DICKSON FAMILY: General Conference

This weekend's General Conference was filled with lots that I'd like to (and NEED to) remember. I don't ever remember a conference where the importance of families and parents' roles were so emphasized. I definitely feel a greater awareness of my huge responsibility as a mother and am so grateful to have the counsel of a prophet and apostles to guide us in the most effective ways to fortify our homes and protect our children from the growing temptations of the devil. It seems to be a difficult time to be raising kids, but I know that heeding the words that we just received will make success possible.

I really was so proud of my boys and the attention they were able to give conference this year. I was especially happy to see Reed start to "get" the importance of conference. He, of course, still needed little listening games like bingo and other word tally games to keep him focused, but I also noticed him really watching and listening at times, too. In fact, during one of the sessions he turned to me and exclaimed, "I'm not even bored!"

Whenever one of the apostles spoke I had him listen and write at least 6 words (since he's 6) that he heard them say. He almost always wrote more and was so excited when each new speaker came to the podium to see if it was an apostle or not. After one of the sessions Sam and I were talking about something one of the speakers had said and we couldn't remember who had said it until Reed jumped into the conversation (which he loves to do) and said, "I think it was Packer that said that. My notes said that he said 'family' so I think it was him." I don't think it was the name we were looking for, but I loved that he looked at his "notes" as a valuable record and not just something to pass the time.

Here is Reed showing off his completed conference packet.

Max had a little less patience and did a lot of coloring, cutting and gluing, but at least it was mostly quiet. I was thrilled to hear Max on the phone right after conference with my mom. She apparently asked him what he was doing and he said, "Listening to apostles." He also loved that the Tabernacle Choir was wearing blue on Sunday which, of course, he always refereed to as "him". "Look...the blue ones are me and the black ones are you Reed," he said. "Wow...there are a hundred of me!" "Hey look Reed--you're playing the organ." Reed did have to point out that the singers in blue were actually girls. Max was unfazed. Funny that a color blind dad would have a boy that only sees color sometimes.

During one session Max asked me to press pause on conference so he could give a "lesson" on conference. To keep him happy I did stop for a minute so he could tell us what color of hair all of the apostles had.

The importance of a mother's example was also mentioned several times during conference. This was reiterated to me this evening by Max when, as we were getting ready for bed, he got out Reed's camera to take picture of "this sad boy" (Reed) who was upset about some part of the bedtime routine. During the past month of daily record keeping I have taken thousands of pictures at random times during the day--even documenting a meltdown or too. Obviously it hadn't gone unnoticed by Max, who now thought taking pictures of people crying is a what we do. I was definitely reminded of how closely I am watched.