As some of you may know, my husband is a football fanatic. He LOVES the game. So much so that he will gladly spend every Saturday watching NFL Network almost non-stop. He even watches reruns of games! So imagine my surprise when he calls from work and casually asks me what we've got going on Saturday... and I remind him about Stake Conference (which between the youth session in the morning, leadership meeting in the afternoon and the adult session in the evening take up most of the day) and then he lets me know (in a much more disappointed tone) that he's been given 4 tickets to the Bengals game on Saturday evening- parking pass included. WHOA!!! I wasn't expecting that!! This was not a simple choice between doing what was right and what was wrong... this was a choice between something my husband would REALLY love to do and something that we both knew we SHOULD do.
I have to admit to wavering for a few minutes and seriously considering skipping conference so we could go to the game. I mean, how often do tickets like this just fall into your lap?? And it wasn't even a Sunday game!!
In the end, though, we decided to do the "right" thing and go to all sessions of conference. I think we were both even okay with it, especially with the thought of being able to hear an apostle of the Lord both days! So imagine our disappointment as we found out Saturday morning that Elder Ballard wasn't at the youth meeting and our daughter wasn't sure if it was just that meeting he wouldn't make it to or all of them. Well, the leadership meeting gave David a definite answer to that one. I don't know about him, but I couldn't help having the thought "we gave up $70 Bengals tickets and we don't even get to hear an apostle???!!!" I'm not even that into football but I felt the loss!! Sometimes I think God's sense of humor is a little warped.
I am very happy to report that (for me) conference was very much worth the sacrifice. Even though I was admittedly disappointed about not getting to hear Elder Ballard, being able to listen to Elder Teixeira was a real treat. I loved the messages in both sessions of conference and definitely got a spiritual boost. I especially loved Elder Teixeira's analogy of our GPS system! So in the end it was all worth it. We were where we were supposed to be and the Bengals lost anyway. Life's funny that way, isn't it?
5 comments:
Funny you should talk about this subject. Eric gets frustrated because Stake Conference is always the same night as the Bristol night race. He has to miss the first part of the race because of attending his meetings. I echo your sentiment about Elder Teixeira though. As we were leaving conference on Sunday, I wished that we had gotten up early so we could have attended both sessions on Sunday and not just the one we were assigned to attend. I was very uplifted by what he said during the conference. What a blessing for us.
Sylvia, with Ray on the high council, he was able to attend both meetings. He told us that Elder Teixeira gave radically different talks at each meeting. Talk about following the Spirit to know your audience!
Patty, I'm glad you guys came to the Sat night session if only because I got to see you both!
Life is funny, isn't it?! :)
That's funny my GPS system would have told me to go the game?! Maybe I should ask for a refund. Go you two though.
Patty, Michelle is MUCH more interested in and knowledgeable about sports than she was when we got married. It sounds like Dave and I need to get together (at your house) and indulge our shared obsession.
Oh, and Elder Teixeira really did give two radically different talks in the separate sessions. Personally, the one we attended as a family in Western Hills could have been written directly for Ryan's "friend" who came up from Virginia specifically to hear Elder Ballard (well, at least that's the excuse they used to get her up here). We were disappointed that she didn't get to hear an apostle, but Elder Teixeira made an incredible impression on her, so it's all good.
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