Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Liberty Jail, anyone??

Sunday is Ward Conference


I have been asked to speak for 8 minutes on (drum roll)

"The Refining Effect of Adversity."


As our family has seen a bit of adversity lately


  • Kayleen's father passed away

  • Two of her brothers have prostate cancer

  • Emma

  • Some more private health concerns in our family

just to name a few ( in no particular order. )


I have a few ideas already, but will welcome any comments, quotes or thoughts on the subject.



6 comments:

Kayleen said...

Refining is an interesting word to me I always think of fire... and with fire I think of hell. However with the events of this year fire or burning means a whole lot more to me. It is the burning testimony of a loving Heavenly Father, a plan for us being here and why we are here, a depth that wasn't there before. I don't enjoy the adversity but I can thank Heavenly Father for being there through it.

Kim said...

This is Brandon. I often try to remember in moments of "refining" the quote, "True gold does not fear the refiner's fire." We are given an opportunity to become as Christ through the refining. What a great opportunity.

Tiffany said...

One thing I learned over the past few months goes along with a talk by Elder Callister one or two conferences ago. He said that we need to know that we know. I found that adversity pushes us back onto the foundation of our faith. It can, if we have prepared ourselves, show us that we do know that God lives and directs the affairs of His children.

tim

Tiffany said...

Also, I really liked Elder Holland's last CES Fireside about how Liberty Jail can be described as a temple experience, as can all of the Liberty Jails of our lives, if we will let them draw us to Father.

tim

Kayleen said...

You did a great job today with your talk....using some of these suggestions too and 8 minutes or just under. Great Job!!!

Tara Bishop said...

Hey! I know this is late and apparently you did a wonderful job so congrats! But I was reading in Sacrament meeting and writing to a sister missionary friend of mine who has been having a bit of a tough time and I was actually trying to flip to one of my favorite scriptures (2 Timothy 4:7) and came across this which really touched me personally when thinking of adversity...

2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

That is incredible.