Once upon a time, a bunch of chickens got together for a big flying convention. Every day, they were taught the basic principles of flight and physics and did training exercises and practiced for hours. As the convention continued, they gradually improved, and some of them even got to the point that they could fly for very short and then longer distances.
And then the conference ended, and they all waddled home, talking about how great it was and how much they had learned.
Hmmm. A Sunday school teacher once taught me this analogy, and it struck home. There have been plenty of times I’ve sat in conference, welled up with the Spirit and planning to do my visiting teaching on the first day of every month and become best friends with those sisters, to read my scriptures for hours each day, to pray every morning and evening and over every meal without fail, to attend the temple weekly—if not daily—and do genealogy for hours on end until every person who had ever lived had been saved.
And then Monday arrives, and I go back to work, and I waste time on Facebook, and I think I can start doing genealogy and visiting teaching and temple work tomorrow.
Since I know this situation isn’t completely unfamiliar to all of you, I’ve rounded up a few ideas for ways you can make that conference feeling and gospel motivation last through the next six months.
Post your favorite general conference quotes around the home. I’ve had some friends create a conference wall, while others just strategically place quotes on oft-opened kitchen cupboards, the refrigerator door, the bathroom mirror, next to the computer, etc. Click here for an example of an adorable and free printable you can place in your home from Elder Uchtdorf’s talk (design by My Sister's Suitcase):
Journal—or blog!—about it. Writing down the inspirations you received and setting your goals to paper (or the internet, which is even more binding) will commit you to following through on them. By writing about it in your journal, you have the opportunity to be much more intimate in your feelings and experiences. But by posting it online, you can inspire others as well and you’ll be held more accountable by those who read it. Pick which method works best for you—or do both.
Reread and listen to the talks. Get a copy of the conference Ensign or Liahona, laminate and/or bind it, and use it! If you love colors like me, you can even develop a coded highlighter system according to topics that seemed to trend throughout the conference or are particularly applicable to you in your life right now. You can also download talks (or whole sessions, which include the music) at lds.org. Have a long commute to work? That’s the perfect time to also get your spiritual study in.
Make an FHE of it. The week after conference, take the opportunity to let everyone in the family share what they most enjoyed in conference and what their goals are to apply it in their lives. For each of the following weeks in the next six months, you can focus on a different talk to study as a family, and you can also periodically review the goals you made to help keep one another on track.
Your turn: What was your favorite part of conference this year? How will you keep the spirit of conference strong in your life through the next six months?