Last week, against my better judgement, I attended the General Relief Society Meeting for my church. I wanted to be with my sisters, and they (unlike me) are not boycotting the meeting. Some of you are probably wondering why I'm boycotting it (I'm not going to go until the Church considers it important enough to be part of General Conference) and some of you are probably thinking I am a hypocrite for not being true to myself (I won't apologize for valuing time with my sisters more than my useless stance on the General Relief Society meeting).
Anyway, President Uchtdorf gave an amazing talk. If you missed it, you should be excited to read it when it becomes available. I'm not going to give a summary here but as part of the talk he counseled women to "forget not to be patient with yourself". As I looked around the room, I could see that sentence resonating with every woman in there. every woman, except for me. Maybe I am a freak, but I have always felt that my problem is I cut myself too much slack. I am too patient with myself. If I feel tired, I let my kids watch a movie while I nap because "I deserve it". If I am not in the mood to tidy the house, I let myself take the day off because "I'll just clean it tomorrow". If I am feeling sad, I buy myself icecream because "it's okay to have a bad day". If I don't meet one of my weekly goals (even if I mess up on Monday), I just shrug and say, "I'll try again next week."
In fact, in the past couple of weeks, I have really been working on being more accountable to myself and being less patient with my weaknesses. So the advice felt a little ironic to me, and made me feel like an outsider. Does anyone else feel like they are too easy on themselves rather than too hard?
Bloom Filter
2 days ago
6 comments:
I stumbled on your blog post and had to tell you that I am probably the same way. I am no super mom, and often give myself a break to relieve stress in my life. I often feel like I give myself too much of a break. However, his message still resonated with me because I tend to be hard on myself because I do give myself too much slack. It may be that our weaknesses may not be the same as others (I often feel like I am the only one I know who has put cleaning my house on the back burner so I can relax or spend time in my kindergarteners classroom or bake cookies I can eat, lol), but we still need to be patient with our sometimes lackluster motivation for self improvement. The things we have to work on may be different than some others, but they are still important. Best of luck with your quest...I am on the same one. The balance can be difficult to find. :).
I think it is interesting that it bothers you so much about the timing of the relief society meeting. It has never bugged me. Do you just wish that it was every 6 months too, or lumped into the same weekend?
First off, thanks for commenting. You are one of my first comments from someone I don't know and it makes me happy. Second, I am glad to know that I am not the only one who gives themselves slack and puts cleaning on the backburner.
Oh, and it is not the timing. It is the fact that it is called the General Relief Society Meeting and is not considered one of the 5 sessions of general conference.
awesome!!!!! oh and PS I'm eating a big piece of coconut cream pie because Gideon won't nap and I deserve it. ;)
I get your idea about having a "women's session" like the priesthood session, but I think 4 sessions and a night chasing the kids without Eric around is enough in one weekend for me!
I think we all have things that get out of balance one way or another. I cut myself huge amounts of slack about eating junk, because eating anything means I'm making time for myself! I put off cleaning the house to do projects and I think I'm accomplishing things, but really I'm just working on my hobbies because they make me feel good and *occasionally* are useful.
And my kids take quiet time every day even if they don't nap, and sometimes if they are just being cranky because I deserve the break :o)
again to clarify, I don't need the GEneral Relief Society to be on the same weekend, just to be considered one of the sessions of conference. So we would have 6 sessions instead of 5. Or alternatively, they could stop including the priesthood session and just say 4 sessions of general conference and the General Priesthood meeting and the General Relief Society metting. Either way would make me feel better. It just bugs me that the Men only meeting is considered part of GENERAL conference but the women only meeting is not.
Maybe guys would see it as optional if it wasn't included as a general session :o) I agree though, they could make the General Relief Society Meeting the first session of general conference....or the "women's session" since they currently alternate every six months between YW and RS...
Post a Comment