Tonight I was able to get out of the house for a little while to attend a Stake Enrichment Night. Our speaker, Kim A. Nelson, was awesome!
He is a nationally recognized speaker from "Time out for Women", he's a family and marriage counselor, has been a bishop and a stake president, and the author of "Happily Forever After and If God Loves Me, Why This? His message tonight was about, Finding Joy and happiness in this life. It wasn't too hard to find "joy" during his presentation tonight, he had us rolling with all of his props, funny stories, singing, jokes, analogies, and one gigantic doillie. He was Hilarious!
Along with being funny, he delivered a great message. I know I will probably mangle his message but I just wanted to take a minute to write down a few of his points, that were meaningful to me.
He said "Sometimes, when life gets particularly painful, it's hard to believe that God cares about what's happening to us. In those trying times, we often jump to wrong conclusions: "Maybe I'm not very valuable to Him," or "He must think I need this mess," or "I must have done something to disqualify myself from His love."
He is a nationally recognized speaker from "Time out for Women", he's a family and marriage counselor, has been a bishop and a stake president, and the author of "Happily Forever After and If God Loves Me, Why This? His message tonight was about, Finding Joy and happiness in this life. It wasn't too hard to find "joy" during his presentation tonight, he had us rolling with all of his props, funny stories, singing, jokes, analogies, and one gigantic doillie. He was Hilarious!Along with being funny, he delivered a great message. I know I will probably mangle his message but I just wanted to take a minute to write down a few of his points, that were meaningful to me.
-He started out by explaining the role we played in the process of choosing to come to earth, about how excited and happy we were in Heaven to get a chance to come to this earth.
-He talked about the level of the adversary's commitment to keep us from these truths and how Satan is truly our Enemy. He wants us to fail. He is someone who wants us to feel unloved and to be unhappy in this life.
He said "Sometimes, when life gets particularly painful, it's hard to believe that God cares about what's happening to us. In those trying times, we often jump to wrong conclusions: "Maybe I'm not very valuable to Him," or "He must think I need this mess," or "I must have done something to disqualify myself from His love."
He talked about women never feeling like they are good enough in our Heavenly Father's eyes. Always comparing ourselves to others and being extra hard on ourselves. Sometimes we may think that our Heavenly Father's love and the gift of the atonement applies to everyone but ourselves, or that it is for everyone who is more perfect than I am. But, President Nelson taught us that we are all "imperfect" and that simply means that we are "normal".
-He talked about Heavenly Fathers Parental Love.
Our Heavenly Father loves us, just as we love our own children. President Nelson asked a women in the audience, "When did you start loving your children?" Did you start loving them after they were potty trained? Once they started School? Only when they were kind and loving?" The women in the audience said,"She loved them before they were born." President Nelson related this example to our Heavenly Father's love for us. He loved us before we were born, His love is unconditional, it is not something that can be earned or something we loose by making poor choices.
He explains that it is just like the pictures our children draw for us. (You know the ones. Stick figures and "I love you mom" written on it, spelt with an 'R' in it." Of course these works of art go straight to the fridge.)
It's not the masterpiece, but the artist that is of the greatest value!
This is true as it pertains to our Heavenly Father's love. It is not the "pictures" that he loves, but it is us. We are Valuable. His atonement and love apply to me because I am His daughter! I am loved!
President Nelson wanted us to ask ourselves... "If you saw a mother, treating her daughter, the way that you treat yourself (your self talk); what would you think of that mother?" (Would you think that she was patient, loving, understanding, and uplifting or would she be abusive, harsh, judgemental, and unforgiving)
Another thing he brought up is that the next time you find yourself in a difficult situation, we should pretend that your best friend just called you with the same predicament, and apply the same advice that you would have given her, to your own situation. He asked us to be kind to ourselves. Go easy on ourselves and know that we are important, have worth, and are loved.
He had tons of fun insightful stories and analogies that shed new light on truths that will help us find happiness in God's plan, and what we can do to get the most out of our earthly test. He delivered a great message and he made me feel loved.
1 comment:
I wish I would have been there! The summary of it sounds awesome!
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