Lessons from General Conference

I have learnt, in my older age, that when I miss General Conference, for whatever reason, I really do miss out, so that I have to make a point of systematically reading all the talks after the event. As an ex-Branch President and father of 5 grown-up “children”, I know only too well that we all have issues in our lives, questions that need answers, and just because we get older, it does not mean that we no longer have need of answers – in fact I think we need them even more because others start to look to those of us with life experience and hopefully some wisdom to provide those answers also.

It seems that I am not the only one who thinks like this, one of my daughters was boasting to me the other day that she had read/listened/watched - I am not sure how - all the talks from the last Conference, and she had done this while spinning on her exercise bike, because she was looking for answers and as a busy mum that was the best time for her to do it! With the different media formats available to us there would seem to be little excuse for not making ourselves familiar with our leaders’ latest counsel in whatever way we can.

Recently I have been struggling with something which I had previously always prided myself on, the principle of forgiveness. I do not think this is a topic that comes up at every General Conference, but just when I need it, there it is: “One key to forgiving others is to try to see them as God sees them” and “As we strive to forgive others, let us remember that we are all growing spiritually, but we are all at different levels. While it is easy to see the changes and growth in our physical body, it is difficult to see the growth in our spirits” – both from Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the Seventy.

I can’t always watch every session of General Conference at the broadcast time, but I have learnt that I cannot miss out on catching up on latter day scripture.