Today was our Annual Stake Conference. No general authority visiting so I had to speak three times in two days. Twice for 20 minutes each and once for 12 minutes.
How do you decide what to say to invite the spirit into the lives of your people? How can you make it a worthwhile experience for the time they spend in the meeting? Calculating the value of the time it comes to thousands of dollars in time. What can be said that is worth thousands of dollars?
Saturday evening the subject of my talk was "Why the Gospel of Jesus Christ Makes our lives different." My intent was to remind everyone that we of all people should be happy. We have promises, ordinances and the hope for a life beyond this earthly existence. Bottom Line: be cheerful, you have it all!
Sunday Morning for leadership I talked about welfare and being concerned about people as individuals. I told a story of how people in the little valley where I grew up, rallied around a family when their father was killed in a freak accident. Welfare is something we discuss in general ways, but can only be administered one individual at a time.
For the General Session the president asked for your mother to speak for a few minutes. I tell you, it is very hard to follow your mother in a speaking assignment. I talked about words. The older I get, the more I understand that the words that we say define us more than any other thing. Our actions follow our words. Words are the embodiment of our faith to accomplish anything we do. We should speak with tongue of angels.
I used this quote by President Faust (modified to "liken it to ourselves"):
With all my heart I want to thank my sweetie for letting me share her life and giving me the hope that we can share eternity together. She is more than a wife and sweetheart, because she has become part of my very being. (James E. Faust)
Sweet words that make me want to be a better man.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I love that quote. I'm sure you did a great job--you always do!
Yeah, I'm wondering who all has to talk at our stake meetings since Elder Scott is going to be there. He'll probably talk at all 3, and then the others will talk too, but they're also calling a new presidency, so I suppose that they'll talk too at the General session. It's probably ideal for everyone--very little talking for any one person!
I'm not sure I have anything to say once, let alone three times. :-) Sounds like great topics and I'm sure you did a wonderful job.
Love the quote, too. Sweet.
Post a Comment