I attended Woman's Conference at BYU this year. I have gone before, usually with friends. I went this year with my friends--but also two of my daughters came too. It was fun to be with them.
My favorite part of woman's conference is the service projects. Before the opening session, you can pick up service projects you can do in your lap while you are listening to the speakers in the different sessions. I made a red scarf and a small baby activity blanket that had different ribbons, textures etc. on a small 18" blanket. Then Thursday evening we went to the big service projects they had in the Smith Fieldhouse. We choose to make stuffed bunnies. Sometimes we choose to do something else, but we were all starving, so we went to eat! Oh, the flesh is weak!
The best thing about Woman's Conference is seeing friends you haven't seen in a while. We found our friends and had to have our photo taken and gab for a bit.
I always learn something at Women's Conference that I go home and think on for months.
My take-a-ways this year were:
1. How is your Faith? Barbara Bradshaw told about Julie Beck, General R.S. President, calling her into her office and asking that question. Barbara's response was, "My faith is firm." Then Sister Beck gave her a large assignment. How often when we are asked to do something, the question is asked, "Will you do this", when the real question is "How is your Faith"? It seems when I have something to do that I think I cannot, if I use my faith, I can do much more than if I can without faith. With faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are enabled to accomplish many things through the enabling power of the Atonement.
2. The Atonement is what qualifies Christ to enter into our personal life.
3. The Atonement is what protects us from the process of learning how to be like Jesus Christ.
4. Commandments are an opportunity to exercise our agency and receive blessings.
5. It is not enough to know about the Atonement, it must be personalized.
6. Studies have shown that today's world has seen a decline in the use of moral words. Words like: faith, evil, modesty, wisdom, prudence, kindness, faithfulness, appreciation, humbleness. Perhaps I can increase the use of moral words into the world around me and make the world a bit better and more optimistic, just by doing that one thing.
7. Studies show that what goes right in childhood is a better predictor of happiness than what goes wrong in childhood. Children did best where the mother in particular expressed love and did not dole out severe discipline. The most important thing you do as a mother is that your children and those you nurture know you love them.
But the best part of Woman's Conference this year was visiting the "Sacred Gifts" art exhibit Friday night. They had paintings by Karl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann and Frans Schwartz. Two years ago they had a similar exhibit that I have thought about often ever since. This new exhibit was equally as good. Being there made me feel as if I had spent the day with the Savior. They didn't allow photography inside the exhibit, but they had this painting outside the exhibit with this caption next to it.
They had a similar painting by Hofmann in the exhibit. He had great personal attachment to the painting and after he sold it he felt as though, "something sacred [was] missing" and felt the absence of "my Savior's eyes looking at me."
This was a marble statue of Christ they had just outside the exhibit.
At the exhibit they had a caption that told how as a young man, the artist [Hofmann] was urged by his father to "Think about it often. Visualize how you can get closer to God." For Hofmann art was a means of gaining a closer relationship to the Savior.
The paintings that spoke to me the most were:
Agony in the Garden by Frans Schwartz--I like how they show the wings of the angel protecting as the angel gives comfort.
Portrait of Christ, the Savior: I am the Way, the Truth and the Light by Heinrich Hofmann
And my very favorite, Jesus in the Temple by Heinrich Hofmann--I think it spoke to me because of my son, Matthew. Matthew is very sensitive spiritually and I have often felt as Mary, when she 'pondered these things in her heart'. When I see Jesus in this painting, I see him through a mother's eyes. Hofmann said about the boy Jesus in this painting, "When I read about Christ in the Bible, there arises spontaneously before my fancy a picture of Him which I try to retain and to reproduce--that is my only prototype."
