106 Times

It was Conference Weekend. Since it happens twice a year, it was 106 times since I was born. When it finished on Sunday, I was struck by how quickly Conference Weekend passes now that I'm an Elder of the Tribe. When I was little, this conference lasted three days, as I recall. My mom would watch it on television (and I'm sure she listened to it on the radio before they had a t.v) and in the spring, it would sometimes be Thurs. - Sat. - Sun. in order to be held on April 6---the exact date of the original organization of the church. Or Sat. - Sun. - Tues. I don't remember how they accommodated Wed April Sixthes. Hmmm...

Anyway...What I also remember about Conference is that I really wanted to listen and pay attention, but often I simply fell asleep (especially as a teen) and, that as a little child/teen, Conference seemed to be interminable. Not in a bad way, but just incredibly long and it went on and on. Now, I am taken by surprise on Sunday afternoon that--wheee---another conference weekend has flown past!! Is this just the brain damage of the old, or is it because I'm feasting on the Spirit? Or is it that in the equation of how many hours I've lived, these eight hours are such a small proportion that they no longer seem so large? Maybe all-of-the-above? Anyway--I enjoy these weekends enormously and they do speed by so quickly.

Nuggets Gleaned:

• "Lay down your life for His sake" is not to die (as a martyr) but to give up our our self-centered existence and pick up Christ's goals for our lives.
• The wise man did not escape the tempest, but he was in a position to survive it from having built on a firm foundation.
• Instead of complaining that the wagontrain of life is passing us by, we need to put our shoulder to the wheel and serve others and we'll get a life.

I remember once saying to my kids when they'd complained that conference is boring because the speakers always talked about the same old things:

"Wouldn't that be awesome if sometime we went there [the church, to watch the broadcast] and one of them stood up and said, "Well, we won't need to give the talk on tithing anymore because every member of the church is now a full tithe payer." or "We won't be giving a talk about personal prayer because God said that everyone prays to Him daily now." or "No need to discuss honesty or charity or love one another since everyone already does those things all the time now."

Yes, eye-rolling ensued...but you get my drift, too, huh? You'd think after 106 times I'd get it too, and not need to pay attention to that talk on kindness, or the one about the evils of gossip. Maybe after 108...