Time Out For Women (Part 2)

Day two of Time Out For Women was just as wonderful as the first! The day started out with a challenge: We were to write down something that we know. What things in the gospel do we have a firm testimony of?

We then were so excited to have Kenneth Cope perform for us again. There are just no words to describe the power of his songs. In one of his songs he sings about Daniel in the lion's den and about the three men who were thrown in the fiery furnace. He sings, "You'll meet the Lord in the furnace a long time before you meet Him in the sky. You'll meet Him in your trials". How true is that? When we have troubles it humbles us so that we are more open to feeling His presence.


We next heard from Emily Watts who talked to us about fruit. She described how sometimes you bite into a piece of fruit that is not quite ripe. It is bitter and hard. It doesn't mean that it is bad fruit, it just means that it still needs time to become great. She reminded us that the fruits of motherhood are slow to ripen, just like the fruit we eat. She also reminded us that Heavenly Father loves our children just as much as we do, and knowing that allows us to trust that He will given them occasion to ripen. Also, she told us the perhaps the fruit of our parenting isn't about how our children turn out, but more how we are mothers turn out. She described a stitching project that had gotten messed up and become filled with knots. Trusting in the Lord is like asking Heavenly Father to help us untie the knots so that we can create a beautiful project.

Kenneth Cope then came out on the stage and sang a medley of "Master the Tempest is Raging" and "How Great Thou Art". As he sang, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he knew that Christ lives and is aware of him and loves him. We could just feel the power of his testimony as he sang! It was so amazing. He also sang another one of my favorite songs, "Broken" where he tells about different things that are broken. The words are incredible!

"Broken clouds give rain, broken soil grows grain,

broken bread feeds man for one more day.

Broken storms yield light, the break of day heals night,

broken pride turns blindness into sight.

Broken souls that need His mending,

broken hearts for offering,

could it be that God loves broken things."

Wendy Ulrich reminded us that our purpose here in earth is to learn good and evil through our own experience, to learn and grow and to become more like God. When we feel that living the gospel is difficult and that we can't live up to expectations we need to remember that somethings are so worth doing that they are worth doing badly! For example, when we first start playing an instrument we make many mistakes, but we know that if we continue to play - even if there are mistakes, we will eventually become proficient at it. As we improve we are given more difficult pieces of music, and thus make more mistakes, and the cycle continues. As we grow stronger in the gospel, sometimes it seems that the spirit is harder to understand. But if we think about it, it is because we continually need to work at improving ourselves. Thus as our understanding increases we are given more difficult things to understand. (Obviously Wendy was much better at explaining this than I am!)


My favorite part of Wendy's presentation was an discussion on the difference between sin and weakness. It is a fantastic analogy, but much too long to post on this blog. In the end she summed up by reminding us that just because we are weak it doesn't mean that we are sinful. We need to repent of our sins, but we don't have to repent or feel unworthy for our weaknesses. We were not sent to earth to spend our time fretting about our weaknesses, we are to find joy in our strengths and learn from our weaknesses. God uses our weaknesses to make us humble so we can turn to Him and be made strong.

S. Michael Wilcox spoke to us next. He taught us that by living by the "three L's" we can give our burden's to Christ who will help make our yoke light. The L's are: Learn, Look, and Listen to the characteristics of Christ. By emulating Him we have the assurance that He will make up the difference in our inadequacies, the assurance of His sensitivity, the assurance of patience and long-suffering, and the assurance of His unfailing love. If we look unto Him in every thought, learn of Him and listen to His teachings, trying to become like Him, He will help us to succeed.


The concluding speaker was Emily Freeman. We all thought that she was only about 20 years old because she looks so young! But she fooled us - she has been married for about 20 years and has 16 and 17 year old children! Emily taught us lessons that she had learned from the parable of the fishes and loaves including to make the most of what we already have, learn to be content, and to give all. If we do so, the Lord will bless us with abundance. She told us that abundance means not only having enough, but the promise of some to spare. Emily also challenged us as we have our personal scripture study to make it truly personal. She said to put ourselves in the scriptures and ask, "how does this apply to me". She was truly a wonderful speaker.


After the conference, Farr's Ice Cream called out to us loud enough that we could hear the call several miles away - so of course we had to stop! There is just something about an ice cream cone that finishes off any spiritual experience!




This conference was an incredible experience. I loved the way we were touched by the wonderful words of the speakers and then were moved by the music of phenomenal musicians. I am so very grateful to live in such a time and place that experiences such are these are available. And to be able to share them with my good friends is just icing on the cake! These are memories we will treasure forever!