Time Management

I love General Conference weekend. It's been a great weekend. I went walking with Kim Blight yesterday morning then I dropped cinnamon rolls off at Andrea Busby's house for her and her family. She's new faculty in the School of Family Life and we work together with the student association. She's smart and wonderful. She helps me understand issues of race. 

I enjoyed the Saturday afternoon session then took a nap. Kamiko and Bekki brought Dotty over for the afternoon session. It's always great to have them here. They stuck around for pasta, asparagus, and breadsticks. We also played a couple of games of Yahtzee. My neighbor Lynn had reached out to see if I wanted to watch the afternoon session with her and Michael. I had plans with the kids already, but I invited her over to watch the women's session with me and mom. Kamiko and Bekki left just as mom and my neighbor Lynn came over for the women's session. Lynn got to meet the kids and Dotty. I fed mom and Lynn dinner and we watched the session together. Lynn is great and it was fun to visit with her and mom after the session.  

I went to bed and was thinking of the VERY overwhelming week I have coming up. There is so much to do to prepare for spring term, a month of travel in Europe, and other work responsibilities. I officially signed my contract for the upcoming academic year, so now it's time to write my expectations document. It's just a lot to think about. I have a lot of meetings, too. It seems that everyday I go to work, I cross 4 things off my to do list, but I add 3 more. Anyway, I was feeling the stress of it all and went to bed hoping there would be a talk in conference on time management. Then I realized there already WAS a talk on time management. The talk given by Sister Craven in the women's session was perfect. I always like to hear her speak. She's my friend RaDawn's sister-in-law. I recalled that her talk was on doing what "mattereth most." I realized that if I spend time with morning and evening prayers and scripture study, each day I will have time to do the other things on my list. Start with what mattereth most. I can do it. 

Here's a quote from her talk:

"In the Doctrine and Covenants, there are times when the Lord says, “It mattereth not.” If there are things that matter not or matter less, there are things that must matter more. 

“In our efforts to do something, or do anything, we might ask ourselves, what mattereth most?”

Satan wants people to misplace their values or waste time, talents and spiritual strength on things that matter not, and distract from those things that matter most."

I called RaDawn this morning and told her my realization through tears. She reached out to Sister Craven and told her how much her talk helped me. I'm grateful for the spirit's help in realizing what I can do. 

After the morning session, I went walking with Maria Trump. We walk and talk on the phone, as she lives in Manteca, California. Then I watched the afternoon session. I spent the afternoon reading about Moses and the plagues that led to the Israelites release. God really does take care of His children. I listened to a podcast and watched a Youtube video about the upcoming week's Come Follow Me study. I really do like this newer way of gospel study. Happy Sunday!