What I got out of listening to a prophet this weekend

Home Can be a Heaven on Earth

"God's objective should be our objective. He wants His children to choose to return to Him prepared, qualified endowed, sealed, and faithful to covenants made in holy temples." President Russell M. Nelson taught in his concluding remarks this April 2019 conference. I love how this doctrine highlights God's respect of our agency and His unyielding expectations of us. I want to find this balance and understanding in my own parenting.

He spoke much on the holy work and preparation of temples as well as the conversion that can and should be happening in our homes. While we don’t perform saving ordinances in our homes, there is a significant way in which our homes can be like the temple. Modern-day prophets have repeatedly taught that, “Only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness.”

• How do you feel about that? What was your first thought? Read D&C 88:119-120. Is your house a…?

Studying patriarchal blessings together today
as they both stayed home from church due to illness.

For me this promise of holiness in our homes used to inspire feelings of confusion and guilt. While I grew up in an amazingly Christ-centered home eating and breathing the doctrines of Christ’s gospel, but out home didn’t always feel like a super holy place to me. I think part of that was the lack of responsibility I felt to maintain our home's holiness.

The following quote from President Russell M. Nelson's closing remarks, answered several questions and concerns I have been pondering in preparation for conference: "We hope and pray that the each member's home will become a true sanctuary of faith where the Spirit of the Lord may dwell. Despite contention all around us, one's home can be a heavenly place where study, prayer, and faith can be merged with love." 

Invitations to Act

• As you study [general conference] seek to learn what the Lord is trying to teach you through His servants.
• We can truly become disciples of the Lord, standing up and speaking up for Him wherever we are. God's objective should be our objective.
• Ours is a sacred responsibility to care for them [pioneer era temples.]
• Brothers and sisters, we regard a temple as the most sacred structure in the Church. As we announce plans to construct a new temple, it becomes a part of our sacred history. Now please, listen carefully and reverently. If I announce a temple in a place that is special to you, may I suggest that you simply bow your head with a silent prayer of gratitude in your heart. (8 new temples announced)
• As we speak of our temples old and new, may each of us signify by our actions that we are true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we renovate our lives through our faith and trust in Him. May we access the power of His atonement by our repentance every day. And may we dedicate and rededicate our lives to serving God and His children on both sides of the veil.
• "So, what is required for a family to be exalted forever? We qualify for that privilege by making covenants with God, keeping those covenants, and receiving essential ordinances." He continued, "The Savior invites all to follow Him into the waters of baptism and, in time, to make additional covenants with God in the temple and receive and be faithful to those further essential ordinances. All these are required if we want to be exalted with our families and with God forever."
• Pour out your heart to God. Ask Him if these things are true. Make time to study His words. Really study! If you truly love your family and if you desire to be exalted with them throughout eternity, pay the price now—through serious study and fervent prayer—to know these eternal truths and then to abide by them.
• Do the spiritual work to find out for yourselves, and please do it now. Time is running out.

Promised Blessings

"Truly conference has been a spiritual feast for us all."

"[R]evelation continues in this the Lord's church. And it will continue until the purposes of God shall be accomplished..."

So I say let the personal revelation begin as we accept these invitations to act!

What's a goal you have as a result of listening to general conference?

Christ-centered Scavenger Hunt and Other Easter Traditions

Childhood Memories

I grew up hunting for Easter eggs with my fellow Sunday school students or sometimes at a cousin's house, but we didn't really get visits from the Easter Bunny. I don't feel deprived now and I didn't then. Instead of looking forward to getting a fancy new dress or more candy than I could eat (which only sometimes happened in the spring of my childhood, to me Easter meant a time to gather with family and friends in gratitude for the new beginnings given to us by Christ.

2018 annual Easter egg hunt at a CT park with friends

2017 Easter egg hunt in Indianapolis
with Hansen cousins & their friends

Helping younger cousins serve as
we all learned a fun new skill

                                                                         Traditions Then and Now

One of the best things about new beginnings is review what we know and learning something new, whether that's a scripture story or a skill like napkin folding and setting the table! This gratifying, emerging tradition is one I hope to continue for years to come and not limit to Easter celebrations alone.

Now that I am a mother myself and given that we often are away from home on Easter in order to be with family, I have been more mindful than ever of the traditions that keep this holiday special for me and my family. We have loved participating in a wide variety of Easter egg hunts and potluck feasts over the past few years. Recently, Victoria gets a small basket with maybe 4 eggs filled with candy, but there's a scriptural scavenger hunt to find it. Last year's clues were based on different names of the Savior and where they might be found in our home: Bread of Life, Living Water, etc. Below are this year's clues.

1. Mary poured this on Jesus’s feet. He said she was anointing Him for His burial. (John 12:2-8) Where does Mommy keep hers?


2. People ______ palm branches and laid them in the streets when Jesus entered Jerusalem. (Matthew 21:1-11) Where do we see Daddy wave?


3. As part of the very first sacrament Jesus broke this, blessed it, and then shared it with His disciples. (Matthew 26:26) Where do we keep ours?


4. Some of the Pharisees paid Judas Iscariot ______ to betray Jesus. (Matthew 26:14-15) Where does Victoria keep hers?


5. The Roman soldiers made a _______ of thorns and pressed it onto Jesus’s head. (John 19:2) Where does Victoria keep hers?


6. The soldiers gave Jesus this to drink on the cross as a medicine. (John 20:1) Where do we keep ours?


7. The marks caused by these helped Thomas identify the resurrected Jesus. (John 20:25) Where does Daddy keep his?


8. ______ were used to prepare Jesus for burial. (John 19:40) Where does Mommy keep hers?


9. What remained in the tomb after Jesus rose? (John 20:6-7) Where do we keep ours?


Mom's answers/where to hide the clues: Perfume in the bathroom, back/dining room window, bread in the fridge, money in the piggy bank, crowns in the top costume drawer, vinegar under the kitchen sink, nails by/in Dad’s toolbox, spices in the kitchen, and clean sheets in the linen closet

We have also enjoyed making resurrection rolls with friends in Illinois and in Connecticut. We look forward to doing so again this year with a couple of my piano students. I still haven't decided if we'll have a fish and honeycomb dinner for just the three of us or a traditional all-you-can-eat spread and try to invite friends.

What are your favorite traditions, edible and non-edible? I'd love to hear them!

One fun thing we did in Illinois that isn't religious whatsoever is that for several years we enjoyed helping walk and feed the Valencic's bunnies at the Winfield Village park. Oh and it turns out that Victoria isn't a fan of Peeps candy: ha ha!