I really enjoyed conference! It was so much information that I know it is going to take the next six months to reread everything and absord it all. Lately I have been thinking a lot about fear and it's impact on my life. So one of the memorable quotes for me from this conference was that "Faith and fear cannot reside together"..For some reason this simple piece of information has eluded me and it really hit me hard to hear how simple it is. If you are in fear of something, you cannot have faith in that! think of simple fears, like snakes, if you fear a snake, can you appreciate their worth? Can you have faith in their ability to deter rodents from your house or do you even care what their worth is if you are in fear of them?
I went down the list of a lot of common fears that people have...environmental and personal.
tornados
floods
hurricanes
spiders
fear of certain people due to stereotypes
heights
germs
etc etc
and internal..
fear of being viewed a certain way (liar, cheater, mean, disorganized, etc)
fear of being abandoned
fear of death
fear of being hurt
fear of your children being hurt
etc etc
I thought about each one of these and many more and how they can direct our behaviors. for example: fear of your children being hurt can direct what you allow them to do...I have seen fear overtake someones life and I never understood it, but it is so simple...fear and faith cannot reside together...fear has a partner, and that is despair..fear leads to despair, and despair leads to an emotional prison. Faith has a partner, and that is hope. Faith and Hope lead to emotional freedom. I am so grateful for the guidance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and for it's ability to take things that seemed so complicated and make them so simple...and for being able to hear a Prophet and Apostle speak to me to facilitate and promote faith and hope in my life.
4 comments:
Every time I hear that it strikes a cord with me. I'm always reminding myself that my fears are never as bad as what the reality is. Of course, I wasn't wise enough to come up with that on my own. It took my husband to point it out. But what a piece of wisdom!
Governments and advertisers are famous for using fear to control people to do what they want them to do. Watch the next home security system commercial if you doubt it! They would have us believe that hooded strangers are lurking around every corner waiting to break in to all of our houses. If you buy the system though, you have a virtual "force field" around your home. There are legitimate things to fear out there, but I think you always have to be skeptical when you are made to feel fearful by someone who may want to control you.
Very profound! I got a lot out of conference too. I've erased about six thoughts because after a reread them they don't make sense. I guess I have a fear of appearing fearful, or maybe it is of not being fearful enough, hmm. I'm trying to not let fear control me. Faith seems a much better road to take.
Great post. I get more out of reading it than watching it unfortunately and am anxious for the Ensign to come. Otherwise Conference is just a blur of men getting up to speak. I'll have to look for that article though, it sounds good.
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