Flying from the Penguin Convention

For those that were there, you know exactly what I mean in my post title. For everyone else, let me explain. Last Saturday I had the privilege to attend an amazing Stake RS Enrichment. Now, I'll be the first to admit that sometimes there are just too many church meetings, firesides and activities that tend to get a little out of control.

This was NOT one of them.

The theme for the shindig was "Celebrating Righteous Traditions." I got to sit next to my Grandma Cox, a person who would most likely be twinkled if she didn't need to stay on earth to be an example to everyone else.

4 Generations: Cynthia (my mom), Natalie, Eliza, Doris Cox

Anyways, the penguin convention:

Todd Hillam(one of the speakers): "I look out at all of you females and feel like I'm at a penguin convention."

(polite giggles from the audience)

"Now, let me explain. There's all of these penguins that gather together in a gigantic igloo and they have some motivational speakers talk to them.

The first one is phenomenal with his eloquence in speaking, capturing the other penguin's attention and then sits down. The second penguin speaker gets up with a powerpoint presentation, multi-media resources and is just teched-out to the max. He sits down. The third speaker stands up, and starts to FLY!

Now, everyone knows that penguins are flightless birds, so this shocks the whole crowd. Slowly, one by one, they began to flap as well, and pretty soon the whole igloo is full of flying penguins. Finally, the speaker stops, the audiece sits back down, and they close the meeting.

As the crowd dispersed from the igloo, they all WALKED home."

I hope you got it (it took me awhile to digest his meaning, but since then, I became determined to "fly" from the meeting, so here I am blogging about it).

Here are some resources used in the presentation, "From Moms in the Trenches." I felt that it would be a bit hypocritical if I added them here yet didn't read them myself, so I emphasized the main point I got from each of these talks:

"Daughters of God" by M. Russell Ballard, which is specifically for young mothers to not feel so overwhelmed with their children, realizing how much work it is to raise kids. Sometimes, it's the little "moments" in life that we take for granted that we need to treasure the most.

"The Tongue of Angels" by Jeffrey R. Holland, reminding us that how we speak to each other (especially a mother to her child) creates a foundation to our children on how to treat others. He also reminds husbands and wives to be more kind with each other, which I REALLY needed reminding on!






"Good, Better, Best" by Dallin H. Oaks, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing the right things and learning to not beat myself up if I can't "do it all" (which really goes well with my new year resolution to not be so hard on myself). The key is to simplify and make the priorities that we do choose that much more important, if that makes any sense.

"Mothers Who Know" by Julie B. Beck, breaking down the categories that make strong mothers in such an unstable time. It's a bit intimidating with all that is expected of us, but fortunately, it's all achievable as long as we try on a daily basis to be good moms and homemakers.

"Finding Joy in the Journey" by Thomas S. Monson, admits that change is happening all around us, all the time. We need to treasure our time as parents and look for joy more often in our life. We'll never regret that we took the time to say a kind word or tell our children that we love them.

I was so overwhelmed with how applicable these talks were in my stage of life right now. Please don't think that I'm being self-righteous posting this, and I know that even after all of these amazing messages I'll still have frustrations and hard days.

I also know that I can try a little harder to be grateful for the little things (or children, in this case) and be OK if I don't have an immaculate home (which I never did) or dinner on the table at a set time every night. I will try to take the time to play with my children more and remind my husband why he chose me to marry.

I have great examples in my life on how to do this, so now I just need to remember I can FLY!