Speaking in Stake Conference

I think this is the 3rd or 4th time I’ve been asked to speak in Stake Conference.  I’m always taken back when the Stake President calls me and asks me to speak.  This time my subject was “I Am A Child Of God”.  I’m not going to type my talk but will share a couple highlights.

In my talk I said that if there is anything more precious and helpful in life as I progress and endure challenges it is the knowledge that God is in control, and that I am His daughter.  I know that god is the creator and Father of each one of us.  This knowledge blesses my life every day and gives me perspective when I am in the midst of a problem but also when I am experiencing the greatest of joys in life. I quoted comments from Peyton, Andrew and Hayley about why they knew they were a child of God.  I said that life is interesting.  Sometimes I feel like all I do is run uphill.  Then other times I get to coast downhill for a bit.  but I keep moving because I know who I am, and that makes all the difference, because I am a Child of God.  I know He loves me without reservation.  I can go an extra hundred miles on an empty tank just knowing this.

Sometimes before I say my personal prayers I will close my eyes and I think about the fact that I am a Child of God.  It can pull at my very soul.  It makes me long to bask in his light, his goodness, and his love.  As I look back at my life and remember some of the struggles, I can see his hand in my life and I am so grateful.  The trials have been blessings in disguise.  Even though they’ve brought me to my knees, I wouldn’t trade them for what they’ve given me; a humble understanding of the love of my Father in Heaven for me – little ol’ me.

I said that one Saturday when I was doing the laundry and filling the washer, I pictured taking a laundry basket full of my life’s problems and giving it to Him because I know He can help me clean them up, make them right.  I don’t know how it works, but it does.  I know it’s this gift of the Atonement, which is so huge that it’s beyond my comprehension.  So when I feel like my load just tipped the scales and I can’t carry it one step farther, I go to Him and ask Him to help me lift it . . and he does.  He always does.

There is more that shared but this is enough.  I would just end this entry in my blog by saying to my children and posterity that I testify to you that we are children of God.  Our potential is unlimited.  Our inheritance is sacred.  It has been said, the pedigree of your spirit can be written on a single line.  You are a child of God.