Time Out

I have been wanting to go to a Time Out For Women for a few years and haven't been able to pull it off.  They were coming to Abq for awhile and then they stopped and haven't been back in 4 years or so.  My next option was to go to AZ so I could go with my friend, but it has always been during or around hunting season for my husband so it has been a no go as well.  Well, this year the planets and stars aligned and I was able to go and so was my dear friend that has recently taken on 4 more children, in addition to her 3, in her home which makes leaving the house for any length of time tricky.  But, we did it!  I had such a great time hanging out with all my little buddies and going to an amazing and spiritually uplifting event....and I even got to eat some really great food....thus the pic of the hamburger on my butt because I was pretty sure that was were the fat from eating it was going to end up.  I also took tons of notes so that I could remember everything when I got back home.  

Here are a few little bits from the conference that was titled "Choose to Become."

*Don't be the one thing standing in your own way ~ Laurel Christensen

*don't stop asking for things from Heavenly Father to save yourself from disappointment.  It is not strengthening your faith, it is weakening it. ~ Christensen

*"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face....you must do the thing you think you cannot do." ~Eleanor Roosevelt

*beware of the temptation to retreat from a good thing when it gets hard...stay the course...~Holland

*our goal wasn't just to return to God or why did we leave?  To become more like Him! ~ Brad Wilcox

*when someone is making excuses for not doing what they know they need to by saying "I'm a good person"  answer "well duh! but we are here to be made better." ~Wilcox

*A God that requires nothing of us is making nothing of us ~Wilcox

*Holiness doesn't come from being perfect but in the looking for holiness in the imperfections ~Linda Eyer & Shawni Pothier         

*pick the hardest part of your day and try to find a way to make it holy ~L&S   i.e.   you have a horrific time buckling your kids in their set belts and it brings out the worst in everyone.  You can take the opportunity to look each child in the eye and tell them that you love them or something you like about them. That is taking something hard and making it holy. 

*we must not walk on our lower lip every time difficulties arise ~ Howard W Hunter

*when you are discouraged your head and eyes are looking down- it is better to look up, that's where God is. ~D Kelly Ogden

*it says in the scriptures "it came to pass" NOT it came to stay. ~Ogden

*Happiness is a decision - you decide! ~Ogden
*we weren't sent here to all be the same.  we are here to find out who we are as individuals. ~Matt Brown
*we have great examples of nonconformists (Einstein, Joan of Arc, Joseph Smith, Christ, Jefferson, etc..) so when should you conform?  To correct principles -not to a person. ~ Brown

*you have an eternity to know your children as adults, but only for a short time as children ~ Hilary Weeks

*cultivate a listening ear.  Heaven Father will be as much apart of our lives as we will let him.  Ask Him what the most important thing he needs you to accomplish that day and then listen and do ~ Weeks

*moments of darkness whatever darkness you are in in your life, focusing on that darkness will NOT lead you to light. ~ Kris Belcher

*put "Dear Heavenly Father" in front of your complaints and then end "in the name of Jesus Christ Amen"  then our complaints become a prayer.  Then we are looking up into the light instead of in the dark.  ~Belcher

*When our prayers aren't answered the way we want, think of the Jaredites.  They gave praise both day and night, they were focused up.  Even though ferocious winds were blowing and they didn't cease.  What if they had prayed for the winds to stop?  Those winds were blowing them continuously toward the promise land. ~ Belcher

There is a brief summary of some of the best pearls of wisdom.  So many great and inspirational things were said by each speaker, I have pages and pages of notes.  Hopefully correct credit and accuracy of statements is there, but I don't know shorthand and was writing as fast as I could.  There may be some inaccuracies, thus very few quotation marks. :0) Just take these as good advise and if you have the opportunity, make every effort to attend a TOFW when one comes to an area near you.