Lord knows what kind of mother, wife, sister, neighbor, friend he wants me to be; what a tremendous gift a patriarchal blessing is in helping me see what the Lord sees in me.

I wrote down about 6 different ideas of change and when I got home from TOFW, I read through my patriarchal blessing and knew which thing on my list needed to be the focus of my becoming. 

My Challenge to Become: Develop a pattern of regular scripture study.

I have been counseled to study the standard works in their entirety and I have been a slothful servant. It has always been a great desire of mine to be better versed in the scriptures, to make it more a habit of study than reading. I did this several years ago as I was reading the Old Testament and loved it and then changes came and I got out of that groove.

So there you have it. As Elder Oaks said in the last general conference, "Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions." I have the desire. Now I need to make it a priority EVERY DAY. 

My Course of Action: Finish the Book of Mormon challenge my ward Relief Society presidency issued last spring.

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