After Conference

Basking in the lingering light of wonderful weekend.
Feeling grateful for the confirmation of a new prophet's calling.

I sort of thought it would take time to adjust. I've always loved President Monson. Always appreciated his words and wisdom, but I thought it would take time for that flooding feeling of certainty to arrive.

When Lucy first saw President Monson step to the pulpet on Saturday morning, she shouted to the TV screen, "Hey! You're a prophet!!" We laughed and laughed. But as I listened to President Monson's Sunday morning sermon, as I watched his familiar face speaking powerful, prophetic words, a similar declaration, un-shouted, full of awe, whispered in my heart: "You're the prophet."

And...life goes on. So normal. So routine. But some feelings linger. And I'm left to marvel at the significance of what I believe. So much clarified truth. So much confirmation. So few questions. I feel so grateful.

I feel grateful that God, our loving Father, has, since the creation of the world, revealed His nature and his purposes to mortal man through prophets.

I'm grateful for scriptural records of God's dealings with ancient peoples and prophets. And I'm inexpressibly grateful for the knowledge that prophetic voices speak God's eternal, unchanging doctrines in this day.

"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God."That we might "look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism."

And...along side the lingering feelings of confirmation are the lingering feelings of correction. Nudging feelings. Change-inspiring feelings.

Remember Elder Oaks' classic 2005 commentary on the subject?

Last week I was talking with a member of the Quorum of the Twelve about comments we had received on our April conference talks. My friend said someone told him, “I surely enjoyed your talk.” We agreed that this is not the kind of comment we like to receive...Another member of our quorum joined the conversation by saying, “That reminds me of the story of a good minister. When a parishioner said, ‘I surely enjoyed your sermon today,’ the minister replied, ‘In that case, you didn’t understand it...’ ”

I speak of these recent conversations to teach the principle that a message given by a General Authority at a general conference—a message prepared under the influence of the Spirit to further the work of the Lord—is not given to be enjoyed. It is given to inspire, to edify, to challenge, or to correct. It is given to be heard under the influence of the Spirit of the Lord, with the intended result that the listener learns from the talk and from the Spirit what he or she should do about it.

Ooooo. Well said. Difficult. Ulitmately worth it.

Good luck to all of us in our efforts to change. For the better.