It's Better To Look Up

Every 6 months, the LDS Church holds a General Conference for all of its members. This is such a wonderful experience as we have the opportunity to listen to our leaders and the messages that they have prepared.

I have to admit, I wasn't always a fan. When I was younger, my Mom and Dad used to suggest a long car ride on conference weekend. It was brilliant! We were a captive audience. As I grew a little older, I began to appreciate the messages.

This last weekend was great! Many great messages. There was one talk in particular that I loved. It was titled, "It is better to look up" by Elder Carl Cook. At the beginning of the message, he told a story of when he was first called to be a General Authority. He was feeling overwhelmed and was riding the elevator down. The elevator stopped on a floor and someone entered. Elder Cook was feeling burdened and looking at the floor. I'm paraphrasing now but the person that entered the elevator happened to be Thomas S. Monson, our Prophet. He asked Elder Cook, "What are you looking at down there?" The answer was "Oh...nothing." President Monson then said, "It's better to look up."

President Monson was giving encouragement to this new church leader and was recommending that he seek after the Lord. I had several thoughts when I heard this story, I thought of several things:

1. I've always been a fan of prayer. I haven't always been the most consistent with my prayers, but I have learned over the years that things seem to go better when I pray. Don't get me wrong, I still have challenges (obviously), but I have a sense of peace about those challenges.

2. Looking up is synonomous with something positive. Since my latest scan, it has been harder to "look up". I'm still very confident in the prognosis but I'm also discouraged. I wanted a clean bill of health. Not yet and probably won't get that clean bill of health for a while.

3. If you look up to someone, you admire them and/or respect them. I look up to so many of you that take the time to keep tabs on me and my family. I look up to my parents and Michelle's parents. I look up to my sweetheart and our kids. I look up to my extended family (brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins). I look up to so many of you and you will probably never know because I don't share that type of info very often.

4. Most importantly, I look up to my older brother. You may be thinking "But you're the first child in your family." Yes, but I have an older brother named Jesus Christ. He is still the only one that knows exactly what I'm going through. He suffered for us and knows our trials (challenges).

I love General Conference! It really is better to look up!