The Richins Family: Enjoying General Conference

Of course, as it is February, I can't share with you some of my insightful thoughts on General Conference last October, but I am sure the talks were amazing, as they always are! That being said, I will take a few moments before I start this post, to share with you a moment of spiritual promptings I had a few weeks ago. It seems that the last few months have been filled with sickness. We have had to keep the kids home from church so much, because they were just too sick. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we kept Alexander and Jacob home from church because Alexander was super sick. When we took him to the doctor the next day, we discovered he had an ear infection, eye infection, cough, runny nose and a fever! Poor guy! It was a good thing he stayed home from church.

I know, now you are asking, "Why didn't you take Jacob?" Well, the truth of the matter is, because I am lazy. Scott stayed home with the boys because it would be tough to take Jacob when all he wants to do is run out of sacrament meeting instead of sitting in the pew, and then have to hold him for two hours as I try to lead the Primary kids in Singing Time. The poor boy loves Momma too much and wont let anyone else hold him. Anyway, you can see why I am talking about spiritual promptings I had two weeks ago, instead of yesterday. I love my sweet boys, but they can keep me busy; especially at church!

Anyway, I was sitting in Sacrament taking the bread and water and I felt like the Spirit was telling me that I need to spend more one on one time with the boys, and specifically give them more time to feel the Spirit in our home. Of course, we do Family Home Evening every week, where we share a spiritual message with the boys and try to do something fun together as a family. Some weeks these nights are more thought out than others, but we do try. We are awesome at Family Scripture study! Without fail, we read a small portion of scriptures with the boys right before bed time stories and songs. We have already made it through the Old Testament as a family, and are working through the New Testament right now. Being the Primary Music Leader has helped us to have more of the Spirit in our home, because I seem to always be playing primary music for the kids. I have all the church songs on my i-pod and play them sometimes while we are making dinner, or when I just need a break from crying, or while we drive to activities in the car. So, I did feel good about the things we are doing, but just felt we could do a little more. I felt like we needed to start teaching them personal scripture study. To give them a chance to look at picture books of Jesus and scripture stories, as we take time to read scriptures. I kept feeling in that quiet moment, as I took the sacrament, that I need to invite the Spirit to be in our home in the morning, so that I could be a more patient Mom, a mother who was in tune with the Spirit.

Well, the neat thing about that thought, was that the Spirit kept confirming it throughout the meeting. A missionary stood up to speak and I started thinking about my mission and how great it was. Then, I got this thought, "You need to treat your children like investigators and teach them the gospel every moment you get." That thought just hit home to me. The reason missions are so amazing is because you are surrounded by the Spirit every moment of the day. You pray a billion times a day and are constantly talking about the gospel. I realized I need to do things that will invite the Spirit into our home because if there is anyone I want to know the Savior, the way that I do, and to love him the way that I do, it is my children.

As the meeting continued, the last speaker got up and talked about motherhood and what it takes to be good parents. It was as if Heavenly Father had looked down from heaven in the hour I had free from my kids, and said, "This is your moment in time. I want you to know that I love you and am aware of the things that are important to you. Your children are important. You are important. Let's spend more time together, so they can feel my love too." It was perfect. And a few weeks later, I still think back on that moment in time.

Okay, so why am I sharing this with you? Well, I just felt it was good to take the time to write down my spiritual moment, and what better time, then when looking back at General Conference, which is a weekend full of talks given by church leaders, which often help us feel the spirit and gain desires to grow more. Anyway, I took some fun photos over those couple of days, of General Conference, so I thought it would be fun to post them. In the pictures, you will notice Xander shaving, while wearing his Daddy's old outfit. Xander is also coloring while watching General Conference, and cleaning off the wall as he learned his first lesson on where we are supposed to color. You will see Jacob playing in the ball pit too. And some pictures of Xander and Daddy together. Here they are: